Live: Midnight Study Session
I thought this might be a cool idea...
12:00 AM: I'm in my garage. I have a board to my right and I'm on my computer (hehe). I went over some rook endings earlier today per my last post (I've been working on 4 pages of Dvoretsky for a week). Though not for very long. I also played a few games today. I won them all, but in one specifically I had a very bad position. I got caught in an opening trap. The other two had interesting openings too and I realized I haven't been looking at openings so enter midnight study session.
Game 1: Open Ruy
This one I did not get caught in a trap just didn't really know the theory and I want to feel more comfortable next time I play the position. The game went:
So now I want to get a feel for these other options, I'm not sure I want to be playing 9.a4, let's take a look at the other moves. I start by running an Opening Report on the position after 8...Be6. For those of you unfamiliar with the Opening Report it is a fantastic tool. It takes the position and gives you all of the options for the other side as well as statistics and famous players who take each side. For instance:
In this line I have 22 games where Anand plays Black, 86 games where Korchnoi takes Black, and even 44 games where Euwe takes Black. Since these are world class players, they will have world class opponents, and this usually means quality theory.
So I click on the 44 games for Euwe and a few of the notable White opponents are: Alekhine, Boguljubow, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Keres, and some guy named Fischer, R. I'll look at those games.
Alekhine-Euwe (2 games)
I looked at the game from 1937 first, Euwe demonstrates how to maintain the balance with queenside expansion. Very nice technical game holding the great attacking player Alekhine at bay. Then I looked at the game from 1935, Euwe was even more impressive here. He obtained a completely won position and then squandered the advantage attempting to simplify. Alekhine found the beautiful 38.b4 and began a dangerous pawn race which was enough to equalize. Very cool game. But Euwe definitely demonstrated his proficiency in this line. Let's see how future generations handled it.
Boguljubow-Euwe 1941
This game is a little later, Euwe crushes Boguljubow easily with an attack on the kingside that is nothing short of fierce. Very good stuff. When is White going to learn to play this?
I notice that in Keres's games against Euwe, he managed to find a form, losing the first game in 1937, he drew in 1939 and then won in 1948. I went through in chronological order.
Keres-Euwe (3 games)
In the 1937 game Keres gets crushed. Euwe beats him on both sides of the board and controls everything. By 1939 Keres has found some interesting ideas, he attacks on the kingside immediately and effectively. Euwe answers by also attacking on the kingside, interesting, and finds good resources to force a drawn endgame. This one was hanging on the edge. In the third game Keres has found the answer. He fights for the d4 square and establishes a good knight on d4 to play against the horrible bishop on e6. A very interesting method, he allows Euwe to trade on b3 recapturing with the a pawn and giving himself double isolated b pawns, and then manages to trade b3 for c5 to firmly establish control of the d4 square and the game. Keres certainly matured in the 10 years in between his first session with Euwe. That's cool.
The Fischer game is not interesting but the Smyslov game, which appeared 3 rounds after the Keres game in the 1948 World Championship is impressive.
Smyslov-Euwe 1948
Smyslov must have sensed the weakness of the queenside after the Keres game and destroys the whole queenside complex, relying entirely on his lead in development. This is a very good Smyslov game.
OK, so after Smyslov and Keres destroyed this opening in 1948, let's see Korchnoi revive it.
Hm. Karpov-Korchnoi is 13 games... That's a lot. Also appearing on the White side: Tal, Bronstein, Geller, Shirov, Ponomoriav, Ivanchuk, and Timman. It's now 1:00, I'm going to call it a night. I think this was productive though. And I know where to go from here to learn this opening.
To be continued....
PS: It's my birthday today.
12:00 AM: I'm in my garage. I have a board to my right and I'm on my computer (hehe). I went over some rook endings earlier today per my last post (I've been working on 4 pages of Dvoretsky for a week). Though not for very long. I also played a few games today. I won them all, but in one specifically I had a very bad position. I got caught in an opening trap. The other two had interesting openings too and I realized I haven't been looking at openings so enter midnight study session.
Game 1: Open Ruy
This one I did not get caught in a trap just didn't really know the theory and I want to feel more comfortable next time I play the position. The game went:
So now I want to get a feel for these other options, I'm not sure I want to be playing 9.a4, let's take a look at the other moves. I start by running an Opening Report on the position after 8...Be6. For those of you unfamiliar with the Opening Report it is a fantastic tool. It takes the position and gives you all of the options for the other side as well as statistics and famous players who take each side. For instance:
In this line I have 22 games where Anand plays Black, 86 games where Korchnoi takes Black, and even 44 games where Euwe takes Black. Since these are world class players, they will have world class opponents, and this usually means quality theory.
So I click on the 44 games for Euwe and a few of the notable White opponents are: Alekhine, Boguljubow, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Keres, and some guy named Fischer, R. I'll look at those games.
Alekhine-Euwe (2 games)
I looked at the game from 1937 first, Euwe demonstrates how to maintain the balance with queenside expansion. Very nice technical game holding the great attacking player Alekhine at bay. Then I looked at the game from 1935, Euwe was even more impressive here. He obtained a completely won position and then squandered the advantage attempting to simplify. Alekhine found the beautiful 38.b4 and began a dangerous pawn race which was enough to equalize. Very cool game. But Euwe definitely demonstrated his proficiency in this line. Let's see how future generations handled it.
Boguljubow-Euwe 1941
This game is a little later, Euwe crushes Boguljubow easily with an attack on the kingside that is nothing short of fierce. Very good stuff. When is White going to learn to play this?
I notice that in Keres's games against Euwe, he managed to find a form, losing the first game in 1937, he drew in 1939 and then won in 1948. I went through in chronological order.
Keres-Euwe (3 games)
In the 1937 game Keres gets crushed. Euwe beats him on both sides of the board and controls everything. By 1939 Keres has found some interesting ideas, he attacks on the kingside immediately and effectively. Euwe answers by also attacking on the kingside, interesting, and finds good resources to force a drawn endgame. This one was hanging on the edge. In the third game Keres has found the answer. He fights for the d4 square and establishes a good knight on d4 to play against the horrible bishop on e6. A very interesting method, he allows Euwe to trade on b3 recapturing with the a pawn and giving himself double isolated b pawns, and then manages to trade b3 for c5 to firmly establish control of the d4 square and the game. Keres certainly matured in the 10 years in between his first session with Euwe. That's cool.
The Fischer game is not interesting but the Smyslov game, which appeared 3 rounds after the Keres game in the 1948 World Championship is impressive.
Smyslov-Euwe 1948
Smyslov must have sensed the weakness of the queenside after the Keres game and destroys the whole queenside complex, relying entirely on his lead in development. This is a very good Smyslov game.
OK, so after Smyslov and Keres destroyed this opening in 1948, let's see Korchnoi revive it.
Hm. Karpov-Korchnoi is 13 games... That's a lot. Also appearing on the White side: Tal, Bronstein, Geller, Shirov, Ponomoriav, Ivanchuk, and Timman. It's now 1:00, I'm going to call it a night. I think this was productive though. And I know where to go from here to learn this opening.
To be continued....
PS: It's my birthday today.
Diligent
Resolute
Unfaze
Nimble
Keen
Non-impulsive
Knightly
Novelty
Ingenious
Tenacious
Energetic
Wishing You A Happy Birthday!!
my preparation in the Open begins with 9.Nbd2 it's fastly becoming the mainline and people like Judith Polgar and Garry Kasparov brought this move to the forefront.
Lots of forcing lines which give White a pretty confortable game.
Happy birthday!
hip - i always feel like i'm not doing enough, but today i was thinking what i have done has gotten me pretty far so thanks.
chris - nbd2 always comes regardless of the move order, i'm trying to see why this move evolved, that's why i started with the older games. i'm sure when i get to anand i'll see a lot of people playing nbd2 first. also, it's good to get acquainted with all options because this allows you to see many different approaches for both sides.
chessaholic - thanks. i enjoyed the chat the other night. there's a tournament in fresno i'm thinking about playing, what are you doing may 17-18?
lep - 23.
Back in my day, we didn't have this fancy Fritz 10 or Opening Report. AND we had to study uphill in the snow. Both ways. (eg...)
Thanks,
Robert