Lesson of the Week

A new scholastic chess season has begun. The first tournament for Spokane's youth will be held October 22. My chess clubs started this week. For my beginning students, we looked at three instructive miniatures from the Encyclopedia of Chess Miniatures (2014). My advanced students saw a game from 1936.

The opening played in this game is popular in scholastic chess.

Spielmann,Rudolf -- Eliskases,Erich [C59]
Match Semmering AUT (7), 1936

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Be2 

8.Qf3 has been recommended by a local chess teacher and appears in many games.

8...h6 9.Nf3 e4 10.Ne5 Qc7 11.d4 exd3 12.Nxd3 Bd6

White to move

13.Na3 

This game was the only one in the database with this move. The most popular response was played by none other than Garry Kasparov.

13.b3 0–0 14.Bb2 Re8 15.h3 Ne4 16.0–0 Qe7 17.Nc3 Nxc3 18.Bxc3 Qxe2 19.Bxa5 Bf5 20.Re1 Qxd1 21.Raxd1 Rxe1+ 22.Rxe1 Rb8 23.g4 Bg6 24.Kf1 h5 25.Re3 Rb5 26.Bd2 f6 27.f4 Rd5 28.Ke2 hxg4 29.hxg4 f5 30.c4 Rd4 31.Bc3 Re4 32.Rxe4 fxe4 33.Ne5 Bxe5 34.Bxe5 Be8 35.Ke3 Kf7 36.Kxe4 g6 37.Kd4 Ke7 38.Kc5 Kd7 39.Bb8 Kc8 40.Bxa7 Kb7 41.Bb6 Bd7 42.g5 Bf5 43.b4 Bc2 44.a4 1–0 Kasparov,G (2805) -- Timman,J (2620)/Moscow 1994.

13...Ba6 14.g3 0–0 15.0–0 Rad8 16.Be3 Nd5 17.Bc5 Bxc5 18.Nxc5 Nc3 19.Nxa6 Qe5 20.Qe1 Nxe2+ 21.Kh1 Rfe8 22.Rd1

22.f3

22...Qh5 23.h4 Qg4 24.Kh2 Nxg3 25.fxg3

Black to move

25...Re2+

25...Rxe1 26.Rxd8+ Kh7 27.Rxe1+-

26.Rf2 Rxf2+ 27.Qxf2 Qxd1 0–1