Speelman's Agony: English Botvinnik setups at club level

Agony & Ecstasy #117

This week's games are by Alan Llewellyn [pictured foreground with White] a Welshman who lives in Cumbria and writes:

I've played  chess seriously at the Barrow and Ulverston clubs since 1989. Being Welsh, I'm into rugby and my chess often resembles a rugby pitch after a long aggressive series of actions. I have played in the Isle of Man Masters and beaten some strong players including Keith Arkell online.

Alan's chess is rather up and down and of a number of games he sent me a couple were fairly disastrous but, at his best, he has an excellent feel for what needs to be done. 

I've chosen three, starting with a painfully quick loss in the Isle of Man against the Israeli IM and problem composer [and ChessBase contributor] Yochanan Afek. The other two are excellent wins in complicated middlegames. He provided some notes and assessments and I've added mine as 'JS'.

Click or tap the second game in the list to switch

Marin's English Love Vol.1 and 2 - A complete repertoire for White after 1.c4

The aim of these Dvd's is to build a repertoire after 1.c4 and 2.g3 for White. The first DVD includes the systems 1...e5, the Dutch and Indian setups. The second DVD includes the systems with 1...c5, 1...c6 and 1...e6.

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See also:

• Previous column: Speelman's Agony: California dreamin'
• All Speelman's Agony columns