Category Archives: Uncategorized

Monday’s tactics

November 19, 2012 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

1.
 
Peterson,A
gm  Korchnoi,V
 
 
An oldie but goodie!  The year is 1964 (remember the Beatles?!) and the following position arose after move 30  in a Kiev tournament.  Korchnoi–contrary to habit–had just sacrificed a piece to open the Black King to an attack by his Queen, Rook and Knight…
 
WHITE TO PLAY AND MATE IN 4 MOVES!
 
 

 

Legendary grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi (born St.Petersburg 1931) is , if not the strongest player to have never become world champion, the only grandmaster to have maintained his high level of play into his 80’s.
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2.
 
Kolvig,B
gm  Larsen,B
 
Copenhagen, 1960.  A young Bent Larsen is playing his favourite Acelerated Dragon in reverse.  The White Knight is dangling on h4….but Larsen’s intuition tells him to press on with his attack.
 
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
 
 

 

‘The Great Dane’ was born in Denmark in 1935. He went on to become one of the strongest non-Russians in the second half of the 20th century.  Winner of countless top-level tournaments, Larsen came to a hair of winning the world championhip.  I believe that diabetes explains why he never reached the summit.  Larsen died just 2 years ago.  We had some long chats about chess…

3.
 
gm KHOLMOV
gm  SHAMKOVITCH



From Baku, 1961!  Here the open g-file is of critical importance.  But Black seems to have everything undercontrol.  Add to this that Black is attacking the White Bishop on c4.  Seems like White might have overextended….

 
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
 
 
 
Leonid Shamkovitch was the first grandmaster that I played over the board.  LINK  Born in 1923 in Russia, Leonid emigrated to America in 1975. An author of a number of successfuly books, Shamkovitch had a reputation for being an attacker. 

 He was interested in staying in Canada and training promising Canadian talents, but the CFC discouraged him.  I played him many times and developed a strong liking for Leonid.  We remained friends until his passing in 2005.

 

 
 
4.
im  Winter
gm  Keres
From the 1935 Warsaw Olympiad!  Paul Keres was just a young lad of 19, relatively unknown but with a feverish desire to win at all costs.  Here he gambitted several pawns in the opening for the sake of an advance in development.  His opponent thought Keres was bluffing…so he took everything!   Here Winter is about to castle…
 
 
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
 
Paul Keres, the ”Prince of Chess” was born in Estonia in 1916.  An amazing natural talent, many believe that he was the strongest player to have never become world champion. His achievements are legendary, and different from most great players, there is still much mystery surrounding his chess career.  Unfortunately, Keres died at age 59 on his way home after spending several weeks in Canada.

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Canada continues to suck at World Youth

November 19, 2012 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Wealthy Canadian chess tourists understood that Slovenian  weather in coldish November certainly could never compete with the Brazilian tropical temperatures of last year’s Youth Championships in Caldas Novas!  Predictably, many Canadian parents kept their chess-playing children  home.  The result: this year’s Canadian participation was almost cut in half (from 40 in 2011 to 28 this year). 
 
 
 
 
 
The vital statistics of the Canadian ”team”s performance were also cut in half.  Last year Canada’s youth managed to achieve 4 (four) top-ten results.  This year only 2 (two) top-ten results were registered.
 
 
 
Richard Wang (U14) and Harmony Zhu (U8-girls) scored, respectively, 8.5 and 7.5 points out of 11 games.  Wang finished in 3rd place (bronze medal!). Zhu finished in 8th place. Congrats to both!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Excellent coverage of the Canadian team’s round by round performance can be found at Michael Yip’s wonderful blog  As well, a facebook page dedicated to Canada’s team is worth investigating, if only for the abundance of photos!
 
 
 Photos courtesy of the team’s facebook account
 
 

 
Closing Ceremony with  legendary Garri Kasparov awarding the prizes for the U14.  Left to Right: K.Troff (gold), C.Aravindh (silver) and Richard Wang with the bronze.
HOW HAS CANADA DONE RECENTLY AT THE WORLD YOUTHS?
 
This year’s championship was  just one more mediocre result in a long history of mediocre performances.  My Canadian readers might want to compare the previous Canadian performances (since 2003) by taking a look at this  site.
 
In essence, many of Canada’s representatives to the World Youth (WYCC) should NOT be allowed to participate just because they are not good enough to do so.  Some have only learned the moves months earlier; some even lose all of their games. Some haven’t even qualified thru the CFC’s own qualification system, but their parents BUY their way on the team!
 
 
 
 
 
As Canada’s newest GM ,Eric Hansen, wrote on a popular Toronto message board :
 
” We are well known chess tourists…sending far too many kids to the WYCC as usual.  By the way: I never played a WYCC till I was 16. I played in strong adult tournaments instead until I got to the point where I could actually be competitive on the world stage.”


 


 
(International master Jean Hebert (who has represented Canada abroad many times, including 2 stints as  Canadian Champion) has also criticized very vocally the practice of sending vulnerable and unprepared children to tough international competitions.  Here is just one such time.)

 
But the CFC sends as many as they can because it is an important source of revenue:  EACH child who wants to represent Canada at the WYCC but who has not qualified to do so must pay 300 dollars  to the CFC for the privilege! 
 
 
 
 
 
A SHORT SUMMARY OF RECENT RESULTS:
 
 

Ok, so remember that this year (2012) the 28 Canadian representatives achieved 2 top-ten results.  And 15 representatives scored 50% or more. 

IN 2008,  Canada sent   24 representatives; there were   3 (three)  top ten-results.  And   14 scored 50% or more.  Including  Jonah Lee  who achieved a wonderul 7th place finish in U8 section  with7.5 pts out of 11 games.


IN 2009,  Canada sent 21 representatives.  Richard Wang was number 3 (three)  in the U12 section, which was Canada’s ONLY top-ten position that year.  Future GM Eric Hansen was 16th in the U18, but already sported an impressive 2404 elo rating.  Twelve of the 21 Canadians scored 50% or more.


Jason Cao won the U10 in 2010.  In 2011 he did not participate.  This year Jason returned to the WYCC, but only scored 50% in the U12 section.





IN 2010,  23 Canadian representatives.  ONLY one top-ten result.  Thirteen (13) scored 50% or more.  Jason Cao (U10) won his section!


IN 2011, 40 Canadian representatives.  Four (4) top-ten results, but only 8 (eight) scored 50% or more.  One even lost ALL of her games.

_________________________________________________________________
ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS:
 
 
 

This year India and Russia stood out for collecting the most number of medals, 8 each!  Congrats!  This can mostly be understood as being the result of a deliberate promotion of the game amongst the countries’ youth.  In Russia chess is the national sport and India has the actual world title holder (Vishy Anand).

But how does one explain the result of the American team?  Four medals (!!) for a country that does not place much importance or prestige on chess is quite remarkable.  No doubt the abundance of school-chess programs and chess foundations goes far to explain this year’s excellent result.  The USCF sent 89 representatives to Slovenia (India sent 55).   There are some very wealthy chess foundations in the US (some that contain tens of millions of dollars) whose primary focus is on the promotion of chess amongst American youth today.  It works!




FINALLY, if you take a close look at Canada’s results since 2003 at the World Youth Chess Championship (WYCC) you will find that most of Canada’s chess youth stop participating in the WYCC before the age of 18.  This year Canada sent ONLY one male (unrated!) and one female (rated less than 1600) to the U18 category.  Both scored poorly.  Where were the others?  What is more, in some previous years at the WYCC there absolutely were NO Canadian representatives to the U18!

WHAT HAS HAPPENED?  I think that years of poor (negligent)  WYCC management by the CFC has resulted in most of the youngsters soon enough coming to realize that because of their basic lack of chess qualifications,  years of lack of training and a COMPLETE absence of any rigorous qualification standards, they simply can NOT compete with the 18-year olds from other countries.  And no doubt  they grow  tired of losing…every year their opponents from other countries are getting stronger.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT, no doubt.  Ofcourse, the CFC will continue to be  deaf ,dumb and blind to any expert advice… 

 

5-second tactic

November 18, 2012 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

gm  ANDREIKIN
gm  JAKOVENKO

A rapid game played this weekend in Russia.  The Siberia Bank Cup in Novosibirsk.  More Information  The Black King is a bit isolated and protected only by pawns.  This gives White an idea, a very successful idea

25.f5!  PxP   what else?

 
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!

SOLUTION:

White wins with 26.Ne6!, attacking the Queen and threatening Qg5.  If Black takes the Knight then 27.Qg5-ch mates in at most 6 moves.



 

This weekend’s tactics

November 17, 2012 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

1.

fm  Westerberg,J
gm  Fedoseev,Vl
 
From the World Youth Championships in Slovenia.  Under 18open.  Black has accepted a pawn sacrifice on g5, daring White  to show what he is going to do about it.
 
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
…………………………………………………….

2.

gm  Stefanova,A

gm  Socko,M

 
From today’s round at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk.  White had just played the weak 20.Qe3, not only throwing away a small opening edge, but completely overlooking Black’s next move, which gave Black an almost decisive advantage.


WHAT DID WHITE OVERLOOK?
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3.

BONER OF THE WEEK AWARD!

wgm  Zhao,X

wgm  Khurtsidze

From the World Cup a couple of days ago.  Position after 21 moves.  White had just played 21.Nc4, and stands a shade more comfortable than Black.  Probably a very rational way to handle Black now is to take and g3 and play …Nd5, with a very solid game.
 
HOWEVER, Black played an unbelieveable blunder (boner):
 
 
21…Bd5??


How does White win material in just one move?
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CONGRATULATIONS!!

Black’s 21st move won this week’s Roger Patterson Boner of the Week Award! 
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4.

Cemhan, K

Nicolas Zapata,Irene

From the World Youth (under 18, girls) this past week.  White is very well coordinated, with each of his pieces in menacing stance.  The problem is how to break thru, since Black has everything protected!  If now 24.Rh3 then 24…Nh5 holds things together.  What is the weak link in Black’s position?
 
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!


 

 

Potpourri and other nonsense!

November 17, 2012 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

“It is disgusting — Why must we have bodies?”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

MEMORIES

 
One of my favourite TV programs from the good old days…
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Making love is like hitting a baseball. You just gotta relax and concentrate.”
Susan Sarandon
 
I suppose you could say the same about chess, all that stuff about relaxation and concentration…
 
 
 
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS:    SKILL TESTING QUESTIONS
 
!
 
 
1.  Which one of these chessplayers is the least qualified to run a national chess federation?
 
2.  Which one of the above   would most likely not be recognized in a lineup by the average member of the CFC?
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