60 Days, 300 Positions: Day Twenty-four

In defiance of Thomas Engqvist's clear advice in 300 Most Important Positions (2018), I remain on track to complete the book in 60 days. Engqvist suggests five positions per week with review of the previous week's in addition to five new positions. The idea is to "assimilate the knowledge to be gained" and be able to use it for a lifetime. He warns, "If you study too many positions and gloss over them too quickly you run an increased risk of eventually losing your discipline and then forget what you once endeavoured to learn" (7-8).

There is no question that I am glossing over many positions, while I spend many hours with others. Accordingly, I am keeping track of positions or other resources that I intend to return to after concluding the 60 day sprint. Assuming that I remain on track, I will finish my first complete read of the book in the last week of February. More than likely, I will go through it again in the near future.

Today, I am running a youth chess tournament. Such an activity cuts into my study time. I will have the book with me and endeavor to work through with some attention positions 56-60. I am working from the front of the book and also from the middle. I have been through 60 endgame positions (151-210).

Books beget books. As I am reading Engqvist's text and studying positions, I am driven to some of his sources. Three positions in the section on development were taken from a game that Victor Bologan analyzes in Victor Bologan: Selected Games 1985-2004 (2007). That book was added to my personal library earlier this month and I am reading the biographical narrative with the intent to study some of the games at another time.

In the summer of 2023, I added to my library seven of the eight volumes of Comprehensive Chess Endings, edited by Yuri Averbakh. It is no surprise that Engqvist draws some positions and analysis from these books. There is more in each of them that I could be studying. When Engqvist draws a position from one of the volumes, I find myself looking at other positions nearby. 

Other books that have been referenced are among those I have occasionally dipped into and intend to again, such as Anatoly Karpov, How to Play the English Opening and Jose Capablanca, My Chess Career. Richard Reti, Masters of the Chessboard analyzes a game that Engqvist brought to my attention. On chessgames.com, Raymond Keene claims he earned many victories against the structure Black adopted in that game thanks to having studied Reti’s analysis.

Despite Engqvist's ideas about how his book should be utilized, I am enjoying and finding productive my accelerated study. Among the benefits are that I am playing fewer games online and playing somewhat more consistently. In this position from this morning, I missed an easy tactic. But it was one of only a few inaccuracies and I did a good job of depriving my opponent of any play--a theme I saw in several master games from which positions the past few days were extracted.

White to move

26.Nxg6+ should have been easy to spot, and a couple of moves later I was courting that opportunity. Even so, after 26.Qf6+, I remained fully in control and my knight is far better than Black's bishop.

Eight moves later, my position had improved while my opponent seemed to be moving backwards.

Black to move

Black attempted to bring some pieces into battle with 34.f6. My reply was not the computer's preference, but was aimed at bringing both rooks into play. Only one was needed as Black collapsed quickly.

35.Ra4 e5? 36.gxf6+ Rxf6 37.Qxe5+ Be6 38.Rxa6 Rf5 39.Ra7+ and Black resigned.