Happenings
I just started snowboarding a month and a half ago. I figure if I have to live in Reno I might as well get into the best thing Reno's got going. I'm getting pretty good, I can pretty much carve down the mountain without falling. Some friends and I have a night pass to a resort about 40 minutes from my house and last night after work we went up there. It's usually pretty icy which makes it much harder and last night it was about 19 degrees at the base with probably 20 mph winds. It was cold. So we only spent about an hour and a half (I know that's how long it takes to get there and back but it's honestly worth it every single time). When I got home I wanted to study but I didn't know what. So I decided to follow the advice I gave to chessloser (I was thinking about him anyway because of how cold it was) and pull out Tal's Life and Games and just flip through it.
I had to do some digging to find it but I did and it was actually really nice to read it again. I haven't read Tal in a long time and his prose is truly unique. It is an inspiring read. The second game I looked at (Novopashin-Tal 1962) was a Sicilian Scheveningen (marked by knight on f6 and pawns on d6 and e6) but White played his Bishop to c4 (the most common approach is the Keres Attack which starts with 6.g4). Tal was Black and said that his opponent had been creating problems for Black in this line and on move 8 he says if he played a6 or Nc6 his opponent would be very well prepared. So he plays 8...Na6 and says this:
"I had to find something out of the book - even if only to gain a psychological advantage."
What other grandmaster (at this point he was former world champion) would say something like this to justify a move in the opening? This was also a game he felt he had to win! It was during the 1962 Russian Chess Championship and he had to play this game in between rounds because he was sick. He felt that if he didn't win the game he would not be close enough to Korchnoi to catch him (not that he ended up catching him, but still). The game from this point on is very instructive. Tal plays a standard d5 break, leading to an isolated pawn. He defends the pawn indirectly by activating his pieces with tactics behind the scenes, initiates a trade on e4 to get the pawn off the d-file, and uses the pressure from the advanced passed e-pawn to build up a winning attack.
This game was very inspiring to me. I have had a relative lull in studying for the last couple weeks and I wasn't exactly feeling confident about the 7 games I have signed myself up to play through Monday. Last Thursday I could barely hold my concentration through one game and Saturday through Monday I have to play 6 back to back. But after I read some Tal I was all fired up. I knew once I got to the tournament and made a few moves I would be comfortable. After all, it's just chess. And I'm playing Expert for the first time. So there's not even any real pressure, it's nothing like when I was playing A at the Western States and I knew I had a chance to win. So now I'm really excited and since I'm only 11 points away from the magic 2000 hopefully I'll be able to play some good chess and prove my worth as an Expert.
tak - Yeah Bronstein is really good too. This is a good idea after Art of Attack, then you'll be able to follow along pretty much. Learning how to attack is the best way to learn how to defend, as essentially you have to carry out the attack for your opponent and then find the best way to defend against it. So I don't know about reading books on defense, I tried once to read Secrets of Chess Defence by Marin and got bored, it's nothing jaw dropping. Although there are a few good points in defense books about proper defensive technique, it's more just really simple points like 'counterplay in the center when he attacks on the wing' and 'defense from behind'.
chessaholic - yeah, I haven't read it in full either, but it's coming to this tournament with me as some in between round reading.