"Start right" - Daniel King's Powerplay 4 DVD
Reviewed by William Frost
Danny King continues his absorbing series of Fritztrainer
"Powerplay" with the fourth DVD in which he examines various methods
of grabbing an early initiative.
For the launch platform of
this subject he chooses as a criteria the games of Paul Morphy. This is
an interesting proposition as Morphy's opponents were not renowned for their
defensive abilities. However, the point is well made as his games show
smooth effective development leading to the gain of the initiative.
Click here for replay of a
sample video on Morphy - Anderssen.
In his introduction Danny provides the motto "Every move counts
in the opening" and then supports this with a quotation from Bobby
Fischer's "My 60 Memorable Games" -
"......... if White makes a slip in the opening he is
punished by loss of the initiative, while if Black makes a slip (since he is
skating on thin ice from the very start) it is likely to be fatal."
These aphorisms are well exemplified in the first game quoted -
Ricardi - Hellsten, 1st Magistral Endesa, 2006 - when after seven moves the
following position was reached from a Catalan opening:-
Here White continued 8.e4!? seemingly giving away at least one
pawn. Black grasped the opportunity with 8..... Bxc3 9.bxc3 Nxe4 when
White continued 10.Ne5, the point being that should Black play 10. ..... Nxc3
there follows 11.Bxc6ch bxc6 12.Qf3 and White recovers his material with a
winning initiative. In the game Black played 10. ...... Nxe5 and after
11.Bxe4 Nd7 12.Ba3 Black was denied the chance to castle on the king's wing and
subsequently lost the game in short order.
In his explanations, Danny suggests that although the gambit may not
be absolutely correct and would not stand up to an examination by Fritz, it has
so unsettled the player of the black pieces that his game goes to pieces.
This, he carries on to expound, can be found in many games where either side
seizes an early initiative, and consequently, having the first move, it is
White's obligation to attack. A bold assertion but undoubtedly true in
over-the-board encounters.
In a further 18 illustrative games, he develops his
subject to cover certain openings that contain possibilities for an early
initiative not only for White but also for Black. His comments on a
variation of the Nimzo-Indian that is currently in vogue are interesting.
Amongst others, he cites the game Bareev - Topalov from the Amber Rapid of 2005
as an example of the difficulties encountered by White in this 4.Qc2 variation.
At one point the game reached the following state:-
Here he points out the lack of development of White's kings side
pieces and the exposure of the white king that contributed to his downfall.
It is one thing for a player to get the initiative and another to work
out how this can be brought to victory. Here the commentary continues
until the result is beyond doubt and the lessons of the first three DVD's in
this series provide some of the effective weapons in this phase of the games.
Another method of gaining an early advantage is the use of unorthodox
opening moves. Tony Miles provides two examples of this ploy in his games
with Farago (Hastings 1976) and Ree (Hoogovens 1979). In the latter game
his first move as Black in reply to 1.c4 was 1.....b6. Danny's
explanation of these two games include an exposition on this opening and this
alone is worth the price of this DVD. Miles was very adept at unsettling
his opponent with unorthodox moves. Although it did not result in a early
initiative, who will ever forget his win over World Champion Anatoly Karpov
with 1.....a6 at the European Team Championship of 1980?
The presentation of the theme "Start Right"
occupies the Introduction and thirteen chapters of explanation taking 3¼ hours of Chess Media Video
system. Following this are nine quiz tests. Once more Danny
emphasises the fact that in order to fully profit from these examples the
"training" mode should be adopted without recourse to the game
notation. The Video time of the quiz section is 1¾ hours without any
"Pause" time for seeking the solution oneself. Danny uses
some of his own games in this section with the explanation that he is able to
describe the ideas that he toyed with in playing the game. However, he is
not averse to demonstrating his own losses in the interests of once more
providing examples of the theme of the DVD.
In previous reviews of this series I
have assessed the material to be of most use to players graded 1800 - 2200 and
this follows the same pattern. As a vehicle for training young players
this work is invaluable. Danny King is an experienced trainer and he has
obviously carried out extensive research to produce suitable material and
provide apt explanations of the examples, despite the nonchalant attitude he projects
on the videos. The series is well structured and hopefully ChessBase will
continue with further subjects and themes that will make the entire collection
a complete exposition of attacking themes and stratagems.
