Review: Simon Williams' Most Amazing Moves

Most Amazing Moves

In his greeting words at the start, Simon says cheerfully: ‘It was a lot of fun for me doing this DVD’. I am sure it would be as much fun for the audience, who would look through the amazing chess moves presented in this video. Five and a half hour of uninterrupted fun!

No chess player, beginner or more advanced, can remain unmoved when seeing the magic of human mind at work on the chess board. And dreaming … why, I could play that myself! That is how easy and obvious these moves appear – once revealed. But that is how unfathomable the apparent simplicity and geniality of the human mind is.

After savouring these chess brilliancies you are bound to be inspired, your bravery flared, and your outlook emboldened, so that you would approach the chess board next time with mind flexed to produce your own masterpiece. Well, dreaming can be productive.

This is a DVD to be kept at your side at all times. Running through it at one go would be wonderful mind gymnastics coupled with artistic beauty, but its usefulness does not stop there. One should return to it time and again. In good as well as at bad times. It would always provide mental respite and awake new optimism. Yes, it would be that beneficial! At least to those who hold that winning a game is not the only object: what brings a real sense of achievement and satisfaction is winning it as beautifully as possible.

Williams tells us further: ‘I enjoy looking at brilliant moves in chess more than I enjoy other artistic pursuits like looking at Mona Lisa or maybe listening to some lovely classical music…’ In other words, he is letting us know that chess is his favourite form of art. And in the video, this statement is given full credentials. The chosen examples cannot be found by the tactical prowess of computers but are product of human, mental creativity.

Simon Williams at the ChessBase recording studios

We are never tired of re-playing the games known as ‘evergreens’ or ‘immortal’ that include Paul Morphy v Count Isouard & Duke of Brunswick (Paris, 1858) and Anderssen v Kieseritzky (London, 1851). The title ‘Most Amazing Moves’ somehow alludes to the ‘chess romanticism’ when human mind was unaided by the dullness of computer’s precision, and the brilliancies were exactly that – a product of a brilliant mind. You would probably expect to see in this DVD a collection of similar fits from the glorified golden age of chess of the past. However, the two games mentioned above are not included, and, with a couple of exceptions, the examples demonstrated belong firmly in the ‘present’. Williams wants to assure us that brilliancies are not proper only to the ‘old romantics’, but they are real in our days too, played by real people at Championships as well as Opens around the world. The selected examples are his personal choice of amazing moves that have impressed him throughout his rich chess activity: Ivanchuk, Topalov, Short, Anand, Kortschnoj, Nimzowitsch and Fischer as well as some less illustrious names are among the executors of the brilliancies presented in the two parts of the video, Analysed Games and Extra Database. Naturally, Williams gives us some of his own brilliancies, performed at various tournaments, which are result of his uncompromising, attacking style.

The first analysed game is a 12-move miniature in which seemingly natural moves open the path to a most amazing combination:

Kantorik,Marian (2331) - Walton,Alan J (2153) [D31]
Gibraltar Masters 11th Caleta (5), 26.01.2013

White to play: can you find the truly amazing move...

The answer is 9.Bf8!! Ne7 10.Bxg7 Rg8 11.Bf6 Qxg2 12.Qd6 1-0.

To give due credit to two probably best recognised chess artists, Anderssen and Morphy, here are two games from the DVD’s database selection: Anderssen v Dufresne (Berlin, 1852) Bird v Morphy (London, 1858).

The Anderssen v Dufresne game, known as ‘evergreen’, is annotated by Kasparov who comments towards the end: ‘It is not surprising that chess players of the time, impressed by such greatness, did not want to listen to dull positional advice. But the old combinational school, led by its first knight Andersen, was doomed in the battle against the modernized warfare techniques of Paul Morphy, whose tactics had much better positional foundations.’

The second example, Bird v Morphy (London, 1858), is the game which impressed Williams at an early age: ‘I was a junior when I first saw Morphy's next move, it shocked me to the core. Such craziness, yet such beauty! … Morphy’s brilliant concept and one which has stuck with me forever.’’

Our exaltation is put in check by Kasparov: ‘… chess masterpieces require the generous cooperation of the loser!’

Williams’ analyses show also where the sound moves were missed, thus helping the brilliancy to manifest. In animated speech, with anecdotes thrown in about disgruntled players soothing their desperation at the bar after ‘such a silly blunder’, this presentation makes for a fun chess experience where the learning and improving aspect are equally present.

The selection of examples contains both amazing positional moves as well as ‘tactical madness’. All three phases, the opening, the middlegame and the endgame, are covered. However the emphasis is on the middlegame and on some ‘crazy ideas in the endgame’.

This hugely enjoyable compilation can only be a result of a careful, time consuming research and a conscientious homework by the author.

The most important feature of the Amazing Moves DVD is that it is interactive, meaning it demands your full engagement and cooperation. Williams sets the pace: ‘We are going to start off quite softly and it is going to get more intense as we go along’.

There are about forty puzzles that get successively more complex. At the crucial moment you are given an opportunity to guess the ‘amazing move’. I do not wish to sound discouraging, but I predict that more often than not it would be a hard task to find the right move, simply because they are the ‘most amazing moves’ in chess.

You may want initially to enjoy the games fully, allowing the amazing moves to be revealed to you, and return to them again at a later stage to take part in the interactive exercises. Diligent work and, most importantly, repeating the exercises many times, would help to etch the patterns in your memory, and hopefully, with new confidence gained, to produce in the near future your own brilliancy! A New Year's wish! By the way, with 2015 upon us – a gift of Most Amazing Moves would mellow friends and enemies.

GM Simon Williams has been teaching, composing training DVDs and writing chess books for the last fifteen years. 'Play the Classical Dutch', his first chess book, was voted, in New in Chess, one of the top ten chess books of all time. For ChessBase he has made also the popular two-part DVD on the King’s Gambit, which together with the Amazing Moves reflects his own playing style, which is aggressive, favouring attacking chess to positional grinds.

Williams is very active as commentator at various chess events including Gibraltar, one of the strongest Opens in the world. Currently you can follow his commentary on the Anand-Carlsen match as a member of the ChessBase team.

Simon Williams: Most Amazing Moves Video running time: five hours 30 minutes With interactive training including video feedback Exclusive training database with 50 selected games Including CB 12 Reader Price: €29.90 €25.13 without VAT (for Customers outside the EU) $31.14 (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. Order this Fritztrainer in the ChessBase Shop

Sample Video: Simon Williams - Most amazing moves