Lesson of the Week: Beginners

After school clubs run October to April. Saint George's School, where I have been coaching for 13 years, meets twice per week, but the children are divided into groups. One afternoon, the students are new to chess--often brand new, making their first moves on the first day of chess. The other afternoon, players are more advanced.

Much of the instructive time has been focused on learning to checkmate with rooks, but I also spent a day teaching students about ranks, files, and diagonals, as recommended by Momir Radovic (see "How to Teach Chess in the Modern Age").

Last week, students were shown these two positions from some online games.

Black to move

Although there are pawns on the board, beginners need to learn to use king and rook together to force checkmate. Here, checks by the rook only needlessly prolong the game. Rather, 74...Kg3 maintains control of the second rank and forces 75.Kg1. Now, the rook check is checkmate.

The second position starts with a checkmate in one, then we backed the game up a move to learn about Black's fatal error.

Black to move

28...Qxc2??

White checkmated Black with 29.Rh8#

Black had been winning before the blunder. We spent some time looking at possibilities.

28...Qe3+ 29.Kh1

Here, again, a check is tempting, as it seems that White has a weak back rank. Indeed, after 29...Qe1+ 30.Rxe1 Rxe1+ 31.Nxe1, Black has a mate on the move.

Black to move

However, 31.Ng1 blocks the check, revealing that 29...Qe1 would have been a terrible mistake, playing hope chess.

Instead, Black stops White's major threat with 29...Qxh6, although White maintains a material advantage.

I did not use this next position last week, because it was played yesterday. It represents the critical idea in elementary checkmates of cutting off. Young players have difficulty learning this idea because youth likes a direct attack. Once they get it, however, chess skill begins to grow.

Black to move

Black played 46...Rfc2, threatening checkmate in one. White can only delay with spite checks.

47.a4 allows bxa4#
47...Rab2# is the principal threat.

White played 47.Rb6, but could have thrown away both rooks to last three additional moves.

Poor Decisions

My first error was the decision to play chess on my phone while walking my dog. My sunglasses made it more difficult to see the phone's screen clearly in addition to other distractions. My opponent, rated 600 lower, held his own until I blundered from this position. In fact, there were several blunders as the advantage switched back and forth. 

White to move

58.Nc6??

58.Nb5 is how White stops the e-pawn. To my relief, this blunder was the game's second to the last.

58...e2?? Nd4+ and White has an unstoppable pawn.

What was the move Black should have played?

Knowledge of the square of the pawn and of the floating square is useful.

Greco’s Study Method

This position appears in Checkmates and Tactics (2019), a book that consists of exercises that I have used with scholastic players since 2006. It is doubtful that my creation of this exercise from a game credited to Gioachino Greco is original. The small selection of games credited to Greco that are found in ChessBase, chessgames.com, and other aggregations are well-enough known that others undoubtedly have put this position before their students.

White to move

Digging deeper into Greco’s output through Professor Hoffman, The Games of Greco (1900) and William Lewis, Gioachino Greco and the Game of Chess (1819), shows that Greco had improved upon Black’s play in some variations on the game that led to this position.

Those improvements were the subject of my chess lesson with some students earlier this month. Greco’s variations in this and other games lead one to suspect that he methodically sought to improve the defense in the short miniatures by which he is principally remembered. But, as I have noted in prior posts, these variations—better games—are absent from databases, although present in the books by Lewis and Hoffman.

Further study since presenting the lesson to my students has revealed that the exercise in Checkmates and Tactics was presented to Giacomo Buoncompagno, the Duke of Sora, by “an exceptional player” (more than likely Giulio Cesare Polerio). A Spanish manuscript kept in the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence dated in the last quarter of the sixteenth century presents the position and a comment about its presentation to the duke. Two Italian manuscripts (Elegantia and Regole) from the same time period offer the game, but only Riccardiana has the story.

The sixteen move game, thus, should be considered the work of Polerio, not Greco. It would take much time and travel to examine these manuscripts, but others have done so. Their work has been compiled into a useful table: "Openings and Games of the Classical Era of Modern Chess," in Peter J. Monté, The Classical Era of Modern Chess (2014), 439-530; the game in question here appears on 503.

At some point in Rome, Greco had access to some manuscripts containing Polerio’s work and made copies. In his 1620 manuscript dedicated to an unnamed cardinal of Casa Orsini, Greco wrote that Black had an alternate defense in this game. Improvements to Black’s play appear in four manuscripts a few years later—Grenoble (1624), Paris (1625), Orleans (undated), and Godolphin (undated, but possibly 1623).

As I have repeatedly emphasized on Chess Skills, Greco's games are poorly known because his best work does not appear in databases. In this case, Greco is credited with a composition by Polerio that he criticized and improved in his own work.

Here, then, is Greco's main (best) game from this opening with Polerio's and Greco's other work as variations.

Greco, Gioachino
Analysis, London? c.1623

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4

4.Nc3 c6 5.Bc4 h6 6.d4 d6 7.h4 Bg7 is the sequence in Polerio's mss--see move 15.

4...Bg7 5.d4 d6 6.Nc3 c6 7.h4 h6 8.hxg5 hxg5 9.Rxh8 Bxh8

The last move in Primo, an undated Greco manuscript (likely 1619). Greco notes that Black remains with a pawn up.

10.Ne5

Several posters on chessgames.com have noted that this move is an error, giving Black a clear advantage

10...dxe5 11.Qh5 Qf6 12.dxe5 Qg7

12...Qg6 offers Black chances, too, but the text is better.

13.e6 Nf6

13...Bxe6 is suggested on chessgames.com

14.exf7+

This position appears as a diagram in Lewis 1819

Black to move

Having inherited this miniature from Polerio's writings, Greco sought to improve Black's defensive efforts. He offers two better moves for Black--Ke7 and Kd8 and carries each forward with a plausible line.

a) 14...Ke7

14...Kf8?? leads to the diagram at the top of the article.

15.Bxf4 Nxh5
15...gxf4 16.Qc5# appears in Polerio's manuscripts.
15...Ke7 is still possible 16.Bxg5+-.

16.Bd6# Is the line in the databases and the main game in Hoffman and Lewis.

15.Qe2 Be6

Black has better moves, such as Bg4, but most of Greco's line offers the best moves for both sides.

16.Bxe6 Kxe6

So far, Black is slightly better, but White has active play against a vulnerable king.

17.Qc4+ Ke7 18.Qb4+ Kxf7 19.Qxb7+ Nbd7 20.Qxa8

Three of Greco's extant manuscripts end here, as do Lewis and Hoffman. David Levy & Kevin O'Connell, Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess Games, Vol. 1 1485-1866 (1981) makes the contents of Hoffman accessible in algebraic notation. Francis Beale, The Royall Art of Chesse-Play (1656) also ends here.

Perhaps Greco thought that the win of the rook was sufficient for the line. However, he extended analysis five moves longer in what became one of his more obscure manuscripts. According to Monté, the manuscript was believed to have been dedicated to Sir Francis Godolphin. Tassilo von der Lasa acquired it in 1856 and still had it in 1897, but after his death, its whereabouts became unknown until Alessandro Sanvito found it in a collection in Poland.

Black to move

20...Qh6 21.Qxa7 Qh1+ 22.Ke2 Qxg2+ 23.Qf2 Qxf2+

23...f3+ Black is slightly better.

24.Kxf2

Only now White is better, although what Greco thought is not clear. As the Godolphin manuscript would likely have been created in London, and is the most length analysis, a date of 1623 seems plausible.

With such a game, modern chess players armed with the latest Stockfish might still find faults in his analysis, but it should be clear that his strength exceeds the conclusions that are drawn when we associate him with Polerio's unacknowledged work.

Variation b is more clearly dated to 1624.

 

b) 14...Kd8

In this line, Greco's analysis is less precise. Although 14...Ke7 appears to give Black an advantage, with best play 14...Kd8 is equal.

White to move

15.Qxg5

A nice deflection!

15...Qxg5 16.f8Q+ Kd7?

An error.

16...Kc7=

17.Qxh8

17.Bxf4!! Stockfish 17...Qxf4 18.Rd1+ Nd5 19.Qxf4

17...Qxg2 18.Qxf6 f3

White to move

Black has threats, but White has a forced mate. Neither side plays the best moves in the conclusion of this variation.

19.Qf7+

19.Be6+!

19...Kd6

19...Kd8 is more stubborn.

20.Bf4+

20.e5+ Kc5 21.Be3+ Kb4 22.a3+ Ka5 23.b4# appears in Antonius van der Linde, De Kerkvaders der Schaakgemeente (1875).

20...Kc5 21.Na4+ Kb4

21...Kd4 22.c3+ Kxe4 23.Nc5# variation in Greco

22.Bd2+ Kxa4 23.b3+ Ka3 24.Qe7+ Kb2 25.Qe5+ Ka3

25...Kxc2 26.Rc1# variation in Greco

26.Bc1+ Kb4 27.c3#

This line and variations appears in two Paris manuscripts: Grenoble (1624) and Paris (1625), as well as the undated Orleans manuscript that appears to be copied from the Paris ms. While less precise, I could see extracting some checkmate exercises for my students from this variation.

Over 1900 in Rapid!

The last time I was over 1900 in rapid on chessdotcom was mid-summer 2022. In September this year, it appeared that I would never get there again as I was struggling to get back to 1700 after a losing streak in late August. However, I’ve been playing a bit better the past few weeks.

My second game this morning was against an opponent in the mid-1900s while I was 1892. Somehow, I had a nice position as we entered the middle game. My opponent lost the exchange (I think it was necessary to save his king), but then found resourceful defense and generated some counterplay. As matters became tense, I found a nice move.

I offered the exchange back, my opponent refused at this point, but later I forced matters taking his last bishop so that I could eliminate the pawn on f7. In the ending I had a bishop when we were otherwise reduced to pawns.

The win lifted me to 1901.

Mate in Two

This problem took me far longer to solve than I care to admit, but represents a rare success among those I've attempted in a book new to my shelves.

White to move

The problem was composed by George Edward Carpenter (1844-1924) and appears in Anthology of Chess Problems, 2nd ed. (2021) by Milan Velimirović and Marjan Kovačević. Chess Informant brought it out 25 years after the original.

The first problem in the book was familiar to me as I had seen it before. I found it and others from Bonus Socius (a fourteenth century manuscript) in H.J.R. Murray, A History of Chess (1913) after one of these ancient puzzles appeared in another book.

White to move

Neither of the two medieval problems that begin the anthology gave me difficulty, but then I struggled. In some cases, I looked at the correct answer, but failed to examine it carefully enough. The exercises in the anthology are doing little to build my self-confidence, but offer plenty of delight when I peek at the solution.

In particular, this one composed by Joseph Plachutta (1827-1883), which appeared in Deutsche Schachzeitung in 1868. Short of examining every legal move, I doubt I could have found the key. Now that I have seen the answer, however, I appreciate the beauty of the composer's idea.

White to move

Anthology of Chess Problems gathers 2345 compositions that all lead to checkmate in two to five moves.

Critical Errors

In the Eastern Washington Open last month, I profited from errors my opponents made while attempting to maintain an advantage. In the first round, it appeared that Black had seized the initiative.

Black to move

Black got caught up in his attack and missed a fork.

16...Nc4?? lost to 17.Qd3.

In round two, I was worse for most of the game against an old friend, but he fell short on time. With less than a minute left, he wagered all on promoting a pawn that had no chance.

White to move

67.Rxh7+??

67.Nd4 Rc1 68.Ne2 Rc2=

67...Kxh7 68.b7 Na5 69.Kb6 Nxb7 70.Kxb7

Black to move

Here, I went for the elementary pawn ending, which we played out until it was mate in four.

70...Rxc6

In the last round, I played the Benko Gambit and struggled for equality for most of the game. Things shifted my way when my opponent tried to retain the extra pawn.

White to move

36.Qb5??

36.Qd1 or 36.Qf1 gives up the a-pawn, but continues in an equal position.

36...Rc1+ 37.Kh2

Black to move

I spent a few minutes looking for the checkmate that I suspected was there on the board, but opted for exchanges that gave me overwhelming material superiority and required no effort.

My one loss stemmed from a risky and aggressive move that led to complications. My opponent played well and built up his advantage systematically.

White to move

I played 14.Ng5??

14.Nd4 was close to equal, but even here Black is better.