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?

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?

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?

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. Order this Fritztrainer in the ChessBase Shop

Video sample of Simon Williams: Most amazing moves

Other Fritztrainer DVDs by Simon Williams