Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Chess Puzzles: Prokes's Windmills

Lubomir Kavalek

Lubomir Kavalek

Huffington Post, October 18, 2010

Chess Puzzles: Prokes's Windmills


In the magical world of chess composition, he was called "the player's composer" since his gems resembled positions from practical play. He spread the pieces, usually not too many, around the board naturally and the solutions were very logical.

Ladislav Prokes (1884-1966) was a strong player who represented Czechoslovakia in three chess olympiads (1927, 1928 and 1930). He was also a prolific writer and columnist, but his main contribution to chess was composing nearly 1,200 wonderful chess studies. His creations were clear, witty, instructive and easy to understand.

I am presenting Prokes's two works, in which the white queen acts like a windmill.

In the first study, Prokes teamed up with Oldrich Duras, the first Czech grandmaster and one of the greatest Czech players, who was also an eminent composer. It was published in Casopis ceskoslovenskych sachistu in 1921.

Ladislav Prokes / Oldrich Duras
2010-10-18-Prokes1.jpg
White wins


In the second study, Prokes swings the windmill in two different directions. It appeared in the magazine Sachove umeni in 1947.

Ladislav Prokes
2010-10-18-Prokes2.jpg
White wins
Solutions will appear next week.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Chess Bundesliga Kicks Off

Lubomir Kavalek

Lubomir Kavalek

Huffington Post, October 10, 2010

Chess Bundesliga Kicks Off


Five years ago, the current French women's champion, Almira Skripchenko, became a poster girl for the German Bundesliga, arguably the world's strongest national chess team competition. Kicking the chess pieces, she made a symbolic connection between soccer and chess. FIFA, the governing body of soccer, has 208 member countries, the most of any sport. The World Chess Federation (FIDE) with 159 nations is second. In many countries chess is considered sport, run by national sports organizations, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is seriously thinking to include it in the Summer Olympics. And unlike in many sports, women can compete against men across the chessboard.
2010-10-11-Almira1a.jpg
Skripchenko is a member of the Werder Bremen team in the Bundesliga that has good chances to fight for the first place this year. They won the first three matches and are in the lead. OSG Baden-Baden is the defending champion and a clear favorite to win it all with an impressive line-up of foreign players on the top eight boards. OSG only played two matches over the last weekend, winning twice, despite missing their three superstars. The world champion Vishy Anand, the world's top-ranked Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov are playing the Bilbao Masters in Spain. In one of the matches OSG Baden defeated SG Solingen, a team I joined in 1969 as their top player. During my 21-year stint we won 10 national titles and two European Club championships. At the beginning, the German Chess Federation fought the foreign players tooth and nail and allowed only two of them on a team. Today, the foreigners dominate the top teams.

Chess is getting global and you find players from all parts of the world participating in national team competitions in Europe. You can see Chinese grandmasters playing on Russian teams and South American players in Spain , Portugal and France. The top U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura played in Austria and Spain. The other American GM Alexander Onischuk plays in Germany, where you can find players from India, Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland and other countries.

The Ukrainian GM Alexander Areshchenko, another member of the Werder Bremen team, accomplished an interesting feat. In the first two Bundesliga rounds, he won two games against the flexible Scheveningen Sicilian. In the second game, he defeated the Slovakian GM Lubomir Ftacnik, one of the foremost experts, who issued a very instructive DVD about the opening.


Areshchenko - Ftacnik
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be2 a6 7.0-0 Be7 8.f4 Qc7 9.Kh1 Nc6 10.Be3 0-0 (One of the most analyzed positions in the Scheveningen Sicilian.)

2010-10-11-Aresh1.jpg


11.Qe1 (The queen will go to the square g3, creating attacking chances against the black king. After the positional approach 11.a4, I have originated the Twin Tower defense, 11...Re8 12.Bf3 Rb8, at the Manila Interzonal in 1976 against Yuri Balashov. It was later picked up by Garry Kasparov, who used it to win the last game of his 1985 match against Karpov and became the world champion. It is now the most popular defensive set-up.) 11...Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5 13.a3 Bb7 14.Qg3 Rad8 (Black is at crossroads. Ftacnik's line was developed by Hungarian players in anticipation of white's attack on the kingside. Black can also try to play actively on the queenside with 14...Bc6 15.Rae1 Qb7 as in the other Areshchenko's game, which continued: 16.Bd3 b4 17.Nd1 bxa3 18.bxa3 g6 19.Nf2 Rac8 20.Qh3 Rfd8 21.Rb1 Qd7 22.Qh6 Bb5 23.Nh3 Bf8 24.Qh4 Nh5 25.g4 Be7 26.Ng5 e5? 27.gxh5 Bxg5 28.Qxg5 exd4 29.f5 Re8 30.f6 Kh8 31.hxg6 Re5 32.Qh6 [After 32...fxg6 33.f7 wins.] Black resigned in Areshchenko-Lammers, Bremen, Bundesliga 2010/11.) 15.Rae1 Rd7 16.Bd3 Re8 (Black is ready to fight.)

2010-10-11-Aresh2.jpg


17.Re3!? (White would like to add more pieces to his attack. Swinging the knight to the kingside with Nc3-d1-f2 didn't bring much success and is being replaced by the rook-lift.) 17...g6 (Ftacnik tries to spare a move from the bunker strategy 17...Qd8 18.Qh3 g6 that showed some cracks after 19.Ref3!, preparing a powerful advance of the f-pawn. Black was unable to find a solid defense. For example:

A. 19...Bf8, white can sacrifice an exchange as in the game Azarov -Lamoureux, Budva 2009: 20.f5! exf5 21.exf5! g5 [After 21...Bxf3?! 22.fxg6 fxg6 23.Bxf6 Qxf6 24.Qxd7 white wins.] 22.Rg3 h6 23.Nd1 Be4 24.Ne3 d5 25.Bxf6 Qxf6 26.Ng4 Qh8 27.Qh5 Rd6 28.h4 Qh7 29.Rh3 Qg7 30.f6 Qh7 31.hxg5 d4 32.gxh6 Rde6 33.Qg5+ and black resigned.

B. The play through the center with 19...d5 is tackled by 20.f5!! dxe4 21.fxg6 fxg6 [After 21...exf3 22.Qxh7+! Nxh7 23.gxh7+ Kf8 24.h8R mates.] 22.Rxf6 Rxd4 23.Rf7 Bh4 24.Be2, threatening to win a piece with either 25.Rxb7 or 26.g3, as in the game Caruana -Sasikiran,Wijk aan Zee 2009.)

18.Ref3!? (Prepares the f4-f5 advance. The immediate 18.f5? is met by 18...e5 19.Nd5 [After 19.fxg6 fxg6 20.Nd5 Nxd5 21.exd5 Rf8 and black blunts the attack.] 19...Bxd5 20.exd5 exd4 21.fxg6 dxe3 22.gxf7+ Kxf7 23.Bxh7 Rh8 24.Qg6+ Kf8 25.Qh6+ Kf7 [Or 25...Ke8? 26.Bg6+ Kd8 27.Qxh8+ and white mates.] 26.Qg6+ and white has only a perpetual check.) 18...d5 (Preventing 19.f5, but allowing white to block the center.) 19.e5 Ne4 20.Qe1 b4 21.axb4 Bxb4 (Optically, black is not doing badly, but his kingside is still vulnerable.) 22.Rh3 Qd8 (Trying to prevent Qe1-h4, but 22...Bc5 23.Qh4 f5 was better.) 23.Qe3 (Not only escaping from the pin, but the queen may eventually end up on the square h6.)

2010-10-11-Aresh3.jpg


23...Nxc3? (Getting rid of the centrally-placed knight opens the door to a swift attack, but black may be uncomfortable facing the threat f4-f5. For example 23...Bc6 24.f5 Bxc3 25.Qh6 f6 26.bxc3 exf5 27.exf6 Rf7 28.g4 fxg4 29.Qxh7+!! Rxh7 30.f7+ Kf8 31.Rxh7 and white wins.) 24.bxc3 (White could play the fancy 24.f5!, but 24...Bf8 25.bxc3 transposes to the game. Keeping the piece 24...Ne4 loses after 25.Qh6 Ng5 [or 25...f6 26.exf6 Bf8 27.fxg6 Bxh6 28.f7+ Kf8 29.gxh7 Bg7 30.fxe8Q+ Kxe8 31.Bxg7 wins.] 26.f6 Bf8 27.Qxg5 Qc7 28.Rxh7 Kxh7 29.Rf3 Kg8 30.Rh3 Qa5 31.Qh4 wins.) 24...Bf8 (Black is almost out of hot water, but with the bishop on b7, white is able to break through on the light squares.)

2010-10-11-Aresh4.jpg


25.f5! (Black's position collapses. White's attack is too powerful.) 25...exf5 26.Bxf5! gxf5 (Black didn't have much choice. After 26...Rc7 27.e6 Bc8 28.Qg3! white has a decisive attack, for example 28...Bxe6 29.Bxg6 fxg6 30.Qxg6+ hxg6 [Or 30...Rg7 31.Rxf8+ Kxf8 32.Qxg7 mate.] 31.Rh8 mate.) 27.Rg3+ Kh8 28.e6+ f6 29.Rxf5 Bg7 30.Rh5! (Targeting the pawn on h7. Areshchenko probably felt that after 30.Rxg7!? Rxg7 [on 30...Kxg7 31.Qg5+ Kh8 32.Rxf6 Rg8 33.Rf8+ Rdg7 34.Bxg7 mates.] 31.Bxf6 Qxf6 32.Rxf6 d4 33.Qe5 dxc3 34.Rf7 Bxg2+ 35.Kg1 Reg8 winning could be more difficult.) 30...Rc7 31.Qd3 h6

2010-10-11-Aresh5.jpg


32.Rxg7! (Opening the floodgates. The white pieces sneak in.) 32...Rxg7 (After 32...Kxg7 33.Qg3+ white wins either after 33...Kf8 34.Rxh6 Rxe6 35.Rh8+ Ke7 36.Rh7+ Kf8 37.Bc5+!; or after 33...Kh7 34.Be3 Kh8 35.Bxh6 Rh7 36.Bg7+ Kg8 37.Bf8+ Kxf8 38.Rxh7.) 33.Rxh6+ Kg8 34.Qh3! (Threatening mate in one and black can't escape, for example 34...Rxe6 35.Qxe6+ Rf7 36.Bxf6 wins; or 34...Kf8 35.Bc5+ Ree7 36.Rh8+ Rg8 37.Qh6+ Ke8 38.Rxg8 mate.) Black resigned.

Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to follow the game.

Image by Werder Bremen PR

Ukraine Wins Chess Olympiad

Lubomir Kavalek

Lubomir Kavalek

Huffington Post, October 4, 2010

Ukraine Wins Chess Olympiad


To win gold medals at any chess olympiad, you need exceptional performances of at least two players who know how to take risks and collect points. But you also need a few others who can steady the team -- solid players hard to defeat. If that is not enough, you need some luck. The team of Ukraine had it all at the 39th Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, that finished Sunday.

Led by the amazing GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, Ukraine clinched the gold undefeated, winning eight matches, tying three and collecting 19 points. Russia's top team finished with the silver medal with 18 points. Israel tied for third place with Hungary with 17 points, but won the bronze on a better tiebreak.

2010-10-04-photo__061.jpg

Ivanchuk receiving the gold medal, Russian team on the left

In the Women's olympiad, Russia 1, led by the Kosintseva sisters, Tatiana and Nadezhda, and by the women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, grabbed first place, winning all 11 matches, collecting 22 points. China sneaked into second place with 18 points. The once powerful team of Georgia won the bronze medal with a better tiebreak over several teams, including the U.S. team.

2010-10-04-photo__047.jpg

Russian golden women, China on the left

We can speculate why the all-mighty Russian team did not win. A loss to Hungary didn't help, but an all-out effort by Russia's GM Peter Svidler, who lost against Spain in the last round, allowed the Ukrainian team to tie their last match against Israel 2-2 and clinch the gold. In the end the dreaded tiebreak worked out well for Israel.

Ukraine had two players among the top 10 performers. Ivanchuk's 8-2 score was the best on the first board, earning him 2,890 performance points. It was eclipsed only by 5 points by the Israeli second board, GM Emil Sutovsky. GM Sergei Karjakin, an Ukrainian deserter who believed that his career can advance better in Moscow, was the top scorer for Russia's fourth board.

Russia didn't win despite a huge monetary bonus promised to each member for the first place. When was the last time they won? Those interested in the answer can visit
Olimpbase, an incredible, monumental web site, covering all olympiads to date and various team events.

Ukraine had two steady players: the former world champion GM Ruslan Ponomairov, with 5-4, and GM Pavel Eljanov, with 7-3. The biggest surprise was the performance of GM Zahar Efimenko, 25, who chipped in with a 8,5-2,5 score. He secured the most important victories in long rook endgames. We present his win against Bosnian IM Dalibor Stojanovic, a Spanish encounter with an explosive middlegame attack.

Efimenko - Stojanovic
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 (Avoiding the Open Spanish 5.0-0 Nxe4 Several strong GMs such as Magnus Carlsen and Peter Svidler did not hesitate to try it, often reaching positions from the Anti-Marshall lines. Interestingly, in the last round, when facing the Open Spanish expert Victor Mikhalevsky, Efimenko switched from the Spanish to the Italian game.) 5...b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.a4 Rb8 8.0-0 d6 9.c3 0-0 10.Nbd2 Na5 (Carlsen faced 10... b4 against Michael Adams and 10... Nd7 against Laurant Fressinet, winning both games.) 11.Ba2 c5 12.Re1 Qc7 13.Nf1 c4 (13... b4 is another way to seek counterplay on the queenside.) 14.axb5 axb5 15.Bg5 Be6 16.Ne3 (It is all about central squares. White seems to have them under control.) 16... Rfc8 (After 16...cxd3 17.Bxe6 fxe6 18.b4 Nc4 19.Qxd3 white's position is more comfortable.)

2010-10-04-Efim1.jpg


17.d4! Bd8?! (Wasting time. After 17... Nxe4? 18.Bxe7 Qxe7 19.Bb1 white hits both black horses and wins. But 17...b4!? gives black decent fighting chances, for example 18.dxe5 dxe5 19.Nd5! Bxd5 20.exd5 e4 21.Bxf6 Bxf6 22.Rxe4 bxc3 23.bxc3 Bxc3 24.Rc1 Bb2 25.Rc2 Qd6 [After 25... c3? 26.d6 Qc5 27.Ne5! white has too many threats.] 26.Bxc4 Nxc4 27.Rexc4 Rxc4 28.Rxc4 Bf6 white is a pawn up but winning the game would not be easy.) 18.Bb1 (White could have tried 18.dxe5 dxe5 19.Nd5, for example 19...Qb7 20.Nxf6+ Bxf6 21.Bxf6 gxf6 22.Nh4 with better chances.) 18...Nb3 19.Ra6 (A pesky rook black needs to exchange.) 19... Ra8 20.Rxa8 Rxa8 21.dxe5 (The immediate 21.Nd5!? was also possible, for example 21... Nxd5 22.exd5 Bg4 [22... Bxd5 23.dxe5 Qc6 24.exd6 wins] 23.Bxd8 Qxd8 [23... Rxd8 24.Bxh7+] 24.dxe5 dxe5 25.Qc2 g6 26.Nxe5 Bf5 27.Qe2 Bxb1 28.Nc6 and white is better.) 21...dxe5 22.Nd5! (With this strong knight leap, the position explodes and black can't handle it.)

2010-10-04-Efim2.jpg


22...Qb8? (Blundering a pawn, but life is already difficult for black. For example,

A. 22...Qb7 perhaps still the best 23.Nxe5 Nxd5 24.exd5 Bxd5 [On 24... Qxd5 25.Be4! Qxe5 26.Bxd8 wins.] 25.Qh5 and now after 25... h6? 26.Nxf7 Bxg5 27.Nd8! Rxd8 28.Re8+ Rxe8 29.Qxe8 mates; and after 25...g6 26.Qh4 Bxg5 27.Qxg5 Re8 28.Re3 black's kingside is weakened and white has a slight edge. Black can't be aggressive, for example 28... Qa8 29.h4 Qa1? 30.Nxg6! Qxb1+ 31.Kh2 Rxe3 32.Nf4+ Kf8 33.fxe3 white still has a ferocious attack with his two pieces and wins the piece back since 33... Be4? leads to 34.Qd8+ Kg7 35.Nh5+ Kg6 36.Qg5 mate.

B. 22... Nxd5 23.exd5 Bg4 24.d6! Qc8 25.Qd5 Bxf3 26.gxf3 Bxg5 27.d7 Qf8 28.Rxe5 Bf6 29.Qxa8! wins;

C. 22...Bxd5 23.exd5 Nd7 24.d6 Qc5 25.Bxd8 Rxd8 26.Bxh7+! Kxh7 27.Ng5+ Kg8 [or 27...Kg6 28.Ne4 Qc8 29.Qg4+ Kh7 30.Qh5+ Kg8 31.Ng5 wins.] 28.Qh5 Nf6 29.Qxf7+ Kh8 30.Re4! wins.)

23.Nxe5! Bxd5? (Although this exchange speeds up the collapse, black's position is beyond repairs anyway. After 23...Qxe5 24.Bf4 Bg4! [24... Qh5 25.Nxf6+ wins.] 25.Bxe5 Bxd1 26.Rxd1 white is a healthy pawn up, for example 26... Ra1 27.Ne3 Nd2 28.Rxd2 Rxb1+ 29.Nd1 Be7 30.Bxf6 Bxf6 31.Kf1 and white should win.) 24.exd5 h6 25.Bxf6 Bxf6 26.Qc2!

2010-10-04-Efim3.jpg


(A final touch. Black has no defense against the invasion of the white queen, for example 26... g6? 27.Nxf7! Qf8 28.Qxg6+ Qg7 29.Nxh6+ wins; or 26... Bxe5 27.Qh7+ Kf8 28.d6! f6 [28...Qxd6 29.Qh8+ wins.] 29.Bg6! Qxd6 30.Qh8+ Ke7 31.Qxa8 wins.) Black resigned.

Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to follow the game.

Images from the olympiad site