Improve Your Chess in 7 Days E-Book

Gary Lane

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 214

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

No time to study but want to win more chess games? "Improve Your Chess in 7 Days" is packed with practical tips, hints on how to improve, learn from the champions and find out how to beat them - in just a week. With one short chapter for each day of the week, the book is ideal for social chess players and includes a sprinkling of chess cartoons to keep you smiling as you read. With comments and advice after each move, this is as clear a guide to improving your chess as you will ever need.

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Improve your Chess in 7 Days

Gary Lane

BATSFORD

First published in the United Kingdom in 2007 by

Batsford

10 Southcombe Street

London W14 0RA

An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd

Copyright © Batsford 2007

Text copyright © Gary Lane

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

First eBook publication 2013 ISBN 9781849941310 Also available in paperback ISBN 9781849941310

This book can be ordered direct from the publisher at the website

www.anovabooks.com, or try your local bookshop.

Contents

Introduction

Day 1 – So you want to improve your chess?

Day 2 – Understanding the openings

Day 3 – Strategy versus tactics

Day 4 – Creating an attack

Day 5 – Avoiding blunders

Day 6 – Mastering the endgame

Day 7 – The art of swindling

Moving on

Glossary of chess terms

Dedication

For Ryan and Jasmine

Acknowledgements

With thanks to François Mertens, Jon Manley and chess historian Edward Winter for their help in providing material for the book.

Introduction

The chessboard consists of 64 squares on an 8x8 board. You should make sure that the board is set up correctly by checking that the square on the bottom right hand corner (looking at it from the White player’s point of view) is light-coloured, which tends to mean white, yellow or beige on most sets.

Each piece is represented by a figurine in commentaries on chess games

– Pawn

– Knight or N

– Bishop or B

– Rook or R

– Queen or Q

– King or K

The move of a piece is recorded by the symbol/letter of that piece followed by the square to which it moves. Thus f3 means that the bishop has moved to the f3 square. In case of a pawn move only the square on which it lands needs to be recorded, for example e4 means a pawn has moved from somewhere to the e4 square. A capture is denoted by an ‘x’. Thus xb7 means the queen has taken something on the b7 square – and fxe5 means that the f-pawn has captured something on e5.

Characters that have a special meaning in chess

?! A dubious move

? A poor move

?? A blunder that loses material or allows a change in the position such as from winning to losing.

!? Interesting move

! Excellent move

!! Brilliant move

+ Check. At the end of the move. For instance: e2+

0-0 castling kingside

0-0-0 castling queenside

½-½ Draw agreed

1-0 White wins

0-1 Black wins

Day 1So you want to improve your chess?

Chess Trivia – At Brighton chess club in England during the 1930s, a Mrs Sydney was allowed to bring her dog along – but only if the dog joined the club. Later, the dog, called Mr.Mick, was mistakenly picked for the club’s second team. He lost on time....

Chess is fun but it is even more fun when you win!

Though most people will never have enough time to devote to a deep study of chess, it is still possible for anyone to make rapid and significant advances in the game. For example, one way to achieve better results is simply to cut down on your own mistakes while grabbing any opportunity to exploit those of your opponent. Easier said than done, perhaps, but you can train yourself to reach a higher standard by adopting the right attitude.

There is no shortage of chess playing sites on the internet but you should resist the temptation only to play games without thinking and at breakneck speed – and thereby learn absolutely nothing. In fact my first words of advice to a friend who wanted to improve was to stop playing for a while. I wanted him to study chess a little before playing again and also record his games so that he could analyse the moves later with plenty of time to think or consult a computer to check on possible mistakes. He had fallen into the trap of playing games on the internet where speed was often more important than accuracy and purposeful play. Sometimes it did not matter if he was losing on position – so long as he won on time. He had also been playing offhand games occasionally against the same group of players at the local club, where he had not only picked up bad habits but also failed to identify and learn from his mistakes. Nevertheless his curiosity in chess was further aroused when he discovered there were chess openings with weird and wonderful names such as the Frankenstein-Dracula Attack or the Dragon and great chessplayers such as Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. However real improvement came only when he started to make plans. This, together with a knowledge of simple opening principles, a grasp of tactical themes and key strategies in the most regularly occurring endgames really did produce results. It may sound too good to be true but with a little guidance players of every level really can make rapid improvement at chess.

How many moves do you think ahead?

This is the question chessplayers are most frequently asked by nonchessplayers – and our suggested answer is seven. Sure, you could try to impress everyone by saying that the number of moves depends on whether the position is a highly complex middlegame or a mathematically precise pawn endgame with few pieces on the board – but why bother? True or false, seven is a good choice. It’s a magical number – and chess is truly a magical game. And there is no need to feel guilty about the fact that really you can only see one move ahead, whatever the position. History will provide you with reassurance and comfort. As long ago as 1946 the New York magazine Chess Review related what happened when former world champion José Capablanca had just lost a game – which always caused a sensation because it was such a rare occurrence: in fact during one period of his career he didn’t lose for eight years – ‘Apropos is the story of the game between the invincible Capablanca and Charles Jaffe, pride of the East Side. Capa forgot he was invincible: he lost. A reporter who was present asked the Cuban, “How far do you see ahead?” Capa replied impressively, “About ten moves”. Then the reporter went over to Jaffe: “How far do you see ahead?” Much to everyone’s surprise, the reply was, “Only one move”. This didn’t make sense. “How could a player who can see only one move ahead defeat another who can delve so deeply?” Here Jaffe explained: “I see only one move ahead, but it is always the best move”.’

Choose the right move

Many attempts have been made to provide players with a procedure for selecting the best move – some of which I find contrived and even impractical. So here I will provide you with very simple but effective steps to encourage you to think before you move. However be under no illusions. It is very difficult to control events on the chessboard – which is a wild world where more often than not in the rough and tumble of play “the winner is the player who makes the last but one mistake” as the witty grandmaster Savielly Tartakower once proclaimed.

But you will see an immediate difference in your play if you remember the following:

1 Tactics and predict-a-move

A forcing combination cuts down on calculation – giving you less to think about while you increase the pressure on your opponent. When there are fewer options it is easier to predict the replies, thus enabling you to set a trap with our method and score a quick win if your opponent falls into it.

2 Which alternative?

On the chessboard you will see any number of decent looking moves – so make a shortlist of alternatives by asking yourself the following questions:

Do I need to develop my forces and castle my king into safety?

Is there a threat?

Can I make a threat?

3 Positional needs

Are any of my pieces not taking part in the action – if so how can I move them to better squares?

4 Stick to the plan

Be consistent in your approach. If you think up a plan, stay with it – do not trot out a few moves and then get distracted or abandon it at the first sign of counterplay by your opponent.

5 Stop yourself from making a mistake

Decide on a move but be on the look out for possible danger coming your way, for example:

a) Checks that start a forcing combination against you.

b) Threats to your pieces.

c) Threats of checkmate to your king.

Why bother with tactics?

Tactics are the most spectacular aspect of chess – but not so difficult to learn. They are also the most effective way of deciding a game – either by winning pieces or checkmating the opponent’s king.

Trying to work out test positions found in newspaper columns and books can improve your tactical awareness and calculation. It is wrong to assume that solving these puzzles is useless because you are not likely to get those exact positions in your own games. The key to successful attacking play is to

a) Learn the various combinational motifs

b) Learn to identify them when they arise in your own games

This theme will be explored later but a couple of examples spring to mind:

Vallejo Pons – Perelshteyn

World Junior Championship, Yerevan 1999

There is a lot of activity from both sides in this position but White spotted a tactic called in chess parlance a skewer. He gave up a rook by 33b3 upon which Black suddenly resigned because he saw that after the forced 33...xb3 – otherwise his queen is lost – there follows 34 b8+ a5 35 xb3 winning the queen and the game.

At first sight this might seem difficult to spot but it will not take long for the motif to stick in your mind and you will be able to notice the possibility of such combinations – and deliver the mortal blow – in your own games. For instance:

Pintor – Leite

Aveiro 2002

In this position, knowledge of the previous game will help you to find 38g8! when 38...xg8 39 a8+ c7 40 xg8 leaves White with a winning material advantage.

How to bluff

You would think that it is only the pieces that do the talking in chess. But this is not so. Various forms of psychology are also used at both amateur and master level and are an accepted feature of competitive play. Indeed such ploys can save you from defeat or even completely turn the tables in a desperate situation. A hapless opponent will probably have no idea of what you are up to as he falls headlong into the psychological trap.

Emms – Ryan

Isle of Man 2003

Here the English grandmaster playing White noticed that his opponent had started to repeat moves by ...h4+. So he took the opportunity to get up and stretch his legs with seemingly not a care in the world and the expectation of a shared point by threefold repetition of moves. Well, that’s what he wanted his opponent to believe – and he did! Ryan peacefully ended the game with 37...h4+ 38h3f4+ 39hg3h4+ and a draw was agreed.

However this was all a cunning ploy by the grandmaster who knew the position was completely lost and his walkabout would put pressure on his opponent to waste no more time but agree a draw. And so he did not have the time to find 37...f1-f3! when White actually intended to resign because of the follow up 38...h4+ 39 g1 xg3 winning a rook. And 38 g6 protecting the rook also fails to 38...h4+ 39 g1 f1 mate.

I asked John Emms immediately after the game how he came up with this clever ruse and he replied: “Some years ago I was playing an American grandmaster when I had a chance to repeat moves. At that very moment my opponent got up and went for a leisurely walk....”

Understanding the openings

It is always useful to vary your opening moves in accordance with the opponent you are playing. It would be foolish to try something completely different – a line in which you have absolutely no experience – but in this era of computer databases a surprise variation can confuse an opponent who has just spent an hour memorising opening moves to play against you but has had no time to understand the opening.

In Chapter Two I suggest that to beat a strong player you don’t have to raise your game to the level of a world champion and carry out an amazing sacrificial attack, admirable though that may be. Instead I propose a safe opening – but one with the potential to irritate an opponent who will go to any lengths to avoid a draw. In the following game I found myself in just such a situation against a Hungarian grandmaster so played the psychology card – realising that a solid opening would frustrate him because he could not afford to concede a draw if he wanted to challenge for the top prizes:

Lane – Flesch

London 1983

1 e4 c5 2 c3

This pawn push is a solid reply to the Sicilian Defence and has the basic aim of creating a big pawn centre with d2-d4.

2...d5 3 exd5xd5

Black doesn’t mind exposing his queen in the middle of the board because the pawn on c3 prevents White from attacking it by c3 – and gaining time in the process.

4 d4 e6 5f3f6 6e2!?

This departure from the usual 6 d3 appeared to startle my opponent but he continued to rattle out his moves at lightning speed.

6...e7 7 0-0 0-0 8 c4f5?!

On such an exposed square the queen is clearly a potential target but the grandmaster wants to exploit the fact that my bishop is on e2, and not d3, to keep queens on the board. But in doing so Black is already showing signs of recklessness. Objectively, 8...d8 is correct and would lead to a middlegame battle or an exchange of queens after 9 dxc5 xc5 10 xd8 (10 c3 gives White a slight edge) 10...xd8 11 c3. However a level endgame is not what the grandmaster wants – this is an Open tournament and he needs a win.

9c3d8??

Played without hesitation because the grandmaster assumed the rook on the d-file would force me to defend the d4 pawn. This lack of patience is typical of top players who compete non-stop in tournaments and feel the need to wrap up games against lesser opponents as quickly as possible.

10h4!

Whoops! Only now does it become apparent that the black queen is lost. The one try is 10...xd4 but 11 xf5 xd1 12 xe7+ f8 13 xd1 xe7 leaves him a rook down. A painful lesson for the grandmaster who on move eight should have reconciled himself to a long struggle.

1-0

Strategy versus tactics

Short and sharp tactics are the icing on the cake in chess but sometimes a slower approach is needed – taking your time to prepare a situation where you can attack. This is the time when you need to play positional chess.

What is it? Well, when there is no obvious way of attacking the opponent and there are no threats coming your way – Positional chess is the art of improving your own position whilst weakening that of your opponent.

Once you have achieved sufficient positional superiority always remain on the look out for checks, captures and other threats – they can help you win more games:

Sulskis – Nick Pert

Port Erin 2003

White has massive positional superiority with two pawns on the seventh rank just itching to promote to a queen. He now switched to pure tactics and found an ingenious way to win:

28xa8 A queen sacrifice but there are two new queens on the way! 28...xa8 29 c8=+xc8 30xc8+xc8 31 a8=xa8 32xa8+ with a winning material advantage.

This is all very well, you say – but surely the same theme of vacating a square for a pawn couldn’t happen again? No, that is not true. The following position should encourage you to learn the tactical motifs and practice spotting them in practical play.

McShane – Richard Pert

British Team Championship (4NCL) 2004

A ‘twin’ to the previous position – moreover Nick’s twin brother had learned the lesson taught by Sulskis to produce an uncannily similar queen sacrifice 34...xa1 after which White resigned rather than face 35 xa1 c1= when Black has a winning material advantage. So you too can be a brilliant player – just remember combinational patterns.

Creating an attack

A positive mental attitude may be enough to launch an attack right out of the opening but it is more likely that you will first need good positional play to kick start the onslaught.

Lane – Reilly

Australian Open 1999

1 e4 d6

This advance of the d-pawn heralds the Pirc Defence which allows White to construct a big pawn centre, only for Black to attack it later on with blows from his own pawns – and with cooperation from his dark- squared fianchettoed bishop which is bearing down on the d4 and e5 squares.

2 d4

And White does indeed take the opportunity to occupy the centre because his pawns control important squares and provide his pieces with room for manoeuvre.

2...f6 3c3 g6 4e3g7 5d2

No secret. I am not hiding the fact that I intend to play e3-h6 to exchange Black’s important bishop which can be used for both attack and defence. The next part of my plan is to castle queenside and then advance the kingside pawns to open lines in pursuit of the black king.

5...c6 6h6xh6 7xh6

Now the queen is on the h6 square it prevents Black from sliding his king to safety by castling kingside.

7...c5?

Black is keen to distract White from his kingside attacking plans and starts a counterattack on the pawn centre. However moving the pawn twice in the opening loses time and will be severely punished. Instead 7...a5 should have been considered.

8 dxc5 dxc5 9 e5d5

The knight moves out of danger. After 9...g4, 10 g7 forces Black to move the rook to f8 after which 11 h3 traps the knight.

10 0-0-0

The knight on d5 is now pinned by the rook – if it moves away the black queen will be whisked off the board by the rook.

10...e6

If he protects the knight by 10...e6 then White will increase the pressure with 11 c4 and look forward to winning a whole knight.

11c4c6 12xd5 exd5 13xd5

Even more important than winning the pawn is the fact that I have gained control of the f6 square. The early exchange of dark-squared bishops has left Black defenceless against a knight invasion.

13...a5

Getting out of the way, otherwise f6+ would uncover a discovered attack on the queen by the rook on d1.

14g7

Resisting the temptation to play 14 f6+ because there is a mating combination.

14...f8 15f6 1-0

Though my opponent resigned, a spectating fellow-competitor insisted that Black should have carried on and played 15...e6. However he was left blushing after being shown 16 e7+! sacrificing the queen for a checkmate after 16...xe7 17 f6.

Now you might think that is a very difficult checkmate to spot because the queen sacrifice to mate with a knight looks crazy and would not even be considered by most players. But this is not the case – once you have seen the motif you can remember it and win with it again and again:

Clemenz – Eisenschmidt

Dorpat 1862

I suspect you will find the spectacular move has now become rather obvious. Yes – the solution is 1f7+xf7 2e6 mate.

If you are still doubtful that you can train yourself to see such moves then have a go at the following position, taken from a game played over a century later:

Hall – King

Norrkoping 1988

The move that was hailed as a brilliancy at the time is 1g7+ but by now it should be clear to you that it is possible to master the art of seeing such moves. 1...xg7 is met by 2h6 mate.

Avoiding blunders

The clock

Have you ever heard the complaint: “I was two pawns up but lost on time”, giving the impression that it wasn’t really fair and not that player’s fault? The truth however is somewhat different. Nowadays proper handling of the chess clock is an essential part of the game and needs to be taken seriously. There are ways to cope with time-trouble but it is far better to take measures to avoid such a situation altogether. I too have had personal experiences of the dangers of time pressure – which induces blunders that would not normally occur and in an instant can ruin a game that has been carefully nurtured for hours:

Lane – Van Laatum

Belgian Team Championship 1997

This is from an important game which, had I won, would have put my team at the top of the division. Now I was fairly sure I had made the required 40 moves but to be on the safe side and to put all the anxious spectators’ minds at ease I decided to make one more move. My opponent has just allowed me to play 41 xb7 but after a moment’s glance it looked somewhat murky after 41...e1+ 42 h2 f4+. So I thought – why not stop the bothersome check?

41f2??

Yes, anything can happen in time-trouble.

41...xg2 mate

This was played with a loud thud – at which point my team-mates blurted out something in French that sounded like a howl of anguish! So I know from bitter experience the perils of allowing my judgment to be clouded by time-trouble.

Mastering the endgame

Why bother learning more about the endgame when most players know so little about it anyway? Well, as you make progress it is natural to pick up more and more information – and having a few guidelines may help you to score a few more extra points. As they say: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing:

Orr – Vajda

Chess Olympiad, Bled 2002

Playing the white pieces is an Irish player who would have been happy to have made his Romanian grandmaster opponent sweat a little longer but who thought it was now time to bow to the inevitable and agree a draw. I was watching the finish and remember Vajda using psychology to great effect – keeping a straight face and looking remarkably confident.

63 a8=+g1 64g8+ ½-½

When White offered a draw, Vadja’s eyebrows almost jumped up in the air with surprise and his hand shot out for the customary final handshake. As a general rule it is a good idea to make the big guy suffer by playing on in such positions – after all it is difficult to see several moves ahead and you may have missed some hidden winning idea. Moreover if you cannot see how you could possibly lose then why not carry on in such endgames until you have fully satisfied yourself that it really is a draw? Mark Orr is a useful player who must have vaguely remembered that queen versus h-pawn is a draw and – with a large group of spectators gathered around his board – assumed he was wasting the grandmaster’s time. But in fact this was not the case. On the contrary we were wondering why the grandmaster was carrying on because crucially the h-pawn is not sufficiently advanced to draw the game.

Play continued 64...h1 If 64...h2 then 65 g4 wins the pawn because the king must move away from its defence. 65d5+g1 65...h2 loses to 66 f3. 66d4+h1 Or 66...g2 67 g4+ h2 68 f3 and Black must lose the pawn. Now the big difference with having the pawn on h3 is revealed:

67f2!

This is what White missed when he agreed to a draw. If the pawn were already on h2 then Black could use it as a device for stalemate which would mean the position is drawn as f2 leaves Black without a legal move.

67...h2 68f1 mate

Now it would be quite a feat to see all this from the position where the draw was agreed – but White had nothing to lose and everything to gain by carrying on.

It should be emphasized that in the endgame it is equally important to look out for checks and threats. There are plenty of opportunities for checkmate or winning material but sometimes players become complacent:

Georgiev – Jakovenko

Wijk aan Zee 2007

The pawn on f7 looks rather ominous but Black has weaved a mating net and now played 50...f2! after which White resigned rather than face 51 g1 (51 fxe5 f4 mate) 51...xf4+ 52 g4 g5 mate.

The art of swindling

You must make your opponent work hard for victory even though all seems lost. A stunning sacrifice might give you a momentary thrill but if you resign five moves later it has hardly helped the cause. Therefore the key to a good swindle is to frustrate the winning side by putting as many obstacles in his way as possible. In chess the term swindle is used to describe how a lost position has been converted into a win or draw. Carrying off a swindle is a sign of resourceful play – as happened here:

Korchnoi – Krush

Gibraltar 2007

Black has been struggling and after playing 26...g6 the American women’s international must have been bracing herself for 27 f8+! when she would have probably resigned in view of 27...xf8 (also 27...g7 28 xd8 xd8 29 xc7+ is great for White) 28 d5 winning the queen. But instead ‘Viktor the Terrible’ lived up to his name by making a terrible blunder with 27f2?? 0-1