Simon Williams: Most Amazing Moves

by ChessBase
9/9/2015 – Recently IM Nisha Mohota was suffering a crisis, after returning unsuccessful from her Asian Women Chess Championship. "I was not getting the inspiration to work on the game," she writes. Then she chanced upon this ChessBase DVD by Simon Williams. "After I went through it I fell in love with chess all over again!" Nisha submits one of her own games for Vol. 2 of Most Amazing Moves.

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Simon Williams: Most amazing moves

Review by Nisha Mohota

Every chess player at least once in his lifetime goes through a phase when he is upset with his performances in chess and feels that it is too tough a game and that he is losing his love for chess. Recently after a series of setbacks, I was undergoing this phase. I returned unsuccessful from my Asian Women Chess Championship and was not getting the inspiration to work on the game. Then I chanced upon a ChessBase DVD – Most Amazing Moves by Simon Williams. It is the beauty in chess which attracts me, and it is no surprise that initially I was drawn to the product by its name! Can you guess what happened after I went through the DVD? I fell in love with chess all over again!

Let me take you through my journey with Simon Williams which rekindled my passion for the game. He took me on a ride in the fascinating world of chess for five and a half hours, going from positionally unbelievable moves to the wonderful tactical motifs; from opening to middlegame and finally endgame through 39 video clips.

This DVD contains some nice little combinations which were very pleasing to my eyes.

Can you spot White’s tactical trick here?

Yes, 46.Qe6!! – and Black is defenseless!

Also, there are some really deep ones.

Black’s first move may not be very difficult to spot after you know the name of the DVD!
Can you find the deep and beautiful follow-up?

The variation in the solution which appealed to me was 30...Qxh3!! 31.Kxh3 Rh6 32.Kg4 Nf6 33.Kf5 Ng4! (Kotov actually missed this although he won) 34.Nf4 Rg8!! 35.Nh5 Rhg6! Mate follows!

In this DVD, not only does Simon Williams show us unbelievable ideas from great games, he also shows us how he recognised patterns in his mind and incorporated the ideas in his own games! Ordinary players remember moves –great players remember ideas!

The famous Ivanchuk-Shirov game where White made an unbelievable move

Here Ivanchuk came up with the unthinkable Qg7!! If a beginner would have made this move, I would have immediately told him, “look, this is a square where your queen can't go to”. But when Ivanchuk makes it, you have to start thinking out of the box! Simon Williams remembered Ivanchuk’s wonderful idea Qg7 when he landed in a difficult situation in his own game, took the risk and even managed to win that game: I think the opponent lost more out of the shock value of the move rather than the move itself! On the topic of risk taking, Simon Williams rightly says “most of the beautiful games in chess come from imperfect play!”

Williams gives several pieces of advice which I found really worth paying attention to. These are instructions which we really need to remind ourselves of every day. One of his anecdotes was: “A knight on g3 is often a very bad square, especially when your opponent has a pawn on g6.”A very important fact which all players should know.

Simon is really tricky. He put forward a devious question in one of his video clips and I fell into his trap!

Black to play

After watching the DVD for some time I started getting a feel for amazing moves, and when I saw this position, I immediately spotted Qh3 winning... but that was exactly the trap he laid for me! Here the simple Qg5 wins, whereas Qh3 runs into problems with Bh5!

I enjoyed some of the in-between stories too which Simon Williams tells about world famous players! One is about one of the greatest players that I have seen – Korchnoi! Simon tells us that one of this player’s Olympiad teammates told him: “If Korchnoi had a lost position, before he resigned, he would spend five minutes trying to think of an appropriate insult to give to his opponent”. This reminded me of an incident which took place many years ago. One of my friends was badly insulted by Korchnoi after the game and felt extremely bad. Had this DVD been released before the incident, my friend would have known about this habit and would have enjoyed it because “it is an honour to be insulted by the likes of Viktor Korchnoi!”

There are also 50 additional games in the DVD, which are excellent training material. They keep you on your toes as the five minute timer keeps running! Here’s an example which appealed most to me.

Black’s next move is simply amazing – silent but deadly! Can you spot it?

Here Black plays Rg8!! with the idea of Nh4 and g5 and White is defenseless! Such cool moves like Rg8 is what I think are the most difficult ones to find!

Nothing makes me happier than playing a beautiful game of chess. This DVD brings back memories of one of the most wonderful games that I have played.

My opponent has just played 18...Ra6, stopping my threat of Bb6.
What did I play here that forced my opponent to resign?

[Event "National Women A, Chennai"] [Site "?"] [Date "2011.11.05"] [Round "7"] [White "Mohota, N."] [Black "Soumya, S."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A11"] [WhiteElo "2320"] [BlackElo "2318"] [Annotator "Mohota, Nisha"] [PlyCount "37"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 c6 4. c4 dxc4 5. O-O Nbd7 6. Qc2 Nb6 7. a4 a5 8. Na3 Qd5 9. Ne1 Qe6 {After this I did not know anything. Just knew that White plays in some gambit style in some lines by sacrificing a pawn.} 10. d3 cxd3 11. Nxd3 Nfd5 {For a long time I was considering moves like Nc5 which I did not like very much. Then much later I found this idea e4 and then Be3. I really liked it and was proud of my discovery!!} 12. e4 $1 $146 {This looks like my over-the-board novelty! Until here everything has been played!} (12. Nf4 {I had also considered this but did not like it very much.} Nxf4 13. Bxf4 g6 14. Qc3 f6 15. Rfd1 Bg7 16. Qd4 Nd7 17. Rac1 Ne5 18. Bxe5 fxe5 19. Qd8+ Kf7 20. Qc7 Rf8 21. Nc4 e4 22. Rd8 Rxd8 23. Qxd8 Be5 24. Bh3 Qxh3 25. Nxe5+ Ke6 26. f4 exf3 27. exf3 {1-0 Sadorra,J (2475)-Shabalov,A (2590)/Richardson USA 2011/The Week in Chess 854}) 12... Nb4 13. Nxb4 axb4 14. Be3 $1 $14 {It is very difficult to play this position as black. Here when my opponent was thinking, I thought that Black's best strategy is to keep knights with Nd7, because otherwise her only developed minor piece gets exchanged, leaving Black with a very bad position. So I started thinking about Nd7 and suddenly I found Nb5 and liked it very much. When my opponent played Nd7 I thought for two minutes and played the shot!} Nd7 (14... Ra6 15. Bxb6 (15. a5) 15... Rxb6 16. Nc4 Ra6 17. a5) ( 14... Nxa4 15. Nc4 b3 16. Qd3 (16. Qxb3 b5 $14) 16... b5 17. Nb6) (14... bxa3 15. Bxb6 {I felt that in this position White is very good, as Black has no good piece.} g6 (15... axb2 16. Qxb2 {and White has a fantastic position.}) 16. Rfd1 f6 17. Rxa3 Bg7 18. Bf1) 15. Nb5 $1 Kd8 {I had not calculated after this when playing Nb5, I thought that if Black has to play like this then definitely there must be something good for White.} (15... cxb5 16. axb5 Rb8 17. Bf4 Ne5 (17... g5 18. Bxb8 Nxb8 19. Ra8 $18) 18. Qc7 Nd7 19. Rfc1 f6 20. Qa5 Ne5 (20... b6 21. Qa7) 21. Qa7 Qd6 22. Rd1 Qc7 23. Rac1 $18) (15... Qe5 16. Bf4) 16. Rac1 $1 {At first I did not want to remove the rook from the a-file, but then I thought why not? Its purpose is served and now it is required on the c-file. Initially I was thinking of some forcing moves like Bf4, but then I thought why move my bishop from e3? It takes care of a good sqaure b6. I will bring Rfd1 next and threaten on b6.} b3 17. Qc3 (17. Rfd1 $1 {This would have been the most perfect game!} bxc2 (17... Ra6 18. Qc3) 18. Bb6+ Ke8 19. Nc7+ Kd8 20. Nxe6+ Ke8 21. Nc7+ Kd8 22. Nxa8+ Ke8 23. Nc7+ Kd8 24. Rxc2 $18) 17... Rxa4 (17... Qe5 18. Bb6+) (17... f6 {Black should try some moves like this, although White has almost a winning advantage.} 18. Nd4 $1 Qd6 (18... Qf7 19. Nxc6+ bxc6 20. Qxc6 $18) 19. Rfd1 Ke8 20. Qxb3 Nc5 21. Rxc5 Qxc5 22. e5 Qxe5 23. Nxc6 $18) 18. Rfd1 Ra6 {Diagram [#]} 19. Qa5+ $3 (19. Qa5+ Rxa5 20. Bb6+ Ke8 21. Nc7+ Kd8 22. Nxe6+ Ke8 23. Nc7+ Kd8 24. Bxa5 $18) 1-0

Hopefully my game will get an entry in Most Amazing Moves Part 2?!!

I maintain a base of beautiful games and look at them time and again to get inspiration. Now all I will have to do is use the games collection by Simon Williams! If you want to fall in love with chess all over again, try this DVD. Highly recommended!

About the author

Nisha Mohota, born on October 13, 1980 in Hinganghat, Maharashtra, started playing chess at the age of seven.

During the 1995 Women's Zonals in Chennai she earned the WIM title, at the age of 14 years 6 months and 13 days. This record of youngest ever WIM in India was only broken by Koneru Humpy in 1999. In August 2003 she became India's fourth WGM – after Vijayalakshmi, Humpy and Aarthie Ramaswamy.

Since February 2011 Nisha is a full International Master. Her highest ever Elo rating was 2416 (in October 2007).

Simon Williams: Most amazing moves

  • Video running time: 5 hours 30 minutes (English)
  • With interactive training including video feedback
  • Exclusive training database with 50 essential games
  • Including CB 12 Reader

Price: €29.90
€23.15 without VAT (for Customers outside the EU)
$28.01 (without VAT)
ISBN: 978-3-86681-447-9

This DVD can be purchased as a hard copy or it can be downloaded directly from the Internet, that way sparing you the few days needed for it to arrive by post.

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