Friday, December 28, 2012

Tournament

I haven't been posting over the holiday as I've been on vacation, but I'm about to play a double round robin tournament in Michigan this weekend with:
Kevin Czuhai - 2200
Tony Nichols - 2109
Andy Catlin - 1963

I'll post my games and later analysis...

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Bad Sport

I actually look forward to poor sports because now I can call them out on my blog! The first player is: HermanSteiner. In this equal position where I am black, he played the blunder Rxa6.


After I played Bxb3! and won easily, he proceeds to tell me how lucky I was, calls me "luckyboy," etc.  HermanSteiner, I'm so sorry you blundered. If I'm lucky, ok, but at least I'm not the loser!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Beliavsky - Spassky, Baden 1980

Choose a move -- answers are in the comments. Note: sometimes moves might be equally good or bad.

Position #1
A) Ne6 B) d6 C) Bc6

Position #2
A) Ne6 B) d6 C) g6

Position #3
A) Qe5 B) Nxd5 C) Bxd5

Position #4
A) g5 B) d6 C) Rb4

Position #5
A) d5 B) Rc7 C) Rd7

Position #6
A) Qxh4 B) Rf6 C) Qc1+

Baden 1980

Baden
Vienna, 1980
Average Rating: 2528 (Category 12)
Player Rtng Score S B N B V S L S G S A M G V H J Perf Chg
1: Spassky, Boris V 2615 10.5 / 15 X 1 = = = = = = = = = 1 1 1 1 1 2672 +11
2: Beliavsky, Alexander G 2590 10.5 / 15 0 X = 1 = = 1 1 1 = 1 = = = 1 1 2673 +15
3: Nunn, John DM 2515 10.0 / 15 = = X = 1 = = = = = = 1 1 = 1 1 2654 +29
4: Byrne, Robert E 2530 9.0 / 15 = 0 = X = = = 1 = 1 = = = 1 = 1 2600 +14
5: Vaganian, Rafael A 2590 9.0 / 15 = = 0 = X 1 = 1 = = = = = = 1 1 2596 +0
6: Smejkal, Jan 2565 8.5 / 15 = = = = 0 X = = = = = 1 = = 1 1 2576 +2
7: Liberzon, Vladimir M 2545 8.0 / 15 = 0 = = = = X = = 0 1 1 0 1 = 1 2548 +0
8: Seirawan, Yasser 2510 8.0 / 15 = 0 = 0 0 = = X = = = = 1 1 1 1 2551 +9
9: Gheorghiu, Florin 2605 7.5 / 15 = 0 = = = = = = X = = = = 1 0 1 2523 -18
10: Stean, Michael 2530 7.0 / 15 = = = 0 = = 1 = = X = 0 = 0 = 1 2507 -6
11: Adorjan, Andras 2550 7.0 / 15 = 0 = = = = 0 = = = X = = = 1 = 2506 -11
12: Miles, Anthony J 2545 7.0 / 15 0 = 0 = = 0 0 = = 1 = X = = 1 1 2506 -9
13: Gligoric, Svetozar 2565 6.5 / 15 0 = 0 = = = 1 0 = = = = X 0 1 = 2476 -20
14: Van der Wiel, John TH 2465 6.0 / 15 0 = = 0 = = 0 0 0 1 = = 1 X 0 1 2461 +0
15: Hoelzl, Franz 2415 3.5 / 15 0 0 0 = 0 0 = 0 1 = 0 0 0 1 X 0 2325 -15
16: Janetschek, Karl 2325 2.0 / 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 = 0 1 X 2220 -14

120 games: +29 =67 -24

I spent an hour guessing the moves of the game between the two leaders: Beliavsky-Spassky. I'll post a multiple choice exercise based on the game.

Friday, December 14, 2012

How to draw a won game

Hilarious failure to convert in one of my recent games on the ICC:

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Amsterdam 1980

I'm going through some of the big tournaments throughout history and analyzing the decisive games of the winners. I have just reached the year 1980, which had the following major events: Amsterdam, Baden, Bad Kissingen, Buenos Aires, Bugojno, Dortmund, Hastings, Las Palmas, London, Soviet Championship, Tilburg, Vrbas, and Wijk aan Zee. I look at them in alphabetical order, so let's take a look at Amsterdam 1980.

Here is the Cross Table:

Amsterdam, 1980
Average Rating: 2582 (Category 14)
Player Rtng Score Ka Ti So Ho Ri Do Va La Perf Chg
1: Karpov, Anatoly 2725 10.0 / 14 XX == == =1 10 =1 11 11 2720 -1
2: Timman, Jan H 2600 9.0 / 14 == XX == =1 == =1 =1 1= 2682 +15
3: Sosonko, Gennadi 2545 8.0 / 14 == == XX == == == 1= =1 2637 +18
4: Hort, Vlastimil 2595 7.5 / 14 =0 =0 == XX =1 == 1= 1= 2609 +1
5: Ribli, Zoltan 2610 7.0 / 14 01 == == =0 XX 1= 01 10 2578 -7
6: Dolmatov, Sergey 2535 7.0 / 14 =0 =0 == == 0= XX 1= 11 2589 +11
7: Van der Wiel, John TH 2465 4.0 / 14 00 =0 0= 0= 10 0= XX 10 2441 -3
8: Larsen, Bent 2585 3.5 / 14 00 0= =0 0= 01 00 01 XX 2389 -36

56 games: +20 =29 -7

I can't really tell you about the history of this tournament, or anything like that. I wasn't even born yet. All I know is that these tournaments in Amsterdam were sponsored by or in some way affiliated with IBM. So, the winner was Karpov and he had 7 wins for me to look at. I'd like to share with you Karpov's win with the black pieces over Bent Larsen. Here is the decisive moment:

Question: White is to move - what is Black's threat?


Answer: 1...Rxe3 2.fxe3 Qxe3+ forking the king and rook.


White just played Nd4 attacking the queen.
Question: What is wrong with that move?

Answer: After 1...Bxd4 2.Bxd4 Qd2 Black has a triple attack.
Question: What are Black's three threats in that position?


Answer: 
1) The Black queen attacks the rook on c1
2) The Black queen attacks the bishop on d4
3) The Black rook threatens 1...Re1+ 2.Rxe1 Qxe1+ 3.Bf1 Ba6

So, if you saw from the diagrammed position: 1...Bxd4 2.Bxd4 Qd2 3.Qf4 Re1+ 4.Rxe1 Qxe1+ 5.Bf1 Ba6, good job because Bent Larsen missed it when he played Nd4.

Here is the complete game:

Fun with GM Kaidanov