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Author Topic: Chess thread  (Read 340973 times)
smashedagain
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« Reply #405 on: October 24, 2012, 12:03:32 PM »

Lol. Thought it might be a test to see who is reading. Get whooshed a lot in here but do enjoy the read
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« Reply #406 on: October 25, 2012, 10:40:29 PM »

Right, it has been a while since I gave you a player profile and I know that those who don’t have as much interest in or understanding of the game itself nevertheless enjoy hearing about the great players in chess history.



Paul Keres was born in Estonia in 1916. Students of European history will know that this was a country that had a number of owners in the first half of the Twentieth Century and the name above the door had a huge impact on his chess career.

Keres was a skilled mathematician and was fascinated by chess, collecting his own dossier of almost 1,000 games from newspapers and reports while learning the game, writing them out by hand.

He was soon established as an excellent player in his area and then his country, taking the Estonian championship in 1935. I have previously mentioned the Chess Olympiad that took place a few months ago. Well, Estonia’s finest was the top board in 1935 and caused a stir for his aggressive play. This was his first appearance on the big stage and he was probably in the top ten players in the world for the next thirty years.

Three years later, he won the AVRO tournament of 1938, which is regarded by some as being the strongest tournament ever played (all things being relative, of course), as Alekhine, Euwe, Capablanca, Botvinnik, Reshevsky and Flohr trailed behind.

In 1939, other matters took over and Keres was in Argentina, winning 12 of his 19 games (drawing 5 and losing only 2) for Estonia in the Olympiad, when war broke out. He managed to get home a little while later, first going through the Netherlands to play a match against Euwe, which he narrowly won - against the odds, it should be said, as Euwe was a more established match player and, we shall not forget, a previous World Champ.

The AVRO tournament victory should have given him a shot at the world title, but of course circumstances were against him and the Alekhine match never happened. That isn’t to say chess stopped; just that it was too difficult to organise.

One consequence of the time was that Estonia became part of the Soviet Union and, so, Keres became part of the great Soviet team; the Harlem Globetrotters of chess. In 1941, Estonia came under Nazi control. By the end of the war, it was Soviet again. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard that would have been for those who lived there at the time, especially someone who would have been hugely popular in a nation of just a couple of million. His interview in 1942 to a Nazi newspaper was used against him, when he tried to escape Western Europe two years later. He was very fortunate to avoid deportation or worse and a Latvian player of the day called Petrovs was put in detention and died in prison.

In 1945, the USSR played the USA in a radio chess match. He would be an obvious choice for the ten man team, but was excluded and it is likely that this wasn’t a complete coincidence.

He did, however, win the Estonian Championship in 1945 without losing any of his 15 games and, in doing so, finished above some excellent “visiting” Soviets.

His dues paid, he was invited to return to the Soviet team in 1946 to play a radio match against Great Britain and you can see the details and some of the games here: http://amici.iccf.com/issues/Issue_07/issue_07_the_radio_match_grb-urss_1946.html

I say he paid his dues. It was clear that Keres was one of the very best players in the world, so he had an invite to every big event going. What remains a point of debate is whether he was able to make decisions for himself in those tournaments. Keres was the runner-up in the Candidates tournament (where the winner plays the World Champ) on four consecutive occasions and there are a number of stories involving him (albeit not only him in the Soviet era), where orders from above are rumoured to have been given, such that players such as Keres were to ensure that a certain player won the tournament.

No one will know for sure whether Keres played his very best in every game of every tournament, or whether, had he won a Candidates tournament, he would have won the world title. What is known is that he is regarded by many as being the best player never to have won a world title. He was the three time Soviet champion and has an incredible record in Olympiads (97 wins, 51 draws and 13 losses).

He died in 1975, shortly after arriving in Helsinki from Vancouver (where he had just won a tournament) and he did not make it back to Tallinn.

His funeral in Estonia drew more than 100,000 people.



He was voted the Estonian sportsman of the Century in 2000 (admittedly, I’m struggling to think of the second and third, but this was someone who had been dead for a generation by then, after all).

He was regarded by his peers as one of the nice guys. He had few if any enemies and some have said this was partly why he didn’t dominate the game – Reshevsky suggested he lacked the killer instinct. Over the board, he beat nine World Champions (no one else has done that) and had positive records against Capablanca, Tal and Euwe. Not quite sure myself what more of a killer instinct is needed, to be honest!

Here’s a beauty of a game. He takes down no less than Capablanca with a magical combination: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1013271



Here, Keres plays a young Bobby Fischer in 1959.
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« Reply #407 on: October 26, 2012, 12:49:49 AM »

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Nf3 Be7 6. Be3 O-O 7. Bd3 f5 8. Ne2 c5 9. b3 cxd4 10. Nfxd4 Nc5 11. g4 Nxd3+ 12. Qxd3 Nc6 13. Nxc6 bxc6 14. h3 a5 15. f4 Ba6 16. Qd2 Bh4+ 17. Bf2 Bxf2+ 18. Kxf2 Bxe2 19. Kxe2 Rb8 20. a3 c5 21. Kf3 Qc7 22. Rab1 d4 23. Qd3 Qc6+ 24. Kg3 Qd5 25. h4 fxg4 26. Kxg4 Qg2+ 27. Qg3 Qxg3+ 28. Kxg3 Rbd8 29. Rhd1 Rd5 30. c4 dxc3 e.p. 31. Rxd5 exd5 32. Rc1 d4 33. Kf3 Rb8 34. e6 Kf8 35. f5 Rxb3 36. Ke4 Rxa3 37. Ke5 Ke7 38. Rf1 c2 39. f6+ gxf6+ 40. Rxf6 c1=Q 41. Rf7+ Ke8 42. Kd6 Qh6 43. Re7+ Kf8 44. Rf7+ Kg8 45. Ke7 Re3 46. Rf8+ Qxf8+ 0-1

Hey Tal,

Just want to say I was in on page 1 of this thread and check it every day, thanks very much for posting. It has even got me playing a bit and definitely improving, although I am still a rec.

Not sure if you can parse the above, but if you can I would like some advice on this game. It stayed very even after the opening and I found myself with really no idea how to force an edge. I've run it through a computer and can see where my main errors are and (mostly) why they're errors, but even the computer's suggested moves weren't very +ve scoring and so I am wondering if there was anything I could have done to win this game, or after the opening am I just hoping my opponent makes a mistake? I'm white btw.

edit: 30. c4 was my attempt at a sacrifice, after that didn't work out I knew I was just trying to rescue a draw. Am interested if you can see any positive attacking moves before that one, not too bothered about after.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2012, 12:53:59 AM by skolsuper » Logged
Tal
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« Reply #408 on: October 26, 2012, 12:59:22 AM »

I'll have a look over the weekend and get back to you, sir.

Always happy to do things like this. What makes this thread work IMO is its diversity. I try to throw a bit of everything in it, so any games you have that you want a view on can only add to the fun.

Open to anyone else to comment, of course.

Thank you for your loyalty Smiley
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« Reply #409 on: October 26, 2012, 01:22:51 PM »

Out of interest Tal do you have to input this in to a replayer and watch the game or can you just advise from the text?
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« Reply #410 on: October 26, 2012, 01:33:54 PM »

Out of interest Tal do you have to input this in to a replayer and watch the game or can you just advise from the text?

Easiest way is to have a physical chess board next to you and follow the moves on that. People who play a lot at a decent standard can follow the game from just the notation without a board. Been a while since I could follow a whole game accurately like that and now I'd start forgetting where pieces are after about ten moves in.
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« Reply #411 on: October 26, 2012, 01:37:38 PM »

Out of interest Tal do you have to input this in to a replayer and watch the game or can you just advise from the text?

I used to be a lot better at visualising games and positions. Playing less chess and more poker has had an impact on that, though!

I have a basic idea of the position from the text moves but if I'm going to give any advice or views on it, I'd want at least to play it out in a board, as I am not as confident in my analysis of positions in my head as I would have been a few years back.
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« Reply #412 on: October 26, 2012, 01:51:15 PM »

Tal's a better player than me so I'd wait to hear his opinions, but I'm not keen on our opening line for this one at all.  You lose the attacking momentum early on, and also fail to castle your king, and that leaves you with a pretty weak position defensively - and I'd much prefer black's situation here than white's.

I'm also not keen on 4. e5 - especially when you decline to take his pawn after 7. .. f5.
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« Reply #413 on: October 26, 2012, 04:02:45 PM »

Tal's a better player than me so I'd wait to hear his opinions, but I'm not keen on our opening line for this one at all.  You lose the attacking momentum early on, and also fail to castle your king, and that leaves you with a pretty weak position defensively - and I'd much prefer black's situation here than white's.

I'm also not keen on 4. e5 - especially when you decline to take his pawn after 7. .. f5.

Excellent, cheers for taking a look, yeah I was wondering if my lack of opportunities stemmed from the opening, but afaik this is all very standard, right? Is your preferred opening totally different from this or could you suggest a better move for #4?
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« Reply #414 on: October 26, 2012, 04:08:20 PM »

Tal's a better player than me so I'd wait to hear his opinions, but I'm not keen on our opening line for this one at all.  You lose the attacking momentum early on, and also fail to castle your king, and that leaves you with a pretty weak position defensively - and I'd much prefer black's situation here than white's.

I'm also not keen on 4. e5 - especially when you decline to take his pawn after 7. .. f5.

Excellent, cheers for taking a look, yeah I was wondering if my lack of opportunities stemmed from the opening, but afaik this is all very standard, right? Is your preferred opening totally different from this or could you suggest a better move for #4?

It's not an opening I'd play at all - but I'm a bit weird as far as openings go.  It's probably a very standard line for white playing against the French, and not an opening I've studied in detail as I always avoided playing against it.

Let me have another look, as if it's a standard line (and not taking the pawn when black plays f5) then it must be theoretically sound.

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« Reply #415 on: October 26, 2012, 04:39:03 PM »

Yeah, apparently it's a very standard line - but just looking through the discussions about it I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon.  The French Defence is like playing fixed limit poker with my gran, and she died about 10 years ago.
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« Reply #416 on: October 26, 2012, 04:52:52 PM »

Yeah, apparently it's a very standard line - but just looking through the discussions about it I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon.  The French Defence is like playing fixed limit poker with my gran, and she died about 10 years ago.

Have I taken this game down the boring road or is it mainly black's fault? Is there a way I could force the villain out of his comfort zone? I completely agree it wasnt a fun game but I was stuck for ideas the whole time.
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« Reply #417 on: October 26, 2012, 04:55:53 PM »

Yeah, apparently it's a very standard line - but just looking through the discussions about it I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon.  The French Defence is like playing fixed limit poker with my gran, and she died about 10 years ago.

Have I taken this game down the boring road or is it mainly black's fault? Is there a way I could force the villain out of his comfort zone? I completely agree it wasnt a fun game but I was stuck for ideas the whole time.

It's black's choice to play 1. .. e6, so yeah it's his fault.  It looks like there are options for you to move it away from the traditional French Defence lines that end up in a boring 0-0 draw, but a lot of these can cause problems if you are up against a very strong player (but give you opportunities if they're not). Again, this is just stuff I've read today whilst scouting some chess forums, the way I'd avoid it is by playing 1. d4 as white (as I always do) Wink

Tal will probably be on soon to give you some useful advice Cheesy
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« Reply #418 on: October 26, 2012, 08:40:07 PM »

not looked through all the game yet , agree don't like e5 much but in general prefer to make a plan in the games , after he castled king side , I would look to attack his King , so get your king safe on Queen side first

as played after he played Qg2 , Qg3 gives him a forced mate after h5 , your king has to take & you drop your Queen & followed by Rook f5#
« Last Edit: October 26, 2012, 08:43:42 PM by curnow » Logged
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« Reply #419 on: October 26, 2012, 08:56:51 PM »

not looked through all the game yet , agree don't like e5 much but in general prefer to make a plan in the games , after he castled king side , I would look to attack his King , so get your king safe on Queen side first

as played after he played Qg2 , Qg3 gives him a forced mate after h5 , your king has to take & you drop your Queen & followed by Rook f5#

Ty mate, yeah the computer popped that mate up as well, I had no idea at the time!

Luckily the other guy missed it as well and I got a 2nd bite of the cherry...
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