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Some common aspects of policy and chess playing

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SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Dec 7, 09, 01:27 / #
Poland is no 14 in the world and has some top players like Socko and Krasenkow. I don't see it as popular, though. Some old guys play in the local park.

delphiandomineThreads: 42 Posts: 9,954 Joined: Nov 25, 08 [Suspended]	Dec 7, 09, 02:40 / #
Seanus: I was primary school champion Hah, you played too? Used to be a fantastic way to get out of freezing cold lunchtimes...Mile End was not a good school if you liked the warmth! We even tried bribing Mr Ogston one lunchtime to let us hide in the boiler room...failed :( By the way, the school is moving to Beechwood (ugh, die) in Easter :(

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Dec 7, 09, 12:16 / #
Yeah, I enjoyed the primary school games but played only once competitively for Aberdeen Grammar School (AGS). I remember destroying my opponent in the French advanced defence. It'd be good to get more input on this point from the top 2 nations in the world in chess, Russia and Ukraine.

mateinoneThreads: 10 Posts: 78 Joined: Mar 15, 09	Edited by: mateinone Dec 7, 09, 12:57 / #
Seanus: Yeah, I enjoyed the primary school games but played only once competitively for Aberdeen Grammar School (AGS). I remember destroying my opponent in the French advanced defence. Please tell me you played White!! Surely a scotsman is not stodgy enough to play anything like a French Defense? One of my favorite wins was a sacrifice on h7 in a teams tournament on board one, I played the white side Advanced Variation against the French. My opponent had a decent record against me still in those days, but it was finished in 19 moves. I cannot remember losing to him after that game tbh (but the memory does get fuzzy with age as well :P ) In my later years I used to play the exchange variation and play for queen side castling and open board... I always hated the French and the Petroff as the two worst defenses against e4, I found then "unnatural"

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Edited by: Seanus Dec 7, 09, 13:00 / #
I played white, yeah. I am not Vladimir Kramnik, you know :) He loves those passive defensive positions where, if you play your cards right, you can even eke out a win. Mobilising the pieces after a successful grab on h7 was always fun. Even though I didn't have the calculating skills of a GM, nor the deeper positional awareness, I had the instinct that it was a good move. I've actually read a book on effective castling. Castling tends to be done as part of the routine but some games see a different pattern where timely castling can actually lead to the advantage being taken. I agree that those defences are suspect but I think the Philidor is even worse.

mateinoneThreads: 10 Posts: 78 Joined: Mar 15, 09	Edited by: mateinone Dec 7, 09, 13:10 / #
Yeah because I do not play anymore, if I do play at all (maybe I play on 2-3 days in some years), I use "suspect" but fun openings such as the Blackmar-Diemar, the Muzio or Wild - Muzio gambits or the Latvian Gambit or the likes. Basically as long as I can sacrifice a pawn or a piece somewhere in the beginning I am having fun.. (oh and it must be no longer than 5 minutes.. my attention span does not allow for it) :P ---- Castling is important (the French is very solid and no doubt it works.. I just cannot stand stodgy chess), there are some games that you can get away with not. Usually though that involved taking a sacrificed piece and hanging on for dear life in the hope than when the attack fizzles out, you have done okay. There is a sacrifice in the Caro-kann much like that, where Black loses the right to castle, white attacks against a poor pawn formation and a black king in the middle of the back row... But in 99% of all games, both sides should castle for sure. ------ Yes the Philidor is terrible... :)

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Edited by: Seanus Dec 7, 09, 13:16 / #
It's worth checking out the games of Kasparov and Morphy for sacrifices. Paul Keres made one of the best Queen sacrifices to date. It's just a shame that the politicians of our time didn't think it through like they did. A dubious move (?!) would be rather generous. A blunder (??) for them is in order. I don't think I'd ever play the Grob attack. Just for variation purposes, I wouldn't be averse to playing the Benko opening on g3 or the Nimzowitch-Larsen opening on b3. Those fianchettoed bishops can breath fire across those diagonals. Some of the classic games from the past teach valuable lessons. Gheorgiu Vs Mednis was perhaps the best game to illustrate the importance of using the king in a surge. It looked at zugzwang too. I have a good book by Shipkov and Markov on the Slav. It can be stodgy but some of the lines make for interesting flank play.

mateinoneThreads: 10 Posts: 78 Joined: Mar 15, 09	Edited by: mateinone Dec 7, 09, 13:35 / #
It is funny, I know that fianchetto bishops can be strong, it is silly to deny that, but they were just never my cup of tea. Keres was a genius. I always of course liked Tal, but how can one not. The player I found hardest to understand was Petrosian, the guy really was just a supreme positional player and because that was not my cup of tea, many of his moves just made no sense until of course much later. Probably no other players games would make me sigh "ahh" much later after a move I had thought was much of a "nothing" move. From memory Keres helped author a few books as well, perhaps one (or a few) on end games seems vaguely familiar. On the fianchetto openings... I still used to like to try and turn them into open games, so for example I would play a four pawn attack against a kings indian defense. It probably leaves white theoretically without advantage, but practically it creates many difficulties. The Slav was one of my best friends favorite defenses, no matter how many times I tried to talk him out of it :) (to his credit he had some very good results with it) lol.. I cannot believe after all of this time I am talking chess... It is a bad habit I must stop :P ---- One last thing, you certainly seem to know your way around a board.. Did you have a BCF or FIDE rating by any chance?

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Dec 7, 09, 13:57 / #
Mikhail Tal enjoyed a good drink at the board, that helps some people but only if in moderation. Tigran Petrosian, the great Armenian, inspired Karpov. They were both very hard to break down and could also squeeze you like a cobra in some positions. I didn't have a formal rating but I could have played to around 2200. Somewhere just over 2000 would have been about right. I can't remember the names of the books of Keres but one really made an impression on me. Like yourself, many years ago. I'm 32 now but played more in my teens. After exiting teenage, I started to travel and chess was put on the back burner.

mateinoneThreads: 10 Posts: 78 Joined: Mar 15, 09	Dec 7, 09, 14:11 / #
2000 is a good strong chess player for sure. Yeah Tal was a bad alcoholic, but my goodness. I remember one game he played where he sacrificed a queen in around about a 15/20 move combination that finished with a windmill. The combination ended with him 2 pawns ahead in an endgame, he really was amazing.. I should find that game actually as it is one of my favorites. I first seen it in a Burgess book on tactics.

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Dec 7, 09, 17:12 / #
Graham Burgess himself was only a FM, that's the surprise of it. I always maintain, look beyond the label (even if it's food). There are some IMs out there that could take GMs. Some get distracted with the rat race and their chess drops away. I beat Chessmaster 5500 Series at top level. I always relished the challenge and a human has an acute sense of impending loss. Kasparov was the same. He settled for a draw against the computer in the endgame. He just wanted to avoid loss but had he ploughed on, he likely would have eked out the win. I think I have seen that Tal sacrifice too. It was a cracker! It wasn't that it was so damaging, it was more that he emerged with the clearly favourable position in the endgame. One of my favourite books to dip into is the Braingames coverage of the 2000 Kasparov-Kramnik encounter. Kramnik's take with the rook on b7 in game 2 is so obvious to us amateurs but semi-novel in the eyes of the GMs. Kasparov had a shocker in a later game, even I spotted the danger and that's saying sth. For games on the Sicilian Najdorf, Kasparov-Short 1992 is a really good source. Short often employed the Richter-Rauzer attack but didn't quite find the bite necessary to put Kasparov to the sword. As for modern chess, Magnus Carlsen is a hot new prospect. He is being coached by Kasparov and has actually beaten Topalov before. He just needs some consistency to be up there and take the WCC. I haven't followed the ongoing saga between FIDE and the breakaway group. I remember when Khalifman was FIDE champion. Good as he was, Kasparov would have whooped him.

joepilsudskiThreads: 44 Posts: 2,529 Joined: Apr 27, 07	Dec 26, 09, 03:34 / #
Well, one thing in common:The pawns are sacrificed first.

NathanThreads: 33 Posts: 1,846 Joined: Feb 13, 09	Dec 26, 09, 04:00 / #
joepilsudski: Well, one thing in common:The pawns are sacrificed first. And only pawns may become a queen (or any other piece) - quite an incentive to survive. What is interesting also - a pawn is the only figure that never retreats :)

joepilsudskiThreads: 44 Posts: 2,529 Joined: Apr 27, 07	Dec 28, 09, 15:43 / #
Nathan: And only pawns may become a queen (or any other piece) - quite an incentive to survive. What is interesting also - a pawn is the only figure that never retreats :) Yes, quite interesting.

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