11/15/2020 – Star columnist Jon Speelman continues to look at games where hacking (or hackery — the two are more or less interchangeable in his mind) plays a key role. “In a time still dominated by lockdowns we need entertainment, and a blood sport which doesn’t spill real blood seems ideal”, asserts Speelman. | Pictured: Thai Dai Van Nguyen | Photo: iSport.cz
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A few Hackers more
[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]
A fortnight ago, I looked at perhaps the most violent game of my life: a ludicrously messy battle with Tony Miles way back in 1975. Paired with a recent bout of hacking (or hackery — the two are more or less interchangeable in my mind) they formed a small homage to violence in chess. In a time still dominated by lockdowns we need entertainment, and a blood sport which doesn’t spill real blood seems ideal — so I promised some more today.
Most chess is currently of course played online, but there is some over-the-board activity. While I obviously saw them myself online, these two recent examples were both actually contested on over-the-board competitions.
We begin with a last round-game from the Swedish League in Stockholm.
There seems very little room to create new opening ideas in 2010 and the creative competitor must work hard to find new approaches which help to win games. Enter 1.f4, Bird’s Opening! 1.f4 has hardly been given comprehensive coverage in the textbooks and on this new ChessBase DVD, International Master and Senior FIDE Trainer Andrew Martin examines this ‘last frontier’ of sound and original opening play.
Yuri Solodovnichenko
We move on to the Tegernsee Masters in Germany, an initially ten-player all-play-all which Vincent Keymer had to leave after a schoolmate caught the Coronavirus. Alexander Donchenko won the resultant nine-player tournament, and like the blood fest in Sweden above, this explosive battle was played in the final round.
On this DVD Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller present the 8. World Chess Champion in video lessons: his openings, his understanding of chess strategy, his artful endgame play, and finally his immortal combinations.
Jonathan SpeelmanJonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
The Italian Four Knights is the ideal choice. It combines the solid foundation of classical openings like the Ruy Lopez or the Italian Game with an active, initiative-driven style of play.
IM Andrew Martin shows why this 19th-century opening weapon still is a fantastic choice for club players. The Evans produces exciting chess and teaches the art of attack.
The major part of the material on which the Petroff Defence Powerbook 2026 is based comes from the engine room of playchess.com: 357 000 games. This imposing number is supplemented by another 17 000 from Mega and from correspondence chess.
Petroff Defence Powerbase 2026 is a database which contains 6475 high class games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 682 annotated.
Videos: Felix Blohberger presents the surprise weapon 4…a6 in the Four Knights Game. Mihail Marin analyses the English Opening with 1.c4 e5 2.g3 g6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4 Nf6 5.Bg2 Nc6. Plus the ‘Lucky bag’ featuring 37 analyses by Berg, Radjabov and others.
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