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    How Good Is Your Chess?
    How Good Is Your Chess?
    How Good Is Your Chess?
    Ebook271 pages3 hours

    How Good Is Your Chess?

    By Daniel King

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Chess enthusiasts can sit down with 20 of the world's top players to answer the question posed by this instructive and amusing guide. Grandmaster Daniel King based How Good is Your Chess? on his popular Chess Monthly column. His easy-to-follow, test-yourself guide asks readers to predict their opponent's moves; points are awarded (or deducted) according to the readers' degree of success. In addition to helping players to judge their standard of play, it presents opportunities for improvement by providing a look at complete games and the chance to work out and study the plans and ideas of the experts. Algebraic notation used throughout
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateApr 30, 2012
    ISBN9780486148021
    How Good Is Your Chess?
    Author

    Daniel King

    Daniel L. King, PhD, MPsych (Clin), is a senior research fellow and registered clinical psychologist in the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed papers on the topic of digital technology-based problems, with a focus on video gaming and simulated gambling activities. He was a 2016 recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) on the topic of maladaptive gaming. He has received four national awards for research achievement, including the 2017 Paul Bourke Award from the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA). He was an invited attendee of the recent World Health Organization (WHO) meetings on the public health implications of gaming and inclusion of Gaming disorder in the ICD-11.

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      Book preview

      How Good Is Your Chess? - Daniel King

      1

      A Real Chessplayer

      It is a general trend in most sports that the leading players are becoming ever younger. In chess this is certainly the case. A recent arrival into the world top ten is the seventeen-year-old Russian, Vladimir Kramnik.

      In 1992, there was great surprise when, on Kasparov’s personal insistence, he was chosen as a member of the Russian team to play in the Olympiad — at that time he was virtually unknown outside his own country. His score of 8/9 totally vindicated the selection. Since then Kramnik has firmly established himself amongst the world’s leading players with powerful tournament results around the world.

      Kasparov has stated on several occasions that he considers Kramnik to be a future challenger for the world title: ‘He is definitely the number one talent. I think that he is the only player I have ever seen who does not play worse than I did when I was sixteen... he has a very good natural talent. And you know there is substance. Real chess substance. Many players they’re not playing chess, they’re playing moves. Kramnik is playing chess.’ Praise indeed.

      Kramnik’s opponent here is International Master Aloisys Kveinys from Lithuania.

      Kveinys-Kramnik

      Debrecen 1992

      Sicilian Defence

      1 e4 c5 2 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 5 6 e6 7 a6 8 0-0-0 h6 9 10 11 f3 12 e5 13 14 h4

      Start predicting Black’s moves now.

      Three points. Castling is a sensible move, but it was also possible to play more provocatively with 14... b5 (also three points).

      White’s knight shields the queenside and exerts strong influence over the critical square d5, so dislodging it with ... b5-b4 cannot be bad.

      Careless.

      Three points. This is a beautiful square for the bishop. It is covered from attack by the e5 pawn; protects thed5 square; and points menacingly in the direction of White’s king.

      Only one point for 16 ... b5, which has lost much of its power now that the king has side-stepped to b 1, and c2 is protected by the bishop.

      Six points. It seems curious to move the queen for the second time in the space of a few moves, but Kramnik has spotted a weakness in White’s position and seizes upon it immediately.

      !, a couple of moves back, covering the knight.)

      White has avoided the shattering of his queenside pawns, but Black still has a fierce attack.

      One point.

      Four points. Unleashing Black’s pieces. The queen cuts a lonely figure down on a2, so she desperately needs the rest of her army’s support if the attack is going to succeed.

      22 bxa3. While it is true that Black does not stand worse - he has a pawn for the exchange, a solid position, and White’s queenside pawns are split - a draw would be a likely result; and Kramnik wants more.

      . Black still has a strong attack, but in view of his own king’s slightly precarious situation, the outcome is not quite clear.

      How would you have replied to 22 fxe4 instead?

      . The b-pawn drops and White’s king finds itself in no-man’s -land between kingside and queenside.

      One point.

      Three points. Simple and good: Black’s last piece joins the attack.

      One point. Defending against the mate and attacking the bishop, so no time is lost.

      here?

      wins.

      ! giving back the exchange, but shutting out Black’s queen.

      One point.

      One point.

      One point.

      , then take an extra four points.

      Three points. As his queen and bishop are both attacked, Black must give back a piece, and this is the best way to do it.

      The material balance is roughly level (queen and pawn versus two rooks), but Black actually has an excellent position due to White’s exposed king and weak pawns. White’s real problem is that he has no attack of his own to counter Black’s initiative.

      One point. A good start. To protect the e-pawn, White must bring his king up the board.

      , further harrying the king, and ... b4, dislodging the bishop from its secure post.

      , the bishop’s position is still secure.

      , how would you have responded?

      , winning a second pawn and effectively ending the game.

      Two points. This is the surest way to continue the attack, moving the queen back towards the centre of the board and threatening ... b4, but 33 ... b4 (one point) was also reasonable.

      One point.

      Fourpoints. Highly unpleasant for White. The end of the game is a perfect illustration of the strength of the queen - an all-powerful compact unit - against a diffuse range of weaker pieces attempting to remain protected. The queen is able to zap around the board exploiting the slightest ‘looseness’ in the enemy position.

      Two points. Perfect timing: the bishop must retreat to a miserable square, relinquishing the protection of the b-pawn.

      mate. Two bonus points if you played it on the previous turn.

      .

      One point for this.

      mate. In view of this, White resigned.

      There were three phases to this game: the early middlegame, manoeuvring (moves 14 to 17); the attack on the king itself (moves 18-30); and the final kill (moves 31-40). To score well on the first phase, you need some previous knowledge of the Sicilian Defence. Experience would tell you where to position the pieces and which plan to go for; this has little to do with calculation, and even long-term planning, but rather it is the recognition of established patterns and groupings of pieces.

      In the second phase you have to look for forcing sequences of moves that bring an advantage, be it material or positional. This involves calculating (if X, then Y, etc.); but also being able to assess the resulting position accurately.

      Having liquidated into a position where he correctly assessed that he had a winning advantage, Kramnik finished the game off with great efficiency. The secret of good technique is simple: accurate calculation.

      2

      Precision Play

      The fight through to the final of the World Championship has brought out a sense of purpose in Nigel Short which was previously lacking. He concentrated all his efforts on the Candidates matches, preparing with a thoroughness which is perhaps customary in Eastern Europe, but is unknown to most other English chess professionals.

      A good example of his change in approach is his play in the opening. Whereas a few years ago his main aim in this phase of the game would have been to avoid a theoretical struggle, he now actively courts one.

      In a sense, Nigel has quite an extreme style. What I mean is, he demands a lot from the position - and he usually manages to get away with it because of his belief in the strategy, and of course his great strength. This game is typical. His opponent is Swedish grandmaster Ulf Andersson, one of the most solid players in the world.

      Short-Andersson

      Wijk aan Zee 1990

      Sicilian Defence

      1 e4 c5 2 3 d4 cxd4 4 g6 5 c4 6 d6 7 8 0-0 9 0-0 10 11 f4

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