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[I was reorganizing my shelves, thinning out my collection, and I ran across the following piece, from Badger Chess (Nov/Dec 1994). The words aren't mine, but I wish they were.]
An angry mother asked the directors of the Wisconsin Junior Championship why lower rated players had to play higher rated players when they must surely lose. Couldn’t players of similar ratings play one another; why should anyone want to humiliate a child?
Sacrifices in chess are the “nuclear weapons” of the game. Think about it: When an atomic bomb is exploded, matter is converted to energy, according to the famous formula in the title above, and the newly-created energy is released on the real-world target.
In chess, the sacrifice converts material (the “matter” of the chessboard) into energy, which is then released on your opponent’s position. But what’s the equation it follows?
I gave a lecture at the club a while ago about Rudolf Spielmann, chessplayer from the early 20th century who, flawed as he was, has always been a role model for me. (In fact, when you consider that the two biggest influences on my chess style have been Spielmann and Bronstein, perhaps you will understand better why I play the moves I play.)
But one thing I never got around to mentioning was an often overlooked portion of his legacy to modern-day players. I’m speaking of Vladimir Vukovic.
I’m wondering how important it is to keep the old comments. The new setup I’m thinking of will be using a completely different commenting system, one which I don’t believe will accept the old comments. As I see it, I have two choices: I can include the old comments with the text of the article as I bring it over, or I can just drop them off completely. Drop me a line or write a comment: What do you think is best?
Thought it was about time again I talked about the future of this ragged collection of recycled electrons. There will be change coming, that I can guarantee. Just what it will be is why we’re sitting here, now.
First, while I remain interested in, and committed to uncovering and writing about, local chess history, I’m going to be branching out. Partly since I’m semi-retired as an active chess coach, but still see a need for it, I’m going to concentrate more on “giving back” to a community that gave so much to me, and start writing more instructional pieces than I’ve been doing.
This means finding a good way to display games on the site. I’ve used PalView for some pages (notably Oldest Games and the text versions of Martz Annotates, such as Loft-Martz 1967) but it was tedious to use to produce good quality games, and I absolutely hated the html markup it put out.
Another attempt was with java (the Misty Beach viewer, to be precise) as in the fuller Martz Annotates Library viewer, but as you can tell, the design is horrible, and it’s tedious to make it look like the rest of the site, so much so that I eventually gave up.
I’m currently looking at the Chess Tempo viewer, as well as the DGT Chess Theatre Flash-based system, but they each have drawbacks as well.
This is where you can help. Have a look and see what you like, both on this site and on others, and let me know. Read the rest of this entry »
Today we begin a series on pawn endgames. It’s an attempt to start with the complete and utter basics of the subject:
A single pawn is enough to win the game.
It’s true. The lowliest soldier on the board is enough to win the game, if you understand how. Do you? Are you sure? If either answer was “no,” by the end of this series, you will.
Shereshevsky, in his maladroitly-titled book “The Soviet Chess Conveyor”, advises the student to study the classics. This is advice with which I heartily concur.
It’s only when he goes on to make an exception for all but a very few masters before Botvinnik I have the timerity to disagree with the famous chess trainer.
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“The importance of opening theory is grossly overestimated. Obviously, the knowledge of opening moves comes in handy when setting up a chess game, but this knowledge alone does not bring universal happiness. After this, you still have to play chess, and for that, other things will crop up.” ~ Herman Grooten (Dutch trainer of, among others Loek van Wely)
A 1977 game between Duchess and Kaissa at the World Computer Chess Championship proves the value of memorizing checkmate patterns. Late in the game the following position was reached (Duchess was White):
Kaissa, playing Black, ignored the obvious 1. … Kg7, and instead played the seeming blunder, 1. … Re8.
This puzzled most of the audience; how could such a strong computer make such an elementary mistake? Look at the position yourself for a few minutes (no more than five) and see if you see the answer. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
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“Alas, there are very few chessplayers who train. The majority of them merely process information.” ~ Mark Dvoretsky