11/3/2024 – When facing a young, ambitious opponent, it's best not to let them gain momentum. At the recent Hoogeveen Open, Surya Shekhar Ganguly learned this the hard way against Emil Frederick Schuricht, a German teenager who, despite being rated 2145, outplayed the Indian GM spectacularly on the dark squares. Meanwhile, young chess prodigies keep raising the bar - most notably 9-year-old Ethan Pang (pictured), who reached an impressive 2303 rating this month. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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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.
Experts examine the games of Max Euwe. Let them show you which openings Euwe chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were, which tactical abilities he had or how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame.
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Win boringly and slowly
[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]
After I drew with John Nunn in the World Cup tournament in Brussels 1988, an elderly gentleman sat by our board during the post-mortem radiating vexation. It turned out afterwards that this was none other than Mikhail Botvinnik, and it's the only time that I ever (nearly) met "The Patriarch".
The dominant player in Soviet and world chess from his victory in the World Championship tournament of 1948 until he was defeated by Tigran Petrosian in 1963, Botvinnik was famously always especially careful in his first games against potential young rivals, trying to grind them into the dust so as to establish a psychological advantage. I've been trying to recall one such game but thus far failing and instead I am using the first game from the 1963 match.
Considered a master of prophylaxis, Petrosian sensed dangers long before they actually became acute on the board. In his prime, Petrosian was almost invincible. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Tigran Petrosian.
Never having beaten Botvinnik previously, Petrosian was appallingly nervous and played in his own words "at first-category strength, not even Candidate Master". Nevertheless, after his first-ever victory against Botvinnik in the very famous game 5 in which he advanced his king all the way to g7, Petrosian went on to win the match and take the title: ending Botvinnik's long reign because in the build up Petrosian had had sufficient political support in the Kremlin to remove Botvinnik's right to a return match.
Tigran Petrosian v. Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963
Coincidentally the same opening as in game 1 was played in the European Club Cup last week when Vasyl Ivanchuk beat Dmitry Andreikin - and I am appending that too.
The one thing you shouldn't do when playing a dangerous young opponent is to give them a chance to enjoy themselves, and in the recent Hoogeveen Open, that is just what Surya Shekhar Ganguly did in round 1 against German teenager Emil Frederick Schuricht, who proved to be considerably stronger than his rating and slaughtered him on the dark squares!
Rated just 2145 before the tournament – though already 2227 in this month's list, Shuricht went on to reach 4/6 with draws against two more grandmasters before the ever wily Manuel Bosboom defeated him in round 7. Schuricht then finished with ½/2 for a total of 5/9, but with a K-factor of 40, gained 115 rating points in this single tournament!
Talking of ferocious sprogs (children), many congratulations to 9-year-old Ethan Pang, who bested the 2300 barrier (2303) in this month's rating list!
The overall moral is to be extremely careful when playing with kids and if necessary try to win boringly and slowly rather than by exciting chess.
I'll be back next month, on December 1st.
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1.e4c62.d4d53.Nc3dxe44.Nxe4Nd75.Ng5This is the game of which Botvinnik watched the post-mortem of. At the time, Bd3 and Ng5, or rather more accurately the other way round, was still quite new and unexplored, and the first time I faced it I blithely played h6 against Eddie Gufeld, not realising that Nxe6 might be a problem! So confident was I that he didn't play the sacrifice and we drew very quickly. I put that game in as well.5.Bd3Ngf66.Ng5e67.N1f3h68.Ne4Nxe49.Bxe4Nf610.Bd3c511.dxc5Bxc512.0-00-013.Qe2b614.Bf4Bb715.Rad1Qe716.Ne5a617.Bg3Rfd818.c3b519.Bh4Rd520.Bc2Rxd121.Rxd1g522.Bg3Rd8½-½ Gufeld,E (2480)-Speelman,J (2535) Hastings 19865...e66.Bd3
6...c5When I showed this to a modern engine it was unsurprisingly unimpressed with the game. Here Stockfish first recommends Qh5 before changing its mind after Nf3 is played.6...Ngf67.N1f3Bd68.Qe2h69.Ne4Nxe410.Qxe4is the main line nowadays of courseQc711.0-07.N1f37.Qh5g68.Qe27...cxd48.0-0Be79.Re1Bxg510.Bxg5Qb611.Bc411.a4Ngf612.a5Qc513.Ra40-014.Rxd4was especially unpleasant.11...Ngf612.Nxd40-013.Qd2Qxb2Normally I try not to steal pawns like this, but sometimes you have to to get something for your money to have a chance.14.Rab1Qa315.Rb3Qc516.Bxe6Re8
17.Rb517.Rg3!is apparently murderfxe618.Nxe6Rxe619.Rxe6Kf720.Bxf6Nxf621.Rxf6+Kxf621...gxf622.Qd822.Qd8+Kf723.h417...Qd618.Bf4Qf819.Bf5Rxe1+20.Qxe1Nc5Here I offered a draw and, having dissipated almost all his advantage, Jon agreed. Very much not our finest moments, but bad games to get played sometimes. Still you can see why "The Patriarch" was unimpressed by the young people.½–½
In this video course, GM Surya Ganguly joins IM Sagar Shah and drawing from his colossal experience, shares some uncommon endgame wisdom. The material mostly features positions with rook against rook and a pawn, and starts by covering the fundamentals.
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.
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