US Chess League

I can remember sitting at the dining room table with my dad and listening to our area hockey team battle it out over the ice on the radio. An even bigger thrill was when we got to go see them play live!

Who would have ever guessed that in the U.S. we'd actually see the day when top grandmasters would play in a chess league and that you could actually follow the play live via the internet? Well, tomorrow is that day for me! I've discovered the U.S. Chess League. Unfortunately I've discovered this too late to see a nearbly Nashville team play as they have left the league this year. But I will get a chance tomorrow night to follow the debut performance of the St. Louis Archbishops, a new team this year that plays out of the St. Louis Chess Club, a great place that I visited in June.

Playing for the team will be GM Yury Shulman 2715, GM Ben Finegold 2589, IM Michael Brooks 2411, and Spencer Finegold 1974. I've met Ben and Spencer Finegold, so following their games will be a priority. And of course, Yury Shulman is a great player who went to the wire at the 2010 U.S. Championship, so I'll have my eye on him too. GM Hikaru Nakamura, who recently moved to St. Louis, is also on the roster along with NM Charles Lawton, FM Doug Eckert, NM Jim Voelker, Tony Rich, and Margaret Hua, but they won't be playing tomorrow.

Besides the St. Louis players, also playing will be GM Dmitry Gurevich 2481 who I saw play in Chicago many years ago. But the other matchup that really caught my eye will be GM Alex Lenderman 2608 playing against GM Larry Christiansen 2665. Could this yield material for a new book about attacking chess?

So, how do you follow the action too? Just strut on over to the ICC and join up!

Knight Time

An interesting concept came up in chess study yesterday: the idea that a knight cannot lose a tempo. This is an important concept in the study of endgames. But this characteristic of the knight is really derived from a simpler characteristic: the knight always alternates the color of its square on every move.

Consider the position in the diagram. Play the position with White to move with the goal of checking the king as soon as possible. But wait! There's a restriction. You are only allowed to move the bishop! No fair if you try to move your queen, king, or knight.

Do you see a solution? There are many, but the idea to take away is that the bishop simply needs to waste time (lose a tempo) to let Black move his king to the h8 square, and then White can deliver the check on the next move. So play might go 1.Bd2 Kh8 2.Bc3+.

Now try the same position a different way. The new restriction is that you may only move the knight.

When you are tired of trying, look below the fold for the answer.

Maybe They Should Call It Recess

Endgame study just sounds so dry. Maybe endgame recess would be a better marketing idea. These gems are valuable in so many ways. Firstly, they are simply another way to enjoy the game of chess, like solving chess problems or following the world championship games. Too often it seems we fall into the trap of thinking that playing a rated over-the-board tournament game is the only "real" way to enjoy chess. Secondly, endgame studies usually have a lot to teach us about endgame principles, and often other aspects such as tactical themes. Though they are usually composed, these positions do contain ideas that can be used in your own games. And thirdly, endgame studies can be used as a tool for building visualization skills. This is an idea that I hadn't previously thought of that I found in my new Soltis book: Studying Chess Made Easy. Since the endgame usually involves fewer pieces, the positions are ideal for practicing calculation. As Soltis mentions, even looking at the solution to find the correct first move and then going back to the position to practice visualizing is a great help.

Here's a study (White to Move and Win) which can be found in Fred Reinfeld's last effort: 200 Brilliant Endgames. He credits it to Birnov in 1970. I like this one a lot because it is very simple (just 2 kings and 2 pawns on the board!), and yet you are almost sure to jump for the wrong solution at first glance! And finding or seeing the correct solution leads you to more than one valuable lesson.

Want to try more? You could buy a book, but you can get a quicker start online. For example, Chess Cafe has a regular Endgame Study feature and also a monthly column by Karsten Mueller called Endgame Corner which also usually features them. You can also find a weekly selection at Chess Vibes, visit a club for the smitten at ARVES, or read back issues of EG, the magazine for enthusiasts.

Still looking for the solution to the Birnov study? Check it out below the fold:

Do You Have That Pattern in a Size 6?

Wow! Where has all the time gone? We'll I've had family visits and other such things to occupy me. But I can also report that I've been working on my chess too regularly to have had time to write about it lately!

But today I got what promises to be a great new book in the mail: Studying Chess Made Easy by Andrew Soltis. I read so many of his openings books for club players 20 years ago and appreciated his attention to the mindset of a patzer, so I decided to give this book a go. I haven't been able to put it down since it arrived!

Among all of the study and training ideas that I've read so far, here's a real gem he presented while selling the idea of learning patterns to develop your intuition. It comes from the game Anand-Leko, Nice 2009. Forget about Fritz' opinion about what move yields the biggest edge and let yourself find the jolting game continuation that removes the heavy hitters from the board while giving a winning advantage.

Look below the fold for the solution.