How to Be Lucky in Chess
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"'- How to Be Lucky in Chess David LeMoir Illustrations by Ken LeMoir �I�lBIITI First published in the UK by Gambit Publications Ltd 2001 Contents Copyright © David LeMoir 2001 Illustrations © Ken LeMoir 2001 The right of David LeMoir to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accor dance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Symbols 4 Acknowledgements All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or 4 otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being Introduction: Luck in Chess 5 imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication data is available from the British Part 1: Getting Out of Jail 10 Library. 1 Typical Faults of the Superior Side 19 2 Reasons to be Cheerful - Summary ISBN 1 901983 48 X 49 3 Fighting Out of Trouble 51 DISTRIBUTION: Wo rldwide (except USA): Central Books Ltd, 99 Wallis Rd, London E9 5LN. Part 2: Aspects of Luck 73 +44 (0)20 8986 4854 +44 (0)20 8533 5821. Tel Fax E-mail: [email protected] 4 Infamy! 90 USA: BHB International, Inc., 41 Monroe Turnpike, Trumbull, CT 06611, USA. 3: For all other enquiries (including a full list of all Gambit Chess titles) please contact the publishers, Part The Successful Speculative Sacrifice 114 Gambit Publications Ltd, P. O. Box 32640, London W14 OJN. 5 Why Play Speculative Sacrifices? 117 E-mail [email protected] 6 Why Do Defenders Fail? Can't Analyse, Won't Analyse 118 Or visit the GAMBIT web site at http://www.gambitbooks.com 7 Motives for Playing Speculative Sacrifices 147 8 Ways and Means 157 Edited by Graham Burgess 9 When is a Speculative Sacrifice Not a Speculative Sacrifice? 166 Ty peset by Petra Nunn Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Wiltshire. Conclusion: How Not to Be Unlucky in Chess 169 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I Index of Players 175 Index of Openings 176 Gambit PublicationsLtd Managing Director: GM Murray Chandler Chess Director: GM John Nunn Editorial Director: FM Graham Burgess German Editor: WFM Petra Nunn Symbols Introduction: Luck in Chess + check ++ double check # checkmate !! brilliant move good move !? interesting move ?! dubious move ? bad move ?? blunder Ch championship 1-0 the game ends in a win for White 112-112 the game ends in a draw 0-1 the game ends in a win for Black (D) see next diagram Note on gradings and ratings Occasionally, BCF (British Chess Federation) gradings are mentioned. In each case, a conver sion to the an international Elo rating is given, based on the formula (BCF x 8) + 600 = Elo. This formula is only approximate, especially for ratings well below 2200 Elo. The Elo ratings men tioned may also not correspondvery accurately to the various national rating systems that use the Elo system, or some modified version of it. For instance, to obtain an equivalent USCF rating, it may be necessary to add 100 points to the figures given. Acknowledgements Is there such a thing as luck in chess? I'd like to thank my father, Ken, for the fineillustrations in this book, and particularly for the skill game is significantly inferior to your oppo Chess is complex but, at any point in the with which he created the main character of Laskarov, a hybrid of Emanuel Lasker and Garry nent's, you lose. If it is significantlysuperior, game, what you see is what you get. Unlike Kasparov, who are two of the greatest examples that we could follow in creating our own luck in you win. The 'margin of the draw' means that card games, in chess there is no unexpected chess. you can play better or worse and still draw, tum of the card, no need to work out the like Thanks also to Graham Burgess and the rest of the Gambit team for their patience and encour but that is a fact of chess-playing life and has lihood of which cards are in which hands. Un agement, and to my wife, Sue, for excusing me gardening duty for the duration of the creative little to do with luck. like in backgammon, there is no uncertain process. Since the garden covers more than two acres, that was some sacrifice on her part. I'm So, one persuasive argument suggests that throw of the dice. And unlike in ball games lucky indeed to have her. there is no such thing as luck in chess. such as football, cricket and baseball, un And yet, discuss chess with just about any lucky bounces by the ball, and bad decisions one and you will hear: by the officials, are not part and parcel of the 'I was lucky. He totally outplayed me, but game. In general, if your play across the whole then he blundered and I escaped with a draw.' 6 Ho w TO BE LUCKY IN CHESS INTRODUCTION: LUCK IN CHESS 7 'I was unlucky. I was winning easily, but I played on Janowski's prejudices. He would His supporters retorted that 'Fortune fa reason why his results were so good was that got into time-trouble and made a mistake.' tempt him to attack, and then exploit his vours the brave'. It began to dawn on people gaining an advantage against him was no 'His sacrifice was unsound, but he was over-optimism to refute it. that Rudolf Spielmann had been right in The guarantee of victory - it simply ensured that lucky that I didn't spot the refutation that we On one famous occasion, he exchanged Art of Sacrifice in Chess to say that sacrific all of his fighting instincts were fully aroused. found afterwards.' both of his bishops for Janowski's knights, ing puts the opponent at a psychological dis I'm sure he knew that the player with a rec 'I was two pawns ahead, but unfortunately then dug in and waited. Move after move, advantage. After Tal's initial impact, the main ognizable advantage can sufferpsychological opposite-coloured bishops meant that the Janowski skilfully improved his position un works on the chess sacrifice(C hess Sacrifices problems. Over-confidence could make him ending was drawn.' til, for an optimist, surely he was winning by Sharnkovich and The Chess Sacrifice by careless. Fear- that he may lose his hard-won 'He played better for the whole game, but I hands down. Lasker must surely collapse Vukovic) took the psychological impact of gains - could make him too keen to simplify was lucky that he couldn't win the rook and soon. sacrifices as a key theme. or might cause him to retreat into his shell. pawn ending a pawn ahead.' However, Lasker did not collapse; he con Despite recurrent health problems, Tal re Frustration at the defender's stubborn resis So does luck exist in chess after all? tinued calmly to resist. Janowski became mained a leading grandmaster until his death tance could make him mishandle the clock. All of these bits of modesty or moaning frustrated,blundered and lost. Lasker had been in the early 1990s. He had delighted the The pressure of expecting to win, or the shock can be summarized as 'I (or he) was lucky lucky, or so the critics would say... rank-and-file chess-player with his bold sac of an unforeseen tum of events, could lead to that he (or I) played (or judged the position) Each of Lasker's main rivals came under rificesand, yes, the strange justice of his luck. confusion and panic that cause otherwise un badly in the end.' similar scrutiny. It was said that Lasker some intelligible blunders. We should remember that the game isn't times lost a game, but he rarely lost his head. 'The Equalizing Injustice of Chess' So, like Lasker, we should see a recogniz over until one player is mated, stalemated, He took risks, but he was overwhelmingly Ossip Bernstein, a contemporary of Lasker, able disadvantage as just another game situa loses on time or resigns, or the players agree successful, and he enjoyed the struggles that coined this expression.