Chess thread

[Tal]

By all means be aggressive, but get your pieces out first. Attacking is way easier when you have more ammo.

[Tal]

A Tal game, this Sunday evening. Treat yourself!

In 1959 the best players in the World convened in Yugoslavia to play in the Candidates Tournament, the winner of which would go on to play Botvinnik the following year for the World Championship.

Among the Russians and East Europeans there was a young whipper snapper from across the pond. A 16 year old upstart named Robert James Fischer had qualified for the tournament and was ready to take on the big fish.

He would become one of the most famous names that that there will ever be, but this wasn't his time to take the world by storm.

Fischer was a truly gifted positional player (more on this another time, but essentially he had a sixth sense for where best to put his pieces) and in Tal there sat across the board from him a player on the other end of the scale: a tactical genius, who saw combinations and sacrifices no else could.

Tal beat Fischer all four times they played in this tournament and this particular one won a prize in the tournament for its brilliance.

In contrast to the Shirov game, Tal's style was to play normal openings - the same as the other players - and to play imaginatively from there.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044107

Enjoy.

[Stevie B]

Great thread.
 
Got so many questions, re-written this a dozen times already, I'll start with;
What advice would you give to some-one thinking of going to their local chess club for the first time.
Ty.

p.s. I play on chess.com too if anyone wants a friendly game.

[curnow]

Great thread.
  
Got so many questions, re-written this a dozen times already, I'll start with;
What advice would you give to some-one thinking of going to their local chess club for the first time.
Ty.

p.s. I play on chess.com too if anyone wants a friendly game.

any chess club would welcome new members of any standard . they will help you improve a lot
http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?page_id=19473

they got a clubs link but not all them are there , like mine but that is for the County Associations which will give links to local clubs

btw I have run a small chess club for over 10 years & getting new members is not easy for any club

edit : to add Scottish & Welsh chess links
http://www.chessscotland.com/
http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/

[Tal]

Great thread.
 
Got so many questions, re-written this a dozen times already, I'll start with;
What advice would you give to some-one thinking of going to their local chess club for the first time.
Ty.

p.s. I play on chess.com too if anyone wants a friendly game.

any chess club would welcome new members of any standard . they will help you improve a lot
http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?page_id=19473

they got a clubs link but not all them are there , like mine but that is for the County Associations which will give links to local clubs

btw I have run a small chess club for over 10 years & getting new members is not easy for any club

Absolutely this.

Find your local league - there is one - then find a team close enough to you, give them a call/email and pop in one night for a few friendlies.

Clubs range from a dozen to a hundred players, from Grandmasters to people who are just starting out. All of them would be delighted to welcome an interested player.

[ACE2M]

After watching the Shirkov stuff i had 3 check mates in a row on 30 min games last night against higher rated players than me.
The joy of pinning the oposition pieces down is great.

[Tal]

Aggressive play is definitely a good idea, but it's also important to recognise when to defend; when the other guy's attack is better and you need to retreat; when your attack isn't working and you need to regroup.

Different players have different styles but all the top players will attack if given a chance. Just as, in a marginal spot, Tom Dwan finds a raise where Phil Ivey calls, different elite players take different lines of attack in chess.

Shirov and Tal are extreme examples - Nakamura is another - of tactical players who will use a blunderbuss over a pistol. Their attacks are viscous, thundering through the opposing blockade.

Carlsen is much quieter and so is Kramnik. Fischer, Rubenstein and Petrosian are famous names past who played more positionally, squeezing the life out of the opponent's position like a boa constrictor. I'll discuss this in a bit more depth another time and show some instructive games.

[Stevie B]

Thanks for the replies. My local club is literally 5 mins from my house and they recently had an IM play 14 games (he won 12, 2 drawn) and also had a strategy talk with a GM so thats quite impressive, definately going to go. I've never played live before(against a proper chess player) only online.

  The Shirov vid is excellent. His opponent must have been thinking "wtf is this donkey doing, Im gonna crush him" or something like that.lol.

[Tal]

Thanks for the replies. My local club is literally 5 mins from my house and they recently had an IM play 14 games (he won 12, 2 drawn) and also had a strategy talk with a GM so thats quite impressive, definately going to go. I've never played live before(against a proper chess player) only online.

  The Shirov vid is excellent. His opponent must have been thinking "wtf is this donkey doing, Im gonna crush him" or something like that.lol.

Sounds excellent. A club that gets simultaneous displays on during what is essentially the "off season" is likely an excellent one to join, as it will have enthusiastic players.

Chess season roughly mirrors the football season BTW: August-May. No idea why either!

The Shirov game was fun because of its ferocity. In 1990, he was already a well-known player so it's more likely his opponent (himself a strong player) thought "crumbs! It's Shirov!"

At any level, when you are due to play someone who you know plays unusual openings or is flamboyantly aggressive in style, it can really put you on the back foot before you start. You can start to assume they have seen further than you when they play an attacking move you hadn't expected, so you won't take a pawn on offer because he must have a trick up his sleeve you haven't seen.

I vary my style a bit but I love being aggressive - as you will have inevitably picked up already from the whole being called Tal thing! I played a game a couple of years back against someone who knew I like to attack. I offered a pawn to open the position up for an attack, although I couldn't completely work out over the board whether it was sound. I played it anyway and my opponent effectively took my word for it, not taking the pawn. The result was that I got a huge attack, much greater than had he taken the pawn, and won convincingly.

Reputation can be important. A player at my club describes my style as "swashbuckling", which I love, however overly-generous he is.

By the way, the trick for beating aggressive, tactical players is the same for beating attacking football teams: you wait for them to overstretch, then you catch them on the counter. They inevitably leave space behind and the position can be opened up to expose the misplaced pieces.

I don't play enough these days so, when I do, I make mistakes and get caught when I attack. Sometimes, of course, it works and I look like a hero

[Tal]

Positional play is a different kettle of fish entirely, when compared to the Lord Flashheart from Blackadder, Brian Blessed in full voice stuff we see with the tactical style of chess.

Bobby Fischer was capable of dazzling tactics - this another time, including "the game of the century" - but he was a masterful and naturally gifted positional player.

This is harder to teach because it is less obvious to most players why moving a piece to one square is good and another is bad, if there's nothing to take it. Some people are blessed with this side of the game, but the majority have to learn it.

Let me give you an example, where it isn't necessarily easy to see why Black is doing better than White.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044434

The opening is pretty standard, although I haven't seen that many Amsterdam Variations of the Sicilian Defence for a while (these things go in and out of fashion). Play through it in your own time if you like, but the bit I'm interested in today is from white's 28th move. Here we have a position where the material is equal, so it's a draw, right? If you were playing someone better than you, would you still fancy your chances of drawing it? Why might you lose? It isn't just a question of tactics; the other chap might get his pieces into a better position, with them working together better than yours.

Immediately, we see that White has three pawns - the same as Black - but they are more spread out. Black's are connected, which means they are easier to defend and easier to creep forward. Remember that the bishop can only cover 32 of the squares on the board, so, if White wants to move a pawn to a black square, it may need to be defended by the king or rook, whereas Black can defend it with another pawn. Any advantage in an endgame like this is made harder to capitalise when the opponent has an active rook - the rook covers ground quickly and makes progress much more difficult.

Watch what Black does from here: he makes sure White can't get the pawns too far forward, swaps the rooks off, gets the king into the centre, puts his pawns on black squares (harder to attack and more space for your own bishop), stops the White king from getting to the black pawns, wins one of the remaining pawns and, as White resigns, Black was just about to pick up the second pawn and win with the two pawn advantage.

You know in poker sometimes when you play heads up and the other chap just keeps getting slightly further ahead of you? Nothing dramatic, just little edges - an extra fold pre, more precise bet sizes, more aggressive button play - those little nuances that make him a favourite against you, all other things being equal? That's what happened, here. 

[millidonk]

Picture the scene;

The office is finally empty, I login to chess.com to see if I can put an end to this horrid losing streak. I make my first move, the phone rings... stay calm, I answer it and have a conversation whilst trying to concentrate on the game... all good, I deal with the issue and get back to the board... the doorbell goes, seriously??... its only a courier delivering flowers for someone's bday, I sign and run back to my desk,  I have lost over 30 seconds playing time. Norrrrrrrr. This is never going to end well... a few more moves go by then BOOOOOOOOOOOOM, I Break my 12 move record, whats more he was a decent rank compare to me.

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=349512569

[Tal]

Well done! Keep winning games in 12 moves and you should be doing more than contributing the odd game!

Ng5 is a common idea in these Italian/2 Knights games. There is a particular line called The Fried Liver, believe it or not! The common response when someone is moving away from the centre is to hit back through it, so Ng5 is often followed by d5 for Black, which blocks the bishop.

If he takes it on your game with the pawn, you can play Na5, either forcing the exchange ofthe troublesome bishop or getting him off that nasty diagonal. If he takes with the knight, recapture with yours and you have a discovered attack on his knight with your queen. If he takes with the bishop, you can take it ans he's lost one of his most important pieces in this opening. It might not become apparent until much later in the game (if you haven't checkmated him by then!)

Seriously tho, good stuff. Get that rating into 4 figures and kick on!

[millidonk]

Ah yes the fried liver attack aka the Fegatello Attack... Ya learn something new everyday. I like it.

After reviewing some of my losses I think I am a bit too aggro with my queen, keep getting myself stuck in traps.

What's the quickest way to improve your rating?

[Jon MW]

...

What's the quickest way to improve your rating?

win more games

[Tal]

...

What's the quickest way to improve your rating?

win more games

Get someone better to play for you à la [insert name of poker player accused of doing this but for legal reasons we won't name]

Joking aside, attacking chess is a good strategy and tactical threats are good against weak opponents. Just watch what they are up to. As long as you know why they have made their last move, you can work out what to do about it.

Keep playing simple openings like the one you showed today; simple, rapid development ftw