Kavalek at Huffington: The man with too much chess talent
12/2/2010 – Dragoljub Velimirovic used to be one of the most feared attackers in the world, always looking for the impossible. His imaginative play was compared to the colorful world champion Mikhail Tal's razzle-dazzle. His playing style was unique, daring and often falling off the edge. He made risky moves and so many of them that you wondered how much punishment his chess pieces could take. Latest column.
The Man With Too Much Chess Talent
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
Dragoljub Velimirovic loved to create confusion on the chessboard, always believing he could find a beautiful escape from a bad situation. He had enough talent to pull it off, perhaps "too much talent " as Bobby Fischer once put it when we discussed the play of the Serbian grandmaster and champion.
At 68, Velimirovic doesn't seem to slow down. Still teasing and provoking, he took part in the Czech Coal Match in the spa resort of Marianske Lazne last month and was awarded a magnificent glass trophy for his entertaining play. He was a member of the veteran team that lost to the young ladies, the "Snowdrops," 14 to 18.
Velimirovic, who had opening lines named after him, always thrived on sharp play. For almost four decades, the Serbian grandmaster countered the Alekhine defense by charging his pawns forward as far and as quickly as they could go. They were like soldiers coming from the trenches in a big wave, huffing and puffing and dying one after another. He played the same way against the Lithuanian grandmaster Viktorija Cmilyte (pictured above), one of the world's top women players. When three from the Four Pawn Attack disappeared, Velimirovic used the last one to entomb the black king. Cmilyte refuted his reckless play with marvelous counterpunches and was expected to win. But in situations like that Velimirovic is always dangerous. Here is the dramatic game:
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to follow the game.
A Napoleon Forgery
The fighting defense 1.e4 Nf6 was named after the world champion Alexander Alekhine in the 1920s, although it appeared in the chess literature already at the beginning of the 19th century. Two recent books cover the opening well. In Play the Alekhine, Valentin Bogdanov uses his experience spanning more than three decades and concentrates on the main lines.
Tim Taylor's Alekhine alert offers a complete repertoire against 1.e4. Although he mentions the popular trends, his recommendations include mostly exciting offbeat lines. It is clear that he loved writing the book and could not resist including a story about a game that was allegedly played in Paris in 1802.
Had Taylor done his database research well, he could have found the same game with the same mate, but with reversed colors. I have added a few notes.
This time Napoleon Bonaparte allegedly played the game in 1804 at Malmaison Chateau, where he resided with his wife Josephine. Napoleon's opponent, Madame de Remusat, was Josephine's "dame du palais" or lady-in-waiting. There is no doubt that the two played chess against each other. "He did not play well, and never would observe the correct moves," de Remusat disclosed in her Memoirs.
Both games were later revealed to be the creation of a clever hoaxer who has been fooling the chess world for some time.
Original column here – Copyright Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and aggregated blog founded by Arianna Huffington and others, featuring various news sources and columnists. The site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet and liberal/progressive alternative to conservative news websites. It offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and comedy. It is a top destination for news, blogs, and original content. The Huffington Post has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site each month. According to Nielsen NetRatings, the site has around 13 million unique visitors per month (number for March 2010); according to Google Analytics the number is 22 million uniques per month.
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