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IM Vladislav Akselrod
Exclusively for Pogonina.com
On a separate note.
Let me disappoint the horny readers by the following disclaimer: this article is about chess. A person with a perverted fantasy may literally experience such a pleasure, but with THAT level of imagination one doesn't need to read articles at all.
Back to the point.
A little bit about myself. Peter Zhdanov relates to my activity as "specific attitude towards chess". Others use different terms, but I prefer Peter's wording.
For example, I like finding generalizations of notions that seem to be unconnected to each other: cola and meat (both are edible), school and street (both can teach you something), chess and life (can't be explained within the boundaries of a single article).
I particularly like this process
Similarly, I love finding the difference between seemingly identical notions.
A sniper and a person carrying a rifle, move pieces and play chess
It's important to keep in mind that logical constructions should have real life applications.
Let's consider two notions: Love and Sex.
All adults believe they know what Love and Sex is. Some consider them to be synonymous, while others (including me) think that there is a great difference between the meaning of these two words.
IMHO the key difference between Love and Sex is that in the one case a constant result is vital, while in the other it is about the quality of the result. As for me, the difference is great. And what about you?
Now let's switch to chess.
Let me start off with a simple example.
Once in a local park my opponent was trying to flag me one game after another (the odds was 5 minutes to 1 in his favor). Then he became unsatisfied with the results and demanded a 5 min vs 30 seconds handicap! I have simply removed the board altogether and set up the requested time control on the clock. Why use a chess board at all in this case? The one who wins on flag wins the game. I was especially delighted by observing the faces of passer-byes who were confusedly staring at two idiots, both of whom were passionately hitting the clock. Frankly speaking, the show didn't last long: a friend of mine came along, and I resigned. While I believe my behavior was right, I am still somewhat sad as I believe I could have still beaten the dude even in this "game".
Please keep your associations and suggestions on how this game could be named to yourself. I will act likewise.
Now a more complicated example:
You won two games. The first one - after a terrible blunder by your opponent in a position where you were lost; #2 - after a complicated positional struggle you won with a brilliant mating combination. Would you consider these two wins to be equal?
Or here is another situation (#3): your plan was deep, decisions - excellent. You got a winning position and...blundered a mate in 1 in time trouble. How would you evaluate this case?
Which game would you like most - 1, 2 or 3?
My personal favorite is 4 a game which I lost, although I played one of the best games (in terms of quality) in my life.
Btw, recently I expressed my gratitude for a worthy lesson at the board to my opponent after the game, and he was genuinely surprised! Now it was my turn to become surprised.
To sum it all up, I would like to say that, if I am not confusing things, the argument between quality and essence has been going on since the ancient Greece, when one fraction of mathematicians was claiming that two different identities (e.g. an elephant and a fly) can't be expressed by the same number - 1.
Now you know which party prevailed.
On the other hand, sages from the East used to say that lack of action is also an activity.
Any by far not the most passive.
So can 0 sometimes be more than 1?
Or is "a dead lion worse than a living dog"?
You can book a chess lesson with International Master Vladislav Akselrod (FIDE 2431) at
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Candidate master Peter Zhdanov's column at Pogonina.com
When I found out that SGSU will be holding the Rector Cup, I realized the field is going to be tough. That is an interesting challenge. Usually the tournament was a Swiss open, but this time the organizers opted for a round robin with 10 players. Until the very start I wasn't sure if I will be included in the list of participants or not, but finally the matter was settled in my favor.
Let me tell you right away that I had to drop out (for the first time in my life) from the Cup after round 4. Chess requires too much energy and motivation to play it while being burdened by work-studying-other issues. Well, you can try, but the result will probably be far from the desired.
In the first round I had a feeling of deja vu. Candidate master Borisovsky (2129) again, Black again. Our last chess fight ended in a draw in July.
Earlier Viktor played Nf3 and Rb1. Here he went Rb1 right away. How would you respond?
Later I found out that Black can try b6, Nd7, Bd5 and a few other moves. I chose the natural Bg7. During home analysis I have also found an interesting novelty 8c5!?, that leads to a sharp and double-edge game.
How should Black play? Do sacrifices on d4 work out?
Sacrificing the bishop is dubious. Disposing of the knight is a better idea, but I guess it's also not completely sound. In my opinion, I chose the best continuation - Qd7, reminding White about the vulnerability of the queen on a4.
Evaluate the position and suggest a move for Black.
I was quite proud of my little exchange operation and started convincing myself that I am better. On the contrary, my intuition was telling me that I should resort to the modest Nd4 with a more or less equal position. Anyway, I played a weak aggressive move Nd4.
Evaluate the position and suggest a move for Black.
I thought my position was lost anyway and decided to gamble. In the reality Black could have played Bf6, traded the b pawn for the a pawn, and White would have had difficulties converting the extra exchange.
White was somewhat careless. How should Black play now?
In time trouble I played Qc7? and lost quickly. A better move was Kg7.
37...Qc7? [37...Kg7 38.Re8 Qc7 39.Qd5 b3 40.Qe5+ Qxe5 41.Rxe5 Kf6 42.Re2 h5 43.Kg2 and Black can probably escape after exchanging the b pawn for the d-passer] 38.Qd5 b3?? 39.Rf1 10
This year's European Club Cup will take place in Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia from Sept. 24 to Oct. 2. In the men's section 65 teams from 37 countries will be competing for the trophy, while the women's section features 12 teams from 9 countries. The format is a 7-round Swiss tournament.
Don't miss this event, as it will feature most of the world's top players. Here are the team compositions for the top-3 rating favorites:
In this article a popular pawn structure will be reviewed: when White has pawns on e5 and d4, and Black on e6 and d5. It is typical of the Caro-Cann, French Defense, and can occur in other variations as well. For example, in the following game it happened in the Catalan.
For White
The aggressive e5-d4 pawn structure implies that White will be playing for an attack on the Black king (usually located on the kingside). White has a space advantage on the kingside, thus having more maneuverability. In the French Defense, when Blacks light-squared bishop is immobilized by the pawn on e6, White sometimes sacks the bishop on h7 and/or puts a piece on f6 to break up the pawn shield of the king. If Black tries to undermine Whites pawn chain by f6, White can exploit the weakness of the pawn on e6 and try to capture the e5-outpost.
Whites activity isnt limited to the kingside only. It is also possible to play on the queenside by capturing the c-file and/or creating a pawn march. One can also combine the ideas and play on both sides of the board simultaneously. For instance, the rook on c3 can either take part in the attack on the Black king via the third rank, or, after doubling rooks, put pressure on the queenside.
For Black
Black has two main scenarios. One is to play on the queenside where, due to the d5 pawn, one has c4 under control. A pawn attack; capturing the c-file; playing with the light pieces (e.g. light-squared bishop+knight). Another idea is to undermine the White pawn structure by playing f6: the rook on f8 becomes active, and if White plays ef, Black can put some pressure on the isolated d-pawn. The drawbacks of this plan have been discussed earlier: e6 becomes a target, but it isnt that easy for White to take advantage of this fact.
As the pawns are placed on light squares, the corresponding bishops mobility may be limited. In the Caro-Cann this problem is solved by transferring the bishop to the h7-b1 diagonal; in the French Defense the a6-f1 diagonal, or it can stay on d7 and support the e6 -pawn (after f6), or it can appear on the h7-b1 or h5-d1 diagonals via e8 after f6.
Generally speaking, this pawn structure leads to a complicated double-edged struggle, which requires a good positional understanding.
To give you an illustration for this topic, I would like to show you a game from the 11 Russian Superfinal against Valentina Gunina.
Photo by WGM Anna Burtasova, russiachess.org
My maneuvers on the queenside turned out to be unsuccessful, so I had to resort to f6 in a situation far from optimal. White played somewhat carelessly and let the advantage slip away. At some point I was totally winning, but missed a chance to finish the game on the spot and traded into a winning endgame, which I failed to convert in time trouble.
Chess fans are used to the fact that after his retirement Garry Kasparov tends to avoid top-level competition and prefers to play pay-per-game matches against amateurs, or hold simuls for sub-2000 rated players that end in perfect wipeouts.
Nonetheless, on September 17th the French Chess Champion'10 Laurent Fressinet (2696, #51 in the world) faced the reigning French Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2715, #29 in the world) in a mini-blitz 5m+3s/move match. The first two encounters ended in a draw, and Maxime prevailed in the Armageddon with Black. The lucky winner of the match got to face Garry Kasparov himself!
This was a moment when dreams came true, as in 2010 Maxime replied in the following way to our question on whom he would like to challenge in a chess match: I'd first think of Jessica Alba (I really don't know why, but many guys immediately think of her when it comes to this stuff) :) Else Kasparov, because he's retired so I guess I won't get so many occasions to play against him.
Kasparov lived up to the expectations of his numberless fans. He won with White in the Moscow Sicilian in 59 moves, and drew with Black in the Ruy Lopez in 49 moves, thus beating one of the world's top blitz players 1.5-0.5. Maybe this will inspire Garry to compete against the world's chess stars more often?!
