Grumpy silicon and happy carbon

by Jonathan Speelman
2/21/2021 – In this week’s column, Jon Speelman focuses on the importance of ‘trusting your hand’, noting that “playing chess is one of the few times in our lives when we are totally self-sufficient and self-reliant. It’s the joy and horror of the game that you can take all the credit for your triumphs but have nobody else to blame for your mistakes.” Unmissable! | Photo: David Llada

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Trusting your hand

A fortnight or so ago, my desktop computer started to get rather grumpy, making increasingly loud harrumphing sounds. A week later it began to go on strike, with the power cutting out completely, apparently at random.

Jonathan SpeelmanBack in the day, I even once changed a disk drive in a computer, but nowadays I’m rather phobic about playing with them. My wife heroically opened the case and took a (cold) hair dryer to the interior, clearing out a vast quantity of dust, but the problem persisted and the old codger — it’s more than four years old which makes it heaven knows how ancient in human years — is currently being ministered to by a nice man down the road, who has confirmed that it needs a new power supply and is testing for any other ailments.    

In its absence, I’m communing with an even older codger, my laptop, which is a nice machine but also not entirely ungrumpy (don’t get me started on its wilful backspace key). It’s not set up for streaming or recording and like the cats in this house — not to mention me — resistant to change, so there’s no video version of today’s column or at least won’t be until I get the desktop back, with luck on Monday.

In contrast to grumpy computers, we focus today on happy people who have played nice games of chess and in particular on move selection and trusting yourself.

Playing chess is one of the few times in our lives when we are totally self-sufficient and self-reliant. It’s the joy and horror of the game — and of course other similar games like Go, Shogi and Draughts (Chequers) — that you can take all the credit for your triumphs but have nobody else to blame for your mistakes.

Go, China

Go, an abstract strategy board game invented in China

This applies to all players including children, and when I’m teaching adults or kids I make a point of not telling them what types of position or openings they should play. Or rather not pressing the point. Certainly I will express an opinion, and if I think that a line is purulent nonsense then I will try gently to wean them off it. But while they are doing well with it, they should continue if they like, until they play stronger opponents who will prompt them to change their own minds.

The same applies to move selection later on in the game. By the time that people become club players they will already have a fairly strong feeling of the moves they want to play and this will harden as they improve. For me, when I’m in the zone — and to work at its strongest this really means being at a chessboard faced with the danger of losing — I have a visceral reaction to the choices available and normally know immediately what  I want to play (or at least what I want to choose between) unless the position is very confusing. Indeed, one way I evaluate positions is by looking at the moves I want to play and seeing whether they are possible. If they seem okay, then all well and good, but if my top choices palpably lose then I may simply have a bad position.  

One of the most important lessons in improving is to trust yourself (or, as I often think of it, trust your hand). If you like a move then you must check that it isn’t a blunder, but you shouldn’t talk yourself out of it, especially when playing stronger opponents — when there’s a tendency to believe that the great man or woman opposite you couldn’t possibly have allowed such a strong move, so there must be something wrong with it.

So if you see a strong move and can’t see a good reason not to play it then trust your hand, but equally you must look at possible refutations, and the higher the level of play the more important it is sometimes to rethink — because, however good your hand, it isn’t always right.

Vladimir Kramnik is one of the players who most trusts his hand, and this has led to some fantastic games, though occasionally, against really strong opponents, to disaster too. Today I’m reprising one of his best games before his retirement from professional play, but also another game from the same tournament — the  Berlin Candidates of 2018 — when he couldn’t resist his hand and eventually lost.

Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik at the 2018 Candidates in Berlin | Photo: World Chess

I’m finishing with a game I’ve given here before a couple of times, in which I really wanted to play a move but had a feeling of unease about it. I was right to do so and got splatted, though engines later told me that I could have got away with it.

 
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1.e4 A surprise which Aronian hoped would discombobulate Kramnik but redounded spectacularly. e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.0-0 Qe7 7.h3
Kramnik: "The thing is, Black wants ...Bg4 after Nbd2. I always considered 7.h3 as a very serious move and I actually spent a lot of time analyzing it, and it was not so easy. But then, a couple of years ago, I found this very strong resource". JS: A fantastic idea! Of course Kramnik had done a lot of work to justify this move, but he first had to think of it (and judging by today's engines it was his hand that devised it not a silicon prompt) and then put in the work afterwards. 7...Rg8 '!' "g7-g5-g4 is a big threat" (Kramnik) . Apparently, White is not capable of opening the centre, otherwise this whole concept will fail. Ironically, it is the pawn on h3 which makes this idea so strong. The weakened kingside and the fast long-ranged black pieces put White in a huge danger. Kramnik's novelty. 8.Kh1 Both players could not find anything better. Here are some lines to convince that Black's attack is not a joke: The attempt to get a better version of the game continuation with 8.c3 would be met with g5 and the pawn is immune due to 9.Bxg5 9.d4 exd4! If now Black continues as in the game 9...Bd6 10.dxe5 Bxe5 11.Nxe5 Qxe5 12.Qd4 White would be indeed OK. 10.cxd4 Bb6 when the white centre is about to crumble at any moment and the captures on g5 are always bad. 11.Bxg5 Or 11.Nxg5 h6 12.Nf3 Bxh3 11...Bxh3! with huge advantage for Black. 9...Bxh3 This is a frequently occurring theme in the attack. 10.gxh3 h6 8.Be3 trades the good bishop, but does not slow down the attack Bxe3 9.fxe3 g5 If 8.Nc3 g5 9.Bxg5 Bxh3! 10.gxh3 h6 is similar to the first line above and excellent for Black. 8...Nh5 'N' Technically speaking this is the novelty. As this all has been seen previously in a correspondence game, which Black won after: 8...h6 9.Nbd2 g5 10.Nc4 Bd6 11.d4 Nxe4 12.dxe5 Bc5 13.Qe2 f5 etc., Kazoks,A (2345)-Calio,M (2334) corr. 2015 9.c3 Obviously White needs to do something and do it fast. This move is aiming for a quick central counter-blow. Aronian: "Maybe I should have gone for" 9.Nc3 "It will be like the game" said Kramnik and suggested g5 10.Nxe5 g4 11.d4 Bd6 The other suggestion of the former world champion is not as good- 11...gxh3 12.g3 Or even 12.g4! 12...Nf6 13.dxc5 Qxe5 14.Bf4 Qxc5 15.Bxc7 and here it might be White who is better. 9...g5 10.Nxe5 If 10.d4 Black can always go for exd4 Or even 10...g4 11.dxc5 gxf3 12.Qxf3 Qh4 "with dangerous threats" (Kramnik). 11.cxd4 Bb6 12.Nh2 Nf6 13.Nc3 13.e5 Nd5 with clear advantage as the kingside attack proceeds without any problems after Bc8-e6 and 0-0-0. 13...Be6 14.f4 g4 15.f5 gxh3 16.g4 Bc4 17.Re1 0-0-0 10...g4 Of course not: 10...Qxe5 11.d4 Qe7 12.Qxh5 11.d4 The captures on g4 lead to mate after 11.Nxg4 Bxg4 12.hxg4 Qh4+ 13.Kg1 Ng3 11...Bd6 Wrong is 11...gxh3 12.g3! 12.g3 Another mating picture occurs after 12.Nxg4 Bxg4 13.hxg4 Qh4+ 14.Kg1 Qh2# 12...Bxe5 13.dxe5 Qxe5 14.Qd4 Qe7 '!' Kramnik wants mate! Aronian was hoping for a slightly worse endgame after 14...Qxd4 15.cxd4 gxh3 15.h4 c5
16.Qc4? "A terrible blunder; I forgot that Black is threatening ...f5." (Aronian) The best chance according to Kramnik was 16.Qd3 Bd7 17.c4 0-0-0 18.Nc3 Rge8 18...Bc6 19.Nd5 Qe5 when Black is better but the game goes on. 16...Be6 17.Qb5+ c6 18.Qa4 18.Qe2 will be met as well with f5! White's best was still 18.Qd3 Rd8 19.Qe3 although Black is clearly better here after 18...f5!-+ 19.Bg5
"The main point was" 19.exf5 Nxg3+! which led to mate after 20.fxg3 Bd5+ 21.Kg1 Qe2 22.Rf2 Qe1+ 23.Rf1 Qxg3# (Kramnik) 19...Rxg5! Of course Black must play this. In a blitz game your hand would do so instantly. 20.hxg5 f4-+ 21.Qd1 Or 21.gxf4 Nxf4 22.Qc2 Qxg5 And 21.Kg2 Qxg5 with a decisive attack in both cases. 21...Rd8 22.Qc1 fxg3 23.Na3 Rd3 24.Rd1
24...Bd5! Very pretty, though the more prosaic Rf3 would also win. 24...Rf3 25.f3 25.Re1 gxf2 26.exd5 f1Q+ 27.Rxf1 Rh3+ 28.Kg1 Rg3+ 29.Kf2 Qe4 Or mate after 25.Rxd3 Qxe4+ 25...gxf3 26.exd5 "The main idea was to win with" 26.Rxd3 Qxe4 27.Re3 f2+ 28.Rxe4+ Bxe4#
(Kramnik).
26...Qe2 27.Re1 g2+ Aronian resigned because of 27...g2+ 28.Kh2 g1Q+ 29.Kxg1 f2+ 30.Kh2 30.Kg2 fxe1Q# 30...fxe1R# JS: A truly gorgeous game, but possibly too lovely for an early stage of a tournament because following it Kramnik could hardly be expected to resist such a glorious hand...
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Aronian,L2794Kramnik,V28000–12018C65FIDE Candidates 20183.4
Karjakin,S2763Kramnik,V28001–02018D35World Chess Candidates 20189
Speelman,J2410Biyiasas,P24050–11978A42Lone Pine op6

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This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) how to successfully organise your games strategically, consequently how to keep y


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Jonathan 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.

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