Alterman on the Morra – Part 2

Boris Alterman writes: "My first coach taught me to play aggressively and energetically, not to fear sacrificing material for an attack. His lessons were so instructive and interesting that I didn't want to miss the sessions even when I was ill with fever. It was no surprise that as a young player I loved to play gambit systems.

Why do I recommend you to study aggressive and attacking openings? The reason could be easily explained: When you play gambit openings you learn the most important principles of opening strategy quickly: the importance of development, the timing for the combination, the meaning of initiative, utilizing development advantage and other important issues.

The topic of my first lecture was : Meet the Sicilian with the Morra Gambit! Part 1. In Part 2 on Sunday I will show that in the Morra Gambit you don't need to look after a casual combination. You have to follow the main principles of the opening as: fast development, control over the center and a tactical combination will bear itself!"

GM Boris Alterman is 34, and lives in Israel. He was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, where he started playing chess at the age of 7. His career highlights include earning the IM title in 1991 and the GM title in 1992.He is the winner of the following Open and GM tournaments: Haifa 1993; Bad Homburg 1996; Rishon LeZion 1996; Beijing 1995 and 1997; Munchen 1992. His hobbies include computers and swimming, his favourite food is Chinese, he speaks fluent Russian, Hebrew and English.

Boris has worked for and against Garry Kasparov. In 1999 he assisted the world champion in his spectacular Microsoft match Kasparov vs The World, and was also part of the team that built up the web portal Kasparov Chess. In 2003, on the other hand, he was part of the Deep Junior team that gave Kasparov a run for his money in the New York match.

Boris Alterman is a consummate computer expert and an internationally feared computer killer. In 2000 he played a remarkable game against Deep Fritz in Holland, at one stage reaching the following historical position, which has come to be known as the "Alterman Wall":

Boris won the game against Fritz in 87 moves.

For those of you who have not been following our Chess Puzzle section for many years there's a charming little story involving Garry Kasparov and the young Boris Alterman. It was part of our Christmas Puzzle 1999.

Boris Alterman will hold his lectures on Sundays at 21:00h Server time and a simultaneous exhibition on Mondays at 21:00h server time (in the "Simultaneous Exhibitions" room).

Here are the world-wide starting times for Alterman's lectures.
The simuls are at the same times one day later.