The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

The secret [to creating theoretical novelties] is to look for bad moves.... I mean those moves that are obviously so bad that no one ever takes the time to prove their awfulness.
Andrew Soltis, Karl Marx Play Chess

Yesterday, I played a move in the opening that I am not likely to repeat. On the other hand, I could explore it further and make it part of my repertoire.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O c6 7.Qc2 Nbd7 8.a3?!N

In truth, this move has been played before. ChessBase Online database has eight games that have reached this position. In two of these eight, both players were over 2000. In one game, White was over 2400 (Vladimir Okhotnik), but his opponent was 1733.

What is wrong with this move?

It abandons efforts to develop the initiative. It presents Black with no difficulties.

Franco Valencia (2176) -- Mercado (2066), Pereira 2011 continued:

8...b6 9.Rd1 Ba6 10.Nbd2 Rc8 11.b4 dxc4 12.Nxc4 c5 13.dxc5 bxc5 14.Nce5 cxb4 15.Nc6 b3 16.Nxe7+ Qxe7 17.Qxb3 Bxe2 18.Re1 Nc5

Black has the initiative, an extra pawn, and better piece coordination. Black went on to win.

Baldwin del Castillo (2045) -- Baigorri Navarro (2178), Collado Villalba 2008 continued:

8...b6 9.cxd5 cxd5 10.Bf4 Ba6 11.b4 Rc8 12.Qb2 b5 13.Nbd2 Nb6 14.Rfc1 Na4 15.Qb3 Bb7

White went on to win.

Stripes (1933) -- Moroney (2075), Spokane 2012 continued:

8...a5 9.Nbd2 b5

Here we reach the game's actual novelty.

Okhotnik (2447) -- Fournel (1733), Fouesnant 2009 continued:

9...Re8 10.e4 dxe4 11.Nxe4 Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Nf6 13.Qc2 Qd6

Black's queen rook never came into play, White directed event in the center, and his pieces penetrated the king's defenses.*

My game continued:

10.c5 Qc7 (we agreed after the game that 10...Bb7 is better) 11.Nb3 Bb7 12.Bf4 Qd8 13.Nc1 Re8 14.Nd3 Nf8

White's pieces seem well-placed, but if Black has any weaknesses, they are difficult to detect. We both struggled to find a plan. My opponent struggled harder and burned a lot of time off the clock. After some exchanges many moves later, Black was slightly better, and I opted to sacrifice a pawn to keep more of my pieces on the board during his time scramble. I was then two pawns down and objectively lost. Then, my opponent, with perhaps one minute left on the clock, missed an X-ray/discovery tactic and I won a bishop. I won back the pawns, plus another one.

I won, but my opening reveals some need for improvement. Parts of the game are not worth showing to the world.


*In the game score from ChessBase, Okhotnik's last move 31.Rxg5 is a howler that loses his queen. But, if he played 31.Rf5+ he was executing a forced checkmate in five. I suspect the latter is the actual move.

Digging Through My Library

It has been a few years since I have counted my chess books, so I do not know how many sit on the shelves in my office. These days I acquire more electronic versions than printed, but even so, I have bought several new paperbacks in the past few months. In my office, one four shelf bookcase that is two feet wide contains only chess texts. Another wider bookcase has two shelves that are each more than 80% chess. Then, there are chess books tucked here and there in several other places in my office, such as my Chess Informants that sit atop some bookcases that contain mostly works in history.

I thought it might be interesting and potentially useful to take a look at a few of these more than 200 books that have been doing little more than gathering dust.

Starting on the left of the top shelf of the wholly chess bookcase, there is a book that came to me when I had ordered something else and the order was botched. Dragoslav Andric, Sahovski Zabavnik (Beograd: Sahovski Informator, 1985) is in Serbian (I think). This text appears to have many interesting curiosities that are inaccessible to me because I cannot read the language. However, the universality of chess notation, abundant diagrams, and the help of Google Translate opens up some possibilities. The book is a compendium of short articles. In the first, a miniature is presented with a diagram showing the final position.

Edwards - Amateur [C35]
ENG corr England, 1963

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Bh4+ 5.g3 fxg3 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Ne5+ Ke6 8.Qg4+ Kxe5 9.0–0 gxh2+ 10.Kh1 Bf6 11.d4+ Kxd4 12.Be3+ Kxe3 13.e5 Bxe5 14.Re1+ Kf2 15.Qg2+ Kxe1 16.Nc3# 1–0

Remarkably, the game continues 16...O-O-O! 17...Kxb2 18.Rb1+ Kxc3 19.Qe4! with the idea of 20.Qd3#

There are many more fantasy chess illustrations in this book and much text requiring translation. It appears to be an interesting book with at least as much wit in evidence as in the next book on the same shelf.

Andrew Soltis, Karl Marx Plays Chess (New York: David McKay, 1991) is a first edition paperback. It is a compendium of the author's favorite "Chess to Enjoy" columns that he wrote for Chess Life beginning in 1979. The column was popular among many readers, and the topics are quite varied: "whatever chess subject tickled [his] fancy," Soltis tells us in the Introduction. The section "Hooked on 'Book'" (230-257) gathers together several columns on the opening. In one, Soltis reveals how to discover a theoretical novelty: "The secret is to look for bad moves.... I mean those that are so obviously bad that no one ever takes the time to prove their awfulness" (231).

The next two texts are Edward Winter, Kings, Commoners and Knaves (Milford, CT: Russell Enterprises, 1999), and A Chess Omnibus (Milford, CT: Russell Enterprises, 2003). I recall browsing A Chess Omnibus in the bookstore after the cover caught my eye. It shows a fine House of Staunton chess set and a felt-lined wooden box. Around that time, I had recently purchased the much less expensive Reykjavik II set from the House of Saunton. It is an elegant wooden set that I am happy to own, and that I carry to tournaments. However, it has never seen a blitz game. For one reason or another, I was ignorant of the work of Edward Winter at the time that I found this book. Browsing through the text in the bookstore, it quickly became obvious that this text would not sit on the shelf unused. Nor does it today. Hardly a month goes by when I am not pulling one or both of these texts off the shelf to browse, or to read something that Winter's fine chess site informs me has been printed there. Winter's other books are on my list of wants.

Winter's books are compendiums of his Chess Notes, which have been published through several outlets. For the past few years, the Notes first appear on his website. Many of Winter's Chess Notes have instructive value for the chess student looking to improve his or her game, but the emphasis in his work seems to be getting details of chess history accurately presented and well-sourced from primary materials. Readers of my other blog, Patriots and Peoples, should be well-aware of my views concerning sourcing in history.

After these four books at the left end of the top shelf, the instructional materials begin. First, there is Graham Burgess, John Nunn, and John Emms, The World's Greatest Chess Games (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998). My copy has yellowing pages and the spine seems fragile. It is the first American edition, and published the same year as the British original.

Next are two books by Irving Chernev: The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess (1955) and The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played (1965). I wrote about the former back in March in "My First Chess Book." Next along the shelf to the right are a series of tournament books, followed by books concerning specific players. First in the row of tournament books is David Bronstein, Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953, translated by Jim Marfia (1979). Other tournaments and several World Championship matches are represented, including Mikhail Tal's classic Tal Botvinnik 1960.

Perhaps it is time to put the computer away, get out a chess set, and do some serious reading.