Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
This week's material — a pair of fascinating games and two additional items — was sent by Tim Gluckman, who is in his early seventies and plays for Lewisham Chess Club in Southeast London. The additional items are two very nice problems from the pages of the wonderful Dutchman Tim Krabbe's Chess Curiosities.
As Tim explains:
In 2019 I gave two talks on endgame studies. One of them (11.2019) was at the ISIS prison (next to Belmarsh) in the Woolwich area. It was part of a 'Chess in the Community' project. Apparently, the seven prisoners present were genuinely interested in the positions: the first was a Shinkmann classic with six white pawns on the a-file; the second by Gurgenidse is one in which the rooks become pawns and seem to move backwards.
We start with the games which are both from the London League Division 3. All notes are by me, but when analysing the first I happened to start without an engine and decided to carry on in two phases: firstly seeing what I could glean about the extremely complicated positions on my own tod, and then adding the addictive comfort of the engine in a second pass.
Select an entry from the list to switch between games
How many times have you been caught off guard by a seemingly inferior and unusual opening system that later turns out to be an especially strong one? Unorthodox openings can be a real asset to anyone’s opening repertoire and they often do not contain much theory, making them easy to master for your next important tournament.
ChessBase Account Premium annual subscription
At the airport, in the hotel or at home on your couch: with the new ChessBase you always have access to the whole ChessBase world: the new ChessBase video library, tactics server, opening training App, the live database with eight million games, Let’s Check and web access to playchess.com
Did you enjoy the column and instructive analysis by GM Jonathan Speelman? Do you wish you could have a world-renowned grandmaster analysing your play? You can!
To submit your games just upload a PGN or ChessBase file (.pgn or .cbv archive), along with your name and e-mail address. Send one success story (Ecstasy) and one loss (Agony).
Tell why you chose them, where or when they were played. Please do include your email address, so Jon can reply, and preferably a photo of yourself for our article.
If your game is selected Jon will contact you personally, and not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!
A three-month Premium subscription to ChessBase Account means you get:
