Newsletter. Message from the Guru. DavidCordover, Managing Director, Chess Group of Companies

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1 Knight Times October 2014 Chess World Australia Pty. Ltd. ABN Newsletter Players are flocking to the RJ Shield event in increasing numbers Message from the Guru We're just heading into the most exciting time of the year... FINALS TIME And not just the footy... We have RJ Shield Finals, Interschool State and National Finals and the Vic Youth Championships all happening between now and Christmas. That's a lot of high-level chess Then a short break for Xmas and New Year and for a select few they will be joining us in Canberra for the Australian Junior Championships. We're also deep in planning for 2015; here are some sneak peaks at the plans for next year - More Tournaments We've just hired a full-time Manager for our Events, so you can expect to see more, and better organised, tournaments in DIY option for interschool chess for just $4 per player - Expanded online learning options. And the most exciting news is the collaboration with Kids Unlimited to start a new chess centre in Mt.Waverley We are kicking off in Term 4, but don't expect to be fully operational until early in drop in and have a look DavidCordover, Managing Director, Chess Group of Companies Page 1

2 Terrence concedes to Jody on board 1 in the final round. The third RJ Shield tournaments for the year were held on 27th July at Tucker Road Primary School, Mildura and in Yarrawonga and all events attracted a good field of players. Jody Middleton scored a perfect score at Bentleigh, but was lucky to win on time against Shawn Zillman. Sam Trewin continued his dominance at Yarrawonga and Liam Harrison looks to have moved past his older sister to score a big win in Mildura. RJ Shield Bentleigh Leading Scores (over 10s) - 34 players 7 J.Middleton 6 G.Urmansky 5 A.McCutcheon, G.Rips, J.Lipp and D.Roisman. Leading Scores (under 10s) - 34 players 6 N.Lim and Y.Ren 5.5 M.Chang RJ Shield Yarrawonga Leading Scores - 36 players 7 S.Trewin 6 L.Amarasinghe RJ Shield reports RJ Shield Mildura Leading Scores - 33 players 6.5 Z.Harrison 6 H.Gooch 5.5 L.Harrison The next event will be a Novices Tournament on Sunday 28th September. Find the Grandmaster Move Challenge Each RJ Shield I select a position from a grandmaster game and we have a competition to see if the players can pick the move made by the grandmaster. Sam Entwisle demonstrates the winning move in the July Find the Grandmaster Move Challenge. The August RJ Shield tournament results were as follows: Bentleigh: Daniel Poberezovsky won his first RJ Shield scoring 6.5/7 (37 players). Atlas Baillieu, playing in his first RJ Shield, scored a perfect 7/7 to win the U10 section (41 players). Yarrawonga: Sam Trewin won with his normal 7/7 (29 players). No-one solved the August Grandmaster Move Challenge as I tricked them with a slightly illegal castling move Page 2

3 ANTON wins IM Title by IM Robert Jamieson Knight Times October 2014 It is the 29th July, The final round of the Politiken Cup in Denmark. Grandmaster Allan Rasmussen, the Danish Champion rated 2522, is playing a little 13 year-old boy who is seeded a lowly 40th in this very strong event. The grandmaster badly wants to win the game but he loses His opponent however is no ordinary 13 year-old boy. His name is Anton Smirnov, the highest rated player of his age in the world, and he has come all the way from Sydney to play in the tournament as preparation for the chess olympiad in Norway. Anton scores 6.5/10 for a performance rating of 2462 and his third International Master Norm. All he needs now is to get his rating above 2400 and he will qualify for the title. To achieve a good result in a big tournament like the Politiken Cup you perhaps need to be a little lucky, and a little brave. Anton demonstrated both these qualities in his round nine game as below: Smirnov v Merkesvik Here Black can t play 1 Kxh6 as 2.Qh8+ Kg5 3.Qh4+ Kf5 4.Qf6# is mate. He does however have perpetual check with 1 Rc2+ 2.Kg3 Rg2+ as either 2.Kf4 or 2.Kh4 both lose to 3 Qc4+ so Anton most go back with 3.Kh3. Black however wants more so plays 1 Rg5+ 2.Kh4 Rh5+ 3.Kg4 Rxh6. Anton now plays 4.Qxf7+ Kh8 and he has perpetual check if he wants it. But he too wants more and is brave enough to go for it. 5.Rc1 Bc4 6.Kg5 Rh3. The only defence, planning to answer 7.Qf6 with 7 Rxf3+. What can Anton do now? He d like to play Kf6 but that pesky White rook stops that, so. 7.Rh1 A brilliant deflecting sacrifice. 7 Rxh1 8.Kf6 and White won. Anton s Scorecard at the Politiken Cup Black to play. Manuel Weeks, Olympiad Team Captain, Anton Smirnov and David Smerdon, Australia s top board at the Olympiad. Page 3

4 Olympiad adventures by IM Robert Jamieson The bi-annual chess olympiad always provides a feast of great games for the chess enthusiast. I d like to show you a few positions that attracted my interest. Let s start off by seeing if we can beat a former World Champion. Kasimdzhanov v Kramnik Max is struggling against an Italian grandmaster in the position below. Illingworth v Brunello White to Play Kramnik has just played 28 d4 in an effort to get some play. We have 3 ways to capture, but instead play 29.Rxf7 Kxf7 Or 29 Qxf7 30.Bxh7+ Kf8 31.Qd6+ Qe7 32.Rf1+ Ke8 33.Bg Bxh Ke7 31.Qe5+ Kd8 32.Qc7+ Ke8 33.Bg6+ etc. If you found that one a bit hard, let s lower our sights a bit and see if we can beat the Australian Chess Champion, IM Max Illingworth. Black to Play The first move is fairly obvious. 32 Nd2 Threatening to take the B defending g2. 33.Ra3? I would have played 33.f3. 33 Nxf1 34.Rf3 Presumably trying to threaten 34.Rxf7 sometime. 34 Nd2 35.Rg3 Defends against mate on g2, but 35 Qxg2+ Can you calculate this to the end? 36.Rxg2 Nf3+ 37.Kf1 Nxh4 38.Bxh4 Bxg2+ 39.Kxg2 Nf4+ 40.Kf1 Rxe1+ Kxe1 41.Ng2+ Ke2 42.Nxh A bad game from Max but in the next position he is doing much better, and should probably already have won the game earlier. Material is even but White is tied down to defence and his King is exposed. All it should require is for Black to place his Page 4

5 pieces on the correct squares to finish off White. Can you do better than Max? Dzhumaev, v Illingworth Black to Play. Max chose 58 Nh7 59.Qe4 Qc1 60.Qe1 Bh6 61.Qe8+ Nf8 62.Qb8 and the game was eventually drawn. Instead he could have played 58 Ng4 59.Bxg4 Be5 60.Kg2 (if 60.Rh1 b1=q wins) 60 Qxg4+ 61.Kf1 and Black wins the h pawn with a comfortable win. The next position was a little strange. It s Black to move and this is the final position of the game but was it a draw or did White win? S.Mamedyarov v H.Nakamura (see diagram at top of next column) Black to Play. The answer is that Black resigned. see if you can work out why. After 1 Rf2 2.Rxf7+ Rxf7 3.Bxf7 Kxf7 4.Kd5 Ke7 5.Ke5 Kf7 6.Kd6 Kg7 7.Ke7 Kh7 8.Kf7 Kh8 9.Kxg6 Kg8 10.Kf8 Kh7 and wins. The next position shows Anton Smirnov in action. Can you match his tactical flair? First off what did White play here? White to Play. 1.Nf4 Aiming to go to the ideal square d5. 1 Bh4 2.Nd5 Bf2. It now took Anton 23 seconds to find the winning move. Can you? 3.Nc7 Qe7 4.Ne6+ Nxe6 5.Qxe5+ Qf6 6.Qxb8 and White won comfortably. Page 5

6 Positional Play by IM Robert Jamieson Knight Times October 2014 What is positional play? I like to think of it as the accumulation of small advantages - such as more space, a better bishop or better pawn structure. Of course during a game tactics will always trump positional play, but that does not mean that we should ignore it. We need to be aware of positional considerations as the game goes on and to choose our moves accordingly. Let me give you an example by Tigran Petrosian, the World Champion from Leningrad Tigran Petrosian Viktor Korchnoi Dutch Defence, Stonewall 1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 f5 The Dutch defence has a slightly dubious reputation, perhaps because it opens up the Black King a bit. 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 d5 5.O-O Bd6 6.c4 c6 Black has opted for the static stonewall variation which is solid but saddles him with a bad white-squared bishop and a hole on e5. How should White exploit this set-up? 7.b3 O-O 8.Ba3 White s idea of course is to swap darksquared bishops and leave Black very weak on the black squares. 8 Bxa3 9.Nxa3 Qe8 Black is planning a kingside attack but neglects to develop his queenside pieces. 10.Nc2 It is important not to leave the N offside on a3 out of the action but where is the N going? 10 Qh5 11.Qc1 Ne4 12.Nce1 Heading for the hole on e5. 12 g5 13.Nd3 Nd7 14.Nfe5 Kh8 15.f3 Pushing back Black s best placed piece. 15 Nd6 16.e4? Perhaps 16.Qa3 Nf7 17.Qe7 would have caused Black immediate difficulties note the weak dark squares. 16 Nf7 17.cxd5 Ndxe5 18.dxe5 cxd5 19.exd5 exd5 Now Black is saddled with a weak d pawn to add to his problems. 20.f4 Activating the B and KR in one go. 20 Rd8 21.Qc7 Tying up the Black forces to defending each other. 21 b6 22.fxg5 Ba6 Page 6

7 23.Nf Why did Black resign? After 23 Qxg5 24.Qxf7 Bxf1 25.Rxf1 White has a winning position, but even better is 24.Rfe1 threatening Qxf7, Ne6 and Bxd5 making resigns a blessed relief for Black. Summary: Note how White exploited Black s weakness on the dark squares and the hole on e5 and managed to get his pieces working whereas Black was trying to attack (without justification) and never completed his development of the Queenside pieces. Learn from the Masters You can learn a lot by playing through the games of the great players and one of the very best was Capablanca. He generally played a simple, positional type of chess just accumulating small advantages and playing his opponent under pressure. I often use the following game in my lessons as it is a fine example of this approach. To get the most benefit from the game try covering up the moves and guessing Capablanca s next move. Havana, 1913 Jose Raul Capablanca Rafael Blanco Estera French: Rubinstein, 4 Nd7 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.Ne5 Bd6 8.Qf3 c6 9.c3 O-O 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Bd3 Ne8 12.Qh3 f5 (now Black has a very weak pawn on e6) 13.Bxe7 Qxe7 (and also a very bad B) 14.O-O Rf6 15.Rfe1 Nd6 16.Re2 (White just builds up on the e file) 16 Bd7 17.Rae1 Re8 18.c4 (now White gains space and plans to break on the e file) Nf7 (see diagram) 19.d5 Nxe5 20.Rxe5 g6 21.Qh4 Kg7 22.Qd4 (centralising the Q on a good square - now watch how Capa uses pins to gain victory) c5 23.Qc3 b6 24.dxe6 Bc8 25.Be2 (the great players know how to reposition their pieces) 24 Bxe6 26.Bf3 Kf7 27.Bd5 Qd6 28.Qe3 Re7 (Black is tied up but everything is defended so Capa switches the attack) 29.Qh6 Kg8 30.h4 a6 31.h5 f4 32.hxg6 hxg6 (time for tactics - can you spot White s winning combination?) 33.Rxe6 1-0 Black Resigned (After 33 Rexe6, 34.Rxe6 Rxe6 35.Qxg6+ wins). Page 7

8 Perhaps I m old fashioned but I still believe that knights should be placed in the middle of the board. A friend of mine who is a strong player disagrees and constantly plays moves like Nh3 or Nh6 despite my protestations. Perhaps Max Chew Lee is a disciple of his as I couldn t but help grimacing on Max s placement of his pieces in the following game. Box Hill Grades, 2014 Max Chew Lee Eamonn O'Molloy Danish Gambit: Sorensen Defence Keep your eyes open and follow the adventures of White s knights.. 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 d5 4.Qxd4 dxe4 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8 6.Bc4 f5 7.Nh3 F3 is unavailable so h3 looks like an OK option. 7...Nc6 8.O-O Bd6 9.Rd1 Bd7 10.Na3 Again, the ideal square c3 is unavailable so the N so we have the pretty picture of both Ns on the side of the board a6 11.Bf4 Bxf4 12.Nxf4 Kc8 13.Ne6 g6 14.Nc5 Nf6 15.Nxd7 Nxd7 16.Be6 Ne5 17.Rd5 Re8 18.Rxe5 Kb8 19.Bxd7 Missing 19.Rxe4 first Rxe5 And now we have R+P v B+N... who will win? 20.Rd1 Ka7 21.Ba4 b5 22.Bb3 Re7 23.c4 Of course White should have played N-c2- e3 but maybe the N is happy on the edge? 23...Kb6 24.Nc2 c6 25.a4 Kc7 26.cxb5 axb5 27.axb5 cxb5 28.Nd4 Kb6 29.Nc6 Rc7 30.Nb4 Kc5 31.Nd5 Where to put your knights by IM Robert Jamieson (see diagram) Oh dear. Instead of setting up a blockade with Nc2 White goes for a one move attack which allows Black to seize the initiative Rca7 32.Rc1+ Kd6 33.Nc3 Ra1 34.Nb1 Is this poetic justice? The N returns to it's original square Rc8 35.Rd1+ Ke5 36.g3 Kf6 37.Kg2 g5 38.Rd6+ Kg7 39.Nc3 g4 40.Rd7+ Kg6 41.Rd6+ Kg7 42.Be6 Rc5 Now that White has his N on the correct square (c3) he can win the game with 43.Rd5 Instead he takes another course. 43.h3? Now e3 wins b4 So where should the N go? 44.Na2 Nd1 of course, when 44...Rcc1 45.Bb3 is equal, but White so loves putting his Ns on the edge he couldn't help himself e3 Now it gets ugly Nxb4 gxh3+ 46.Kf3 h2 47.Rd7+ Kh6 48.Bg8 h1=q+ 49.Ke2 Qe1+ 50.Kf3 Qxf2# So in the end the R+P triumphed over the N +B. Maybe the N was too tired from it s lengthy manoeuvres Page 8