Man, Gelfand stinks. I can't believe they still let him play World Cup events.

Don't they know he'll just end up qualifying for Candidates again and maybe win, again?

Stupid FIDE.

rollseyes.jpg

I have an opening question, in this position with black almost( by almost I mean 99% of the time) everybody plays b5 but I dont quite understand it because it weakens the c-pawn on a semi-open file. Im supposing black gets some initiave in exchange for the weakness.

valenzuela, you're right that the c-pawn is backward on a semi-open file, but it's only temporary. Black's plan in the next few moves is to play b5, a6, Bb7, (in some order) and then the c5 break, which not only makes the pawn non-backward, but it attacks white's center and opens the b7 bishop on the long diagonal. That's the central idea of playing the Semi-Slav as black. I'm no expert on the line (wlrs probably knows quite a bit more) and the theory can get really heavy and sharp, but that's the basic idea of ...b5 in that position.

Im going to play some games with d4 but aparently according to everybody unless you are a positional god you are going to suck at it. Im still going to give it a try.

I'm working on annotating Kasparov vs. Roizman Minsk 1978. I'm not exactly an experienced annotator, so go easy on me. Here are the first two moves.

1. e4!!!

This is why Garry Kasparov is arguably the best player of all time. In just one move, he takes control of the center, clears space for the development of his queen and his bishop, and opens the path for his king to march down the board and wreak havoc.

1. ... e5?

A timid move. If Roizman had little chance to begin with, he's just cut his hopes in half with this error. Black should seek to avoid mirroring White's position. Peltzman vs. Williams, Middlecrest Elementary Kindergarten 2006, followed 1 ... h6! 2. Ke2! Rh9!! 3. Nxe4? h7! 4. Board Earthquake 0-1.

A lot of "old", pre-computer annotations sound like that. On the one hand the master, whose every move is part of a grand plan, meticulously contributing to the final goal, never making a mistake, having seen the (inevitable) outcome right from the beginning; on the other hand the helpless victim who doesn't get a single decision right.

Just read some annotations by Alekhine or Nimzowitsch; or later Botvinnik or Karpov.

A quickie from last weekend's team championship game. I doubt this qualifies as an instructive position since it's nothing special, so this thread seems like a good place for it.



I'm Black and have botched the opening a bit. An immediate ...b5 after White castled on the queenside probably isn't a great idea when your king is still on e8 - this is something I should work on. It's probably OK in blitz, but somewhat questionable with longer time controls. White helped me a bit by playing Na4 and locking in his knight at least for the time being, but he still has the upper hand in the position. What should Black do here?

I'm not an expert on these types of positions, but this doesn't look too fun for black. White's central and kingside space advantage and square control take away all squares from the black knights, and it looks like any queenside play for black is going to be slow and very difficult to achieve. In the mean time, it looks like white can pretty quickly prepare for an e5 break when the time is right and get the kingside pawns rolling. I'm having trouble coming up with an active plan for black, I'd probably just hunker down and prepare for the assault. At least the white knight on a4 is like playing a piece up for black.

Did you end up winning this game? Color me impressed if so.

I would castle. That queen staring down at my king, with the rook aimed at my queen as well, and e4-e5 coming quickly, there's no way I'm leaving my king in the center for that.

Unless ...Qe7 preparing for queenside castling. That could be interesting, but certainly very risky.

I'm an aggro fish so I'd play ...g5 and pray for counterplay. Pretty much my entire style with black, with which I score wayyyy better than White. Embarrassing really.

Is ICC down for anyone else???

Glad you posted this, it's down for me as well. I came on here to ask the very same thing.

Does anybody have a good online resource to play against the benko gambit, I went for the main line declined as white on a correspondence game and I want to have a clue.

i often go to chesspublishing.com and read the forums, of course it's ongoing discussions and there's plenty of noise but you can find good stuff there.

that forum seems preety advanced, I just settled for some videos.

Browsing through some recent games, i ran into this gem:

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=71461

actually the tactics aren't that hard to understand, but some beautiful moves there (21. Bd8!!) and an awesome final position.

GM commentary on aforementioned game:

http://www.chesscafe.com/evolution/C..._Naiditsch.asp

On Sunday, Karpov won a trophy named after himself in the Cap D'Agde rapid tournament. Awesome to see old champs in action, he played really well too - must have found motivation somewhere. The master of putting pressure on the opponent by doing nothing You can view the games online here:
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/iv...after-8-rounds
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/ca...in-semi-finals
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/ka...anatoly-karpov

wlrs, thanks for the links. If I had to pick one all-time favorite player, it would be Karpov. He's just incredible and made it look so easy in these games. I loved this last one against Ivanchuk. Simple but so strong. Here's a link.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game...r.php?id=71920

When I first played through the game, I thought "why doesn't Ivanchuk put that knight on d3?", and only after looking at it a little more I realize he never had the chances. Karpov is so freakin good.

while i agree that Karpov is an awesome chess player, that game isn't the greatest example because Ivanchuk is actually white and lost the game on time.

Hahaha no way. I'm an idiot that's hilarious. Who sucks at life? This guy.

Awesome, ty. I love games like this where I actually know many of the prior games and some of the theory.