Starting Out: the Sicilian JOHN EMMS

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Starting Out: the Sicilian JOHN EMMS starting out: the sicilian JOHN EMMS EVERYMAN CHESS Everyman Publishers pic www.everymanbooks.com First published 2002 by Everyman Publishers pIc, formerly Cadogan Books pIc, Gloucester Mansions, 140A Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8HD Copyright © 2002 John Emms Reprinted 2002 The right of John Emms to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1 857442490 Distributed in North America by The Globe Pequot Press, P.O Box 480, 246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437·0480. All other sales enquiries should be directed to Everyman Chess, Gloucester Mansions, 140A Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8HD tel: 020 7539 7600 fax: 020 7379 4060 email: [email protected] website: www.everymanbooks.com EVERYMAN CHESS SERIES (formerly Cadogan Chess) Chief Advisor: Garry Kasparov Commissioning editor: Byron Jacobs Typeset and edited by First Rank Publishing, Brighton Production by Book Production Services Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd., Trowbridge, Wiltshire Everyman Chess Starting Out Opening Guides: 1857442342 Starting Out: The King's Indian Joe Gallagher 1857442296 Starting Out: The French Byron Jacobs 1857442547 Starting Out: The Nimzo-Indian Chris Ward Books for players serious about improving their game: 1857442261 Starting Out in Chess Byron Jacobs 1857442318 Tips for Young Players Matthew Sadler 1857442369 Improve Your Opening Play Chris Ward 1857442415 Improve Your Middlegame Play Andrew Kinsman 1857442466 Improve Your Endgame Play Glenn Flear 1857442237 Mastering the Opening Byron Jacobs 1857442288 Mastering the Middlegame Angus Dunnington 1857442334 Mastering the Endgame Glenn Flear 1857442385 Simple Chess John Emms 185744115 X Learn Chess: A Complete Course Alexander & Beach 1857440722 How to Win at Chess Daniel King 1857442970 Concise Chess Openings Neil McDonald Popular puzzle books: 1857442733 Multiple Choice Chess Graeme Buckley 1857442962 It's Your Move Chris Ward 1857442784 It's Your Move (Improvers) Chris Ward Contents Bibliography 6 Introduction 7 1 The Dragon Variation 10 2 The Najdorf Variation 30 3 The Scheveningen Variation 52 4 The Sveshnikov Variation 74 5 The Classical Variation 89 6 Other Open Sicilians 106 7 Bb5 Systems 134 8 The c3 Sicilian 146 9 Other Systems 159 Solutions to Exercises 174 Index of Complete Games 175 Bibliography Books Accelerated Dragons, John Donaldson & Jeremy Silman (Everyman 1998) Beating the Sicilian 3, John Nunn & Joe Gallagher (Batsford 1995) c3 Sicilian, Joe Gallagher (Everyman 1999) Easy Guide to the Bb5 Sicilian, Steffen Pedersen (Everyman 1999) Easy Guide to the Najdorf, Tony Kosten (Everyman 1999) Easy Guide to the Sicilian Scheveningen, Steffen Pedersen (Everyman 1998) Easy Guide to the Sveshnikov Sicilian, Jacob Aagaard (Everyman 2000) Encyclopaedia ofChess Openings volumes A-E (Informator 2001) Improve Your Opening Play, Chris Ward (Everyman 2000) Mastering the Opening, Byron Jacobs (Everyman 2001) Nunn's Chess Openings, John Nunn, Graham Burgess, John Emms & Joe Gallagher (Everyman/Gambit 1999) Sicilian Grand Prix Attack, James Plaskett (Everyman 2000) Sicilian Kalashnikov, Jan Pinski & Jacob Aagaard (Everyman 2001) The Closed Sicilian, Daniel King (Chess Press 1997) The Complete Najdorf: 6 Bg5, John Nunn (Batsford 1996) The Complete Richter-Rauzer, Peter Wells (Batsford 1998) The Oxford Companion to Chess, David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld (Ox­ ford 1996) The Taimanov Sicilian, Graham Burgess (Gambit 2000) Winning with the Sicilian Dragon 2, Chris Ward (Batsford 2001) Periodicals ChessBase Magazine Informator The Week in Chess Introduction It's probably safe to say that the Sicilian Defence is the most famous chess opening of all time. It's certainly the most popular: almost a quarter of all games in chess are Sicilian Defences. This is a pretty large fraction considering the large pool of openings from which each player can choose. If you play 1 e4, the likelihood of facing a Sicilian Defence is approximately fifty percent. Why the immense popularity? The easiest way to address this ques­ tion is to take a look at some simple opening positions. Diagram 1 Diagram 2 White plays 1 e4 Black plays the Sicilian 1 e4 is one of the two most popular opening moves for White (the other is 1 d4). With 1 e4 White gains some control over central squares and open lines of development for his queen and fI-bishop. Give White another free move and what would he like to play? The answer is 2 d4!, which controls more central squares and opens a line of development for the cl-bishop. With control of the centre and open lines for easy development, White is assured of a good position from the opening moves. 7 Starting Out: The Sicilian Black has many possible replies to 1 e4, but only two of these both gain a foothold in the centre and dissuade White from carrying out his 'threat'. These two choices are 1...e5 (symmetrical king's pawn) and 1...c5 (the Sicilian). It's no coincidence that these are the two most popular defences to 1 e4, but what is interesting is that the Sicil­ ian occurs twice as often as 1...e5. Let's take a look at the position after 1...c5 (Diagram 2). Black has taken control of the crucial d4-square and is ready to an­ swer d2-d4 with ...cxd4, thus eliminating one of White's central pawns and lessening White's control of the centre. The 'advantage' the Sicil­ ian has over, say, 1...e5 is that Black is able to unbalance the position with an asymmetrical pawn structure from a very early stage. This allows both sides the opportunity to play for a win from the very start. White is less likely to acquire a 'risk free' edge because the position will always contain some imbalance. Pawn Structures Two-thirds of this book deals with 'Open Sicilian' positions, in which White plays 2 Nf3 followed by 3 d4. This is by far the most common way for White to meet the Sicilian. White opens more lines of devel­ opment and attempts to exploit the fact that he will be ahead on de­ velopment. Let's take a look at the possible opening moves 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 (Diagram 3) Diagram 3 An Open Sicilian White is ahead in development and can develop more freely. Black, however, has a structural advantage in that he has an extra central pawn, which gives him long-term chances of taking control of the cen­ tre. A typical imbalance has arisen. The onus is on White to use his development advantage in order to secure an early initiative. If White 8 Introduction plays passively or his initiative runs out of steam, then typically it's Black, with the better pawn structure, who has the long-term chances. Thus it's quite rare for a state of 'dull equality' to arise. Of­ ten in a Sicilian, if Black 'equalises', he is already slightly better! This structural advantage is seen in most Open Sicilian lines: for example, the Dragon, the Najdorf and the Scheveningen Variations. The major exception to this rule is the Sveshnikov Variation, in which Black ac­ cepts pawn weaknesses for activity. Variations A word on how this book is set out. In the first five chapters we shall be taking a look at the most common variations of the Open Sicilian: the Dragon, the Najdorf, the Scheveningen, the Sveshnikov and the Classical. There are naturally many similar characteristics to these variations but they all contain their own distinctive flavour. In Chap­ ter 6 we move on to slightly less common variations of the Open Sicil­ ian: the Taimanov, the Accelerated Dragon, the Four Knights, the Kan and the Kalashnikov. In Chapters 7-9 we study lines where White avoids the complexities of the Open Sicilian in favour of quieter lines. These include Bb5 systems (Chapter 7), early c2-c3 systems (Chapter 8) and finally some more unusual systems white systems (Chapter 9). Just to give you an insight into how much 'theory' has amassed on the Sicilian over the years, I'm currently holding a heavyweight 320-page monograph written not on the Sicilian, or even a variation of the Sicil­ ian, but on a sub-variation of a variation of the Sicilian! By covering all the main lines of the Sicilian, it wasn't my intention to give a vast collection of theory, nor to arm the reader with a white or black reper­ toire. This book very much aims to be an introduction to the main lines and ideas of ~he Sicilian and to help readers choose variations they think will suit their style. I've used illustrative games that show some of the more entertaining and instructive Sicilian battles, not necessarily ones which reflect the current state of theory. Finally, I would like to thank Byron Jacobs for his help on this project and special thanks go to Christine for her proof-reading, patience and support as the deadline approached. John Emms, Kent, April 2002 9 Chapter One The Dragon Variation • The Yugoslav Attack • The Classical Variation • The Levenfish Attack • White Plays g2-g3 The Dragon Variation 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6 (Diagram 1) Diagram 1 The starting position for the Sicilian Dragon The Dragon Variation is the Sicilian in its most natural and logical form. Black develops his pieces on their most active squares.
Recommended publications
  • Column and CC News
    1.e4 d5 2.e5 e6 3.d4 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.c3 Be7 6.g3 Bd7 7.Bd3 ½–½ Counted among the mysteries that I just do not understand... PHILIDOR’S DEFENSE (C41) White: Matthew Ross (800) Black: Paul Rellias The Check Is in the Mail IECG 2005 DECEMBER 2006 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 f6 4. Bc4 Ne7 5. This month I honor a 25-year old dxe5 fxe5 6. 00 Bg4 7. Nxe5 Rg8 8. tradition of featuring miniature games in Bxg8 h6 9. Bf7 mate “The Check”. You may find it surprising that miniature games can Sometimes postal chess is an easy game happen to all ranks of chess players. – you just follow book for 10 to 15 They do, and here is the proof. The moves or so, and when your opponent February issue of Chess Life will also thinks for himself, you’ve got ‘em! contain some of these snowflakes, little wonders of nature. SICILIAN DEFENSE (B99) White: Olita Rause (2720) There are more tactics in this mini than Black: Vladimir Hefka (2574) you will find in three regular-sized 18th World Championship, 2003 games. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 RUY LOPEZ (C70) 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 Qc7 White: Nowden 9.0–0–0 Nbd7 10.g4 b5 11.Bxf6 Nxf6 Black: Kristensen 12.g5 Nd7 13.f5 Nc5 14.f6 gxf6 15.gxf6 Correspondence 1933 Bf8 16.Rg1 h5 17.a3 Bd7 18.Kb1 Bc6 19.Bh3 Qb7 20.b4 1-0 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Bc5 5.c3 b5 6.Bc2 d5 7.d4 exd4 8.cxd4 Bb6 9.0–0 Bg4 10.exd5 Qxd5 11.Be4 Qd7 12.Qe1 0–0–0 13.Bxc6 Qxc6 14.Ne5 XABCDEFGHY Qe6 15.Qe4 c6 16.Qxg4 f5 17.Qxg7 8 +-+- ( Bxd4 18.Bf4 Bxb2 19.Nc3 Bxa1 20.Qa7 1–0 7++-++-' 6+-+& Two amateurs distill the essence of the 5+-+-+% Grandmaster draw.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Development
    By Natalie & Leon Taylor 1. DEVELOPMENT ID Shelf Title Author Brief Description No. No. 1 1.1 Chess Made Easy C.J.S. Purdy & G. Aimed for beginners, Koshnitsky 1942, 64 pages. 2 1.2 The Game of Chess H.Golombek Advance from beginner, 1945, 255pages 3 1.3 A Guide to Chess Ed.Gerard & C. Advance from beginner Verviers 1969, 156 pages. 4 1.4 My System Aron Nimzovich Theory of chess to improve yourself 1973, 372 pages 5 1.5 Pawn Power in Chess Hans Kmoch Chess strategy using pawns. 1969, 300 pages 6 1.6 The Most Instructive Games Irving Chernev 62 annotated masterpieces of modern chess strat- of Chess Ever Played egy. 1972, 277 pages 7 1.7 The Development of Chess Dr. M. Euwe Annotated games explaining positional play, Style combination & analysis. 1968, 152pgs 8 1.8 Three Steps to Chess MasteryA.S. Suetin Examples of modern Grandmaster play to im- prove your playing strength. 1982, 188pgs 9 1.9 Grandmasters of Chess Harold C. Schonberg A history of modern chess through the lives of these great players. 1973, 302 pages 10 1.10 Grandmaster Preparation L. Polugayevsky How to prepare technically and psychologically for decisive encounters where everything is at stake. 1981, 232 pages 11 1.11 Grandmaster Performance L. Polugayevsky 64 games selected to give a clear impression of how victory is gained. 1984, 174 pages 12 1.12 Learn from the Grandmasters Raymond D. Keene A wide spectrum of games by a no. of players an- notated from different angles. 1975, 120 pgs 13 1.13 The Modern Chess Sacrifice Leonid Shamkovich ‘A thousand paths lead to delusion, but only one to the truth.’ 1980, 214 pages 14 1.14 Blunders & Brilliancies Ian Mullen and Moe Over 250 excellent exercises to asses your apti- Moss tude for brilliancy and blunder.
    [Show full text]
  • Sample Pages
    01-01 Cover -March 2021_Layout 1 17/02/2021 17:19 Page 1 03-03 Contents_Chess mag - 21_6_10 18/02/2021 09:47 Page 3 Chess Contents Founding Editor: B.H. Wood, OBE. M.Sc † Executive Editor: Malcolm Pein Editorial....................................................................................................................4 Editors: Richard Palliser, Matt Read Malcolm Pein on the latest developments in the game Associate Editor: John Saunders Subscriptions Manager: Paul Harrington 60 Seconds with...Jorden van Foreest.......................................................7 Twitter: @CHESS_Magazine We catch up with the man of the moment after Wijk aan Zee Twitter: @TelegraphChess - Malcolm Pein Website: www.chess.co.uk Dutch Dominance.................................................................................................8 The Tata Steel Masters went ahead. Yochanan Afek reports Subscription Rates: United Kingdom How Good is Your Chess?..............................................................................18 1 year (12 issues) £49.95 Daniel King presents one of the games of Wijk,Wojtaszek-Caruana 2 year (24 issues) £89.95 3 year (36 issues) £125 Up in the Air ........................................................................................................21 Europe There’s been drama aplenty in the Champions Chess Tour 1 year (12 issues) £60 2 year (24 issues) £112.50 Howell’s Hastings Haul ...................................................................................24 3 year (36 issues) £165 David Howell ran
    [Show full text]
  • 2020-21 Candidates Tournament ROUND 9
    2020-21 Candidates Tournament ROUND 9 CATALAN OPENING (E05) easy to remove and will work together with the GM Anish Giri (2776) other pieces to create some long-term ideas. GM Wang Hao (2763) A game between two other top players went: 2020-2021 Candidates Tournament 14. Rac1 Nb4 15. Rfd1 Ra6 (15. ... Bxf3! 16. Bxf3 Yekaterinburg, RUS (9.3), 04.20.2021 c6 is the most solid approach in my opinion. I Annotations by GM Jacob Aagaard cannot see a valid reason why the bishop on f3 for Chess Life Online is a strong piece.) 16. Qe2 Nbd5 17. Nb5 Ne7 18. The Game of the Day, at least in terms of Nd2 Bxg2 19. Kxg2 Nfd5 20. Nc4 Ng6 21. Kh1 drama, was definitely GM Ding Liren versus Qe7 22. b3 Rd8 23. Rd2 Raa8 24. Rdc2 Nb4 25. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Drama often Rd2 Nd5 26. Rdc2, and the game was drawn in Ivanchuk – Dominguez Perez, Varadero 2016. means bad moves, which was definitely the case there. Equally important for the tournament 14. ... Bxg2 15. Kxg2 c6 16. h3!N 8. ... Bd7 standings was the one win of the day. GM Anish Giri moves into shared second place with this The bishop is superfluous and will be The real novelty of the game, and not a win over GM Wang Hao. exchanged. spectacular one. The idea is simply that the king The narrative of the game is a common one hides on h2 and in many situations leaves the 9. Qxc4 Bc6 10. Bf4 Bd6 11.
    [Show full text]
  • CONTENTS Contents
    CONTENTS Contents Symbols 5 Preface 6 Introduction 9 1 Glossary of Attacking and Strategic Terms 11 2 Double Attack 23 2.1: Double Attacks with Queens and Rooks 24 2.2: Bishop Forks 31 2.3: Knight Forks 34 2.4: The Í+Ì Connection 44 2.5: Pawn Forks 45 2.6: The Discovered Double Attack 46 2.7: Another Type of Double Attack 53 Exercises 55 Solutions 61 3 The Role of the Pawns 65 3.1: Pawn Promotion 65 3.2: The Far-Advanced Passed Pawn 71 3.3: Connected Passed Pawns 85 3.4: The Pawn-Wedge 89 3.5: Passive Sacrifices 91 3.6: The Kamikaze Pawn 92 Exercises 99 Solutions 103 4 Attacking the Castled Position 106 4.1: Weakness in the Castled Position 106 4.2: Rooks and Files 112 4.3: The Greek Gift 128 4.4: Other Bishop Sacrifices 133 4.5: Panic on the Long Diagonal 143 4.6: The Knight Sacrifice 150 4.7: The Exchange Sacrifice 162 4.8: The Queen Sacrifice 172 Exercises 176 Solutions 181 5 Drawing Combinations 186 5.1: Perpetual Check 186 5.2: Repetition of Position 194 5.3: Stalemate 197 5.4: Fortress and Blockade 202 5.5: Positional Draws 204 Exercises 207 Solutions 210 6 Combined Tactical Themes 213 6.1: Material, Endings, Zugzwang 214 6.2: One Sacrifice after Another 232 6.3: Extraordinary Combinations 242 6.4: A Diabolical Position 257 Exercises 260 Solutions 264 7 Opening Disasters 268 7.1: Open Games 268 7.2: Semi-Open Games 274 7.3: Closed Games 288 8 Tactical Examination 304 Test 1 306 Test 2 308 Test 3 310 Test 4 312 Test 5 314 Test 6 316 Hints 318 Solutions 320 Index of Names 331 Index of Openings 335 THE ROLE OF THE PAWNS 3 The Role of the Pawns Ever since the distant days of the 18th century 3.1: Pawn Promotion (let us call it the time of the French Revolution, or of François-André Danican Philidor) we have known that “pawns are the soul of chess”.
    [Show full text]
  • Parallel Chess Searching and Bitboards
    Parallel Chess Searching and Bitboards David Ravn Rasmussen August 2004 Abstract In order to make chess programs faster and thus stronger, the two approaches of parallelizing the search and of using clever data structures have been suc- cessful in the past. In this project it is examined how the use of a specific data structure called a bitboard affects the performance of parallel search. For this, a realistic bitboard chess program with important modern enhance- ments is implemented, and several experiments are done to evaluate the performance of the implementation. A maximum speedup of 9.2 on 22 pro- cessors is achieved in one experiment and a maximum speedup of 9.4 on 12 processors is achieved in another experiment. These results indicate that bitboards are a realistic choice of data structure in a parallel chess program, although the considerable difference in the two results suggests that more research could be done to clarify what factors affect such an implementation, and how. I II Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 The Game Of Chess 5 2.1 TheBoard............................. 6 2.2 TheArmies ............................ 6 2.3 TheMoves............................. 6 2.3.1 TheBishop ........................ 7 2.3.2 TheRook ......................... 7 2.3.3 TheQueen ........................ 8 2.3.4 TheKnight ........................ 8 2.3.5 TheKing ......................... 8 2.3.6 ThePawn ......................... 10 2.4 TheEnd.............................. 11 3 Game Trees and Searching 13 3.1 GameTrees ............................ 13 3.2 SearchAlgorithms ........................ 15 3.2.1 Minimax.......................... 16 3.2.2 Negamax ......................... 18 3.2.3 Evaluation......................... 18 3.2.4 Alpha-BetaSearch . 20 4 Search Algorithm Improvements 25 4.1 AspirationWindows .
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Najdorf Sicilian Focus on the Critical D5 Squar One the Most Common Openings in the Past 50 Years Is the Najdorf Variation Of
    1 Najdorf Sicilian will try to keep full control over the d5 Focus on the Critical d5 Squar square, and try to maintain the possibility of placing and keeping a piece One the most common openings in the on d5. Fully controlling the d5 square past 50 years is the Najdorf variation of allows white to affect both sides of the the Sicilian Defense. The Najdorf offers board. In order to assure that control, many different possibilities, starting from white wants to trade off black pieces extremely sharp, poison pawn variation that can control d5. For example, he (1. e4, c5 2. nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 wants to play with Bg5, in order to trade Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6 8. off the Knight on f6. He also will Qd2 Qxb2! ) to extremely positional lines increase the number of his own pieces (1. e4, c5 2. nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 that can control d5, with maneuvers like Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 ... ) bishop to c4, then b3, and the knight on Somewhere between those two lines is f3 going to d2-c4-e3. It seems that white the following position, which I will try to has full control of the situation. So why explain. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 does black choose to create this pawn 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 structure? The answer is because this is Diagram one of the rare Sicilian pawn structures abcdef gh that gives the black side a slight space advantage.
    [Show full text]
  • The Modernized Najdorf First Edition 2018 by Thinkers Publishing Copyright © 2018 Milos Pavlovic
    The Modernized Najdorf First edition 2018 by Thinkers Publishing Copyright © 2018 Milos Pavlovic All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re- trieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher. All sales or enquiries should be directed to Thinkers Publishing, 9850 Landegem, Belgium. Email: [email protected] Website: www.thinkerspublishing.com Managing Editor: Romain Edouard Assistant Editor: Daniël Vanheirzeele Software: Hub van de Laar Proofreading: Bernard Carpinter Graphic Artist: Philippe Tonnard Cover Design: Iwan Kerkhof Production: BESTinGraphics ISBN: 9789492510389 D/2018/13730/20 The Modernized Najdorf Milos Pavlovic Thinkers Publishing 2018 Table of Contents Key to Symbols ..................................................................................................... 4 Preface ................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 1 - 6th Move Sidelines .............................................................................. 7 Chapter 2 - The 6.f4 Variation ............................................................................. 41 Chapter 3 - The 6.Bc4 Variation......................................................................... 61 Chapter 4 - The 6.g3 Variation .......................................................................... 101 Chapter 5 - The 6.Be2 Variation......................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Livros De Xadrez
    LIVROS DE XADREZ No. TÍTULO Autor Editora 1 100 Endgames You Must Know Jesus de la Villa New In Chess 2 Ajedrez - La Lucha por la Iniciativa Orestes Aldama Zambrano Paidotribo 3 Alexander Alekhine Alexander Kotov R.H.M. Press 4 Alexander Alekhine´s Best Games Alexander Alekhine Batsford Chess 5 Analysing the Endgame John Speelman Batsford Chess 6 Art of Chess Combination Znosko-Borovsky Dover 7 Attack and Defence M.Dvoretsky & A.Yusupov Batsford Chess 8 Attack and Defence in Modern Chess Tactics Ludek Pachman RPK 9 Attacking Technique Colin Crouch Batsford Chess 10 Better Chess for Average Players Tim Harding Dover 11 Bishop v/s Knight: The Veredict Steve Mayer Ice 12 Bobby Fischer My 60 Memorable Games Bobby Fischer Faber & Faber Limited 13 Bobby Fischer Rediscovered Andrew Soltis Batsford 14 Bobby Fischer: His Aproach to Chess Elie Agur Cadogan 15 Botvinnik - One Hundred Selected Games M.Botvinnik Dover 16 Building Up Your Chess Lev Alburt Circ 17 Capablanca Edward Winter McFarland 18 Chess Endgame Quis Larry Evans Cardoza Publishing 19 Chess Endings Yuri Averbach Everyman Chess 20 Chess Exam and Training Guide Igor Khmelnitsky I am Coach Press 21 Chess Middlegames Yuri Averbach Cadogan Chess 22 Chess Praxis Aron Nimzowitsch Hays Publishing 23 Chess Praxis Aron Nimzowitsch Hays Publishing 24 Chess Self-Improvement Zenon Franco Gambit 25 Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player Alburt & Palatnik Circ 26 Creative Chess Amatzia Avni Cadogan Chess 27 Creative Chess Opening Preparation Viacheslav Eingorn Gambit 28 Endgame Magic J.Beasley
    [Show full text]
  • PGN/AN Verification for Legal Chess Gameplay
    PGN/AN Verification for Legal Chess Gameplay Neil Shah Guru Prashanth [email protected] [email protected] May 10, 2015 Abstract Chess has been widely regarded as one of the world's most popular games through the past several centuries. One of the modern ways in which chess games are recorded for analysis is through the PGN/AN (Portable Game Notation/Algebraic Notation) standard, which enforces a strict set of rules for denoting moves made by each player. In this work, we examine the use of PGN/AN to record and describe moves with the intent of building a system to verify PGN/AN in order to check for validity and legality of chess games. To do so, we formally outline the abstract syntax of PGN/AN movetext and subsequently define denotational state-transition and associated termination semantics of this notation. 1 Introduction Chess is a two-player strategy board game which is played on an eight-by-eight checkered board with 64 squares. There are two players (playing with white and black pieces, respectively), which move in alternating fashion. Each player starts the game with a total of 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops and eight pawns. Each of the pieces moves in a different fashion. The game ends when one player checkmates the opponents' king by placing it under threat of capture, with no defensive moves left playable by the losing player. Games can also end with a player's resignation or mutual stalemate/draw. We examine the particulars of piece movements later in this paper.
    [Show full text]
  • The Najdorf in Black and White
    Grandmaster Bryan Smith The Najdorf In Black and White Boston Contents Introduction: The Cadillac of Openings......................................................................... 5 The Development of the Najdorf Sicilian ...................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Va Banque: 6.Bg5 .................................................................................. 14 Chapter 2: The Classicist’s Preference: 6.Be2 ......................................................... 36 Chapter 3: Add Some English: 6.Be3 ...................................................................... 52 Chapter 4: In Morphy’s Style: 6.Bc4 ....................................................................... 74 Chapter 5: White to Play and Win: 6.h3 .................................................................. 94 Chapter 6: Systematic: 6.g3 ................................................................................... 110 Chapter 7: Healthy Aggression: 6.f4 ..................................................................... 123 Chapter 8: Action-Reaction: 6.a4 .......................................................................... 136 Chapter 9: Odds and Ends ..................................................................................... 142 Index of Complete Games ......................................................................................... 158 Introduction: The Cadillac of Openings ith this book, I present a collection of games played in the Najdorf Sicilian. WThe purpose of this book
    [Show full text]
  • Deconstructing the Myth of Brilliant Attacking Play NEW!
    U.S. TEAM TAKES GOLD AT THE WORLD SENIOR October 2018 | USChess.org Deconstructing the Myth of Brilliant Attacking Play NEW! GM Alexander Kalinin traces Fabiano Caruana’s career, analyses the role of his various trainers, explains the development of his playing style and points out what you can learn from his best games. With #!"$ paperback | 208 pages | $19.95 | from the publishers of A Magazine Free Ground Shipping On All Books, Software and DVDs at US Chess Sales $25.00 Minimum - Excludes Clearance, Shopworn and Items Otherwise Marked ADULT $ SCHOLASTIC $ 1 YEAR 49 1 YEAR 25 PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP In addition to these two MEMBER BENEFITS premium categories, US Chess has many •Rated Play for the US Chess community other categories and multi-year memberships •Print and digital copies of Chess Life (or Chess Life Kids) to suit your needs. For all of your options, •Promotional discounts on chess books and equipment see new.uschess.org/join- uschess/ or call •Helping US Chess grow the game 1-800-903-8723, option 4. www.uschess.org 1 Main office: Crossville, TN (931) 787-1234 Press and Communications Inquiries: [email protected] Advertising inquiries: (931) 787-1234, ext. 123 Tournament Life Announcements (TLAs): All TLAs should be e-mailed to [email protected] or sent to P.O. Box 3967, Crossville, TN 38557-3967 Letters to the editor: Please submit to [email protected] Receiving Chess Life: To receive Chess Life as a Premium Member, join US Chess, or enter a US Chess tournament, go to uschess.org or call 1-800-903-USCF (8723) Change of address: Please send to [email protected] Other inquiries: [email protected], (931) 787-1234, fax (931) 787-1200 US CHESS US CHESS STAFF EXECUTIVE Executive Director, Carol Meyer ext.
    [Show full text]