Chess Informant

This morning's email brought in an announcement from sales@sahovski.co.yu.

Dear Chess Friend,

We have lived to be 100.

Please check us at www.sahovski.com (update: now http://www.chessinformant.org/).
Chess Greetings
Chess Informant Team

I've been reading their books and using their software for almost eleven years. I started with Informant 64.

64/7 is the game Ribli - Sherzer, Magyarorszag 1995, which after white's move 12 reached this position.

Black to move

I spent a few hours studying this game, seeking to understand the overall strategy of White's attack. I came to the conclusion that the point of White's 12.Bc3 and the game's novelty 14.Qb2 was a long-range plan to attack along the a- and b-files on the one hand, and along the a1-h8 diagonal, on the other.

Ribli - Sherzer continued (from the diagram)
12...b5 13.cxb5 cxb5 14.Qb2 Qb6 15.b4 axb4 16.axb4 Rfc8 and White eventually won.

I was playing a USCF correspondence game as I was beginning to learn the treasures of Informant, and of the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, published by Chess Informant. One of two games I was playing against Faneuil Adams, Jr. reached the position in the diagram above. That game continued
12...Qb8 13.b4 axb4 14.axb4 Rxa1 15.Rxa1 e5 and White eventually won.

So, I say today, congratulations Chess Informant on issue 100. Thanks for all the years of high quality chess information. Thanks for aiding me in my win against the saint of scholastic chess (Fan Adams was a major impetus behind the rapid growth of chess in the New York City public schools in the late twentieth century).


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