2019, Books, New in Chess, Reviews

An Attacking Repertoire for White with 1.d4

August 13, 2019 John Upham 4 Comments

An Attacking Repertoire for White with 1.d4 : Viktor Moskalenko

“Half the variations which are calculated in a tournament game turn out to be completely superfluous. Unfortunately, no one knows in advance which half..” – Jan Timman

The value for any practising chess player of a coherent opening repertoire when playing with the white pieces is key to success, enjoyment and efficient use of study time. Books with “Opening Repertoire” in the title are many and varied and we were intrigued to what the emphasis in this latest book from New in Chess would be.

From the books rear cover :

Viktor Moskalenko (1960) is an International Grandmaster and a FIDE Senior Trainer. The former Ukrainian champion’s recent books include The Even More Flexible French, The Wonderful Winawer, Training with Moska and The Fabulous Budapest Gambit.

So, what is An Attacking Repertoire for White with 1.d4 about ?

Up front one factor worth noting is that Moskalenko is advocating a repertoire based around the classical move order approach to playing the “Queen’s Gambit”, viz, 1 . d4, 2.c4 and 3. Nc3 rather than say 1. d4, 2.Nf3, 3.c4 which is, nonetheless, increasing in popularity. Some lines simply do not transpose of course so please bear that in mind !

The author has identified 14 defences employed by Black and offers lines for White against all of these. The variations given attention (and the order in which they are presented ) are :

King’s Indian Defence : Four Pawns Attack
Modern Benoni Defence : Taimanov Attack
Snake Benoni (a fairly rare beast at club level and good to see it discussed therefore)
Indo-Benoni which includes the Schmid Benoni & Czech Benoni
Benko & Volga Gambit
Grünfeld Defence
Nimzo Indian Defence
Slav Defence : Exchange Variation
Queen’s Gambit Accepted
Queen’s Gambit Declined : Triangle Variation
Queen’s Gambit Declined : Exchange Variation
Baltic Defence
Chigorin Defence
Albin Counter Gambit

For each of these chapters there is a theory / instructional section containing the recommended line, analysis and variations followed by a separate section of illustrative games from modern practise. Many of these 106 games are the authors own with insightful, deep notes explaining his thought processes.

For all fourteen chapters the emphasis of the author’s recommendations is on “active play supported by a powerful pawn centre” and this bears out when exploring the various recommendations.

Ideas featuring an early f3 (hence our comment about the Nf3 move order earlier!) appear frequently with the exceptions of the slightly surprising Exchange Slav and the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. recommendations. However, the latter pair do use active piece play lines (with an early Nf3 in the QGA).

The most interesting bonus is when one investigates the games section that is associated with each of the chapters. There is generous use of six clear symbols designating something special about various lines as follows :

TRICK : hidden tactics and some tricky ideas, e.g. traps you can set and pitfalls you have to avoid.
PUZZLE : possible transpositions, move order subtleties, curiosities and rare lines.
WEAPON : the best lines to choose; strong or surprising options for both attack and defence, which deserve attention.
PLAN : the main ideas for one of the sides in the next phase of the game.
STATISTICS : winning percentages for a line for either side / player.
KEEP IN MIND : here, fundamental ideas for either side are given.

An example from game 66 in the Exchange Slav chapter :

Black has played 11…Na5

12. Kf2

KEEP IN MIND : The king’s move is included in White’s plan, but it is more accurate to play h2-h4 or Ng3 first :

WEAPON / TRICK : For instance , 12.h4!? Nc4 13. Qc2!? b5 14. b3!? (with initiative) (14. Qb1 Khairullin-Kapnisis, Budva 2009) 14…b4? 15 Nxd5!+-;

WEAPON : Or 12. Ng3 !?

analysis diagram

12…Bc6 (12…h6 13 h4.!?) 13.g5!? Nd7 14.h4 Be7 15.Kf2! b5 (Moskalenko – Alono Rosell, Catalonia tt 2013) 16.Nce2!

Possibly the only disappointing recommendation is that of the use of the Exchange Slav to take on both the Slav and the Semi-Slav family. Recommending more ambitious lines for White would have increased the size of the book substantially and also the learning workload for the student : sometimes a line in the sand has to be drawn !

Reviewers usually like to point out material that they believe has been omitted and we will not disappoint you ! Chapters (we believe) should have been included are treatments of :

The Queen’s Indian Defence (the most surprising omission of all)
The Old Indian Defence (quite a rare bird of course)
The Dutch Defence (see below*)
Queen’s Gambit : Tarrasch Defence (popular at club level)

*In fairness to Moskalenko he refers readers to his previously (2014) New in Chess published The Diamond Dutch treatment to handle the white side of 1.d4 f5

We can also forgive the absence of any treatment of the Englund Gambit and other such blitz and rapidplay oddities !

As with every recent New in Chess publication high quality paper is used and the printing is clear. The book can easily be laid flat next to the board and does not require weights to prevent it from “self-closing” (a particular bugbear of ours !). Each diagram is clear and the instructional text is (mostly !) typeset in two column format, which, we find, enables the reader to maintain their place easily. Figurine algebraic notation is used throughout and the diagrams are placed adjacent to the relevant text.

At the rear is the customary detailed Index of Variations and following that there is an Index of Players where the numbers refer to pages.

In summary this book provides a pragmatic and fighting repertoire for White against most of the all the commonly encountered responses to 1.d4 and the Queen’s Gambit. There is a host of interesting new and dangerous ideas that help you fight for the whole point with the white pieces : recommended !

John Upham, Cove, Hampshire, August 13th 2019

Book Details :

Hardcover : 320 pages
Publisher: New In chess (2nd July 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9056918303
ISBN-13: 978-9056918309
Product Dimensions: 17 x 23.1 cm

Official web site of New in Chess

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2019, Players, Reports, Torquay

Life Begins at Eighty Six (!) for IM James T Sherwin

August 3, 2019 John Upham

Veteran IM James T Sherwin (FIDE 2231) brought home possibly the most pleasing result of the 2019 British Championships in Torquay.

Infamously featured in game one of Bobby Fischer’s Sixty Memorable Games, James has been resident in the London area for many years specialising in rapidplay events such as the Richmond and Golders Green series of rp tournaments.

James and FM Andrew Lewis (somewhat less that 86!) tied first equal in the orange lit Forum area of the Riviera Centre with 7.5/9 with James beating Gerald Moore (FIDE 2132) in the final round whereas Andrew (FIDE 2283) drew with Josiah Haynes (2132).

Well done James and Andrew !

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2019, Players

Caption Competition : What is Danny Gormally thinking ?

August 3, 2019 John Upham

We want to know what GM Danny Gormally is thinking here during the Torquay British Championships 2019.

Please suggest away via a comment below.

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2019, Players

Well done Lee : Chess Character of the Year 2019 !

August 3, 2019 John Upham

Lee Bullock : Chess Character of the Year 2019

Popular English chess enthusiast Lee Bullock was voted “Chess Character of the Year 2019” by an adoring audience at the 2019 British Chess Championships in Torquay.

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2019, Congress, Reports, Tournament

Today in Torquay…

August 2, 2019 John Upham

BCN has joined the action in wonderful Torquay at the Riviera Centre.

On Board four we have IM Richard Pert vs GM Nick Pert (Richard won the game) :

and on board three : GM John Emms vs GM Justin Tan (the game was drawn) :

and on board two : IM Richard Palliser vs GM Stephen Gordon (the game was drawn) :

and on top board we have GM David Howell vs GM Michael Adams (the game was drawn) :

Follow the action at Twitch with GM Danny Gormally and IM Adam Hunt

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2019, Biographies, Birthday, Players

Happy Birthday Richard !

July 28, 2019 John Upham

BCN is delighted to send birthday wishes to Richard James, today, July 28th.

Member of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club since 1966.
Active tournament and occasional county player 1966-1977.
I started teaching chess informally in 1973 and in 1975, together with Mike Fox, founded Richmond Junior Chess Club. When Mike moved to Birmingham in 1979 I took sole charge of the Club – where I remained until July 2006. In September 2006 Peter Sowray took over the top section of the Club while I continued to run the lower group until July 2007. I returned to Richmond Junior Club in April 2012 and am currently teaching there along with Marie Gallagher and Mark Josse.
Author of chess books (on chess for children and chess trivia) and magazine columns.
Recipient of the British (now English) Chess Federation President’s Award in 1996.
I have also worked on various chess editing projects, and am now writing for Right Way Books. My book Chess for Kids is a best seller on Amazon, receiving very positive reviews, and the companion volume for parents and teachers, The Right Way to Teach Chess to Kids was published in June 2013.

Employment:
I worked as a computer programmer in the Market Research Industry 1972-1986, writing programs to analyse market research data.
Between 1986 and 1997 I continued computer programming work on a freelance basis while working on chess projects. I was working for the Richmond Chess Initiative from its foundation in 1993 until its closure in 2005, and at some point in the mid 1990s I started being paid for running Richmond Junior Chess Club. I have been involved in running school chess clubs since 1993, and, because of my dissatisfaction with the traditional lunchtime or after-school chess club, I am always interested in hearing from schools who want to try a different approach and are prepared to listen to my views.
I was working at Hampton Court House from 2002 to 2013, providing one-to-one chess tuition, teaching reasoning and logic to Y4 and Y5 and preparing children for 11+ Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning tests.

I left Hampton Court House in Summer 2013, due to declining interest in chess at the school, and, more generally in the Richmond area. I’m now branching out into schools in the Hounslow area, where children currently have fewer opportunities for extra-curricular activities, and where there is, by and large, less academic pressure.

I’m also the curriculum consultant for Chess in Schools and Communities, a charity putting chess on the curriculum in state primary schools, and am hoping to be able to help some schools in the Borough of Hounslow in this respect in future.

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2019, Biographies, Birthday, Players

Ninety Today : John Roycroft

July 25, 2019 John Upham

We are delighted to offer Arthur John Roycroft best wishes on his ninetieth birthday, this day (July 25th) in 1929.

From Wikipedia :

In 1959 he was awarded the title International Judge of Chess Compositions.[1] In 1965 he founded EG, the first long-running journal exclusively for endgame studies.[2] Roycroft served as editor and publisher through 1991. The journal continues to be published, but under Dutch ownership (“ARVES”). Roycroft remained its chief editor until 2007 when Harold van der Heijden took over. His 1972 book Test Tube Chess (revised as The Chess Endgame Study, 1981) is considered one of the best English-language examinations of endgame studies.[2] He also served as the endgame study editor for the British Chess Magazine from 1973 to 1974.

Roycroft’s adaptation of the Guy–Blandford code in the 1970s resulted in the Guy–Blandford–Roycroft code, an efficient way to index endgame studies – or any chess position.[3] He also advised Ken Thompson in writing programs for endgame data bases with four and five pieces. For queen and pawn against queen some results were published by Roycroft in three booklets in 1986, years ahead of full tablebase output on CD.

AJR won the BCF President’s Award in 1995.

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2019, Books, Reviews, Thinkers Publishing

Learn from Michal Krasenkow

July 19, 2019 Colin Purdon

Learn from Michal Krasenkow : Michal Krasenkow

In Learn from Michal Krasenkow the author annotates 54 of his complete games and, additionally, he analyses 12 of his endgames. Also, he provides just over 20 pages of interesting biographical information, which is mainly about his chess life although it includes personal details.

Michal Krasenkow is a top GM who has been in the worlds top 10, and in 2002 his rating was just over 2700 (which was even more impressive then than it is now). Currently 55 years years of age he has been on the chess scene for a long time, and indeed he entitles his biographical chapter “Five Decades in Chess”. As well as describing his own progress at chess, he also describes the difficulties he had making further progress within the (then) Soviet Union and he describes why he changed his name to Krasenkow, and how and why he later left the Soviet Union to become a Polish citizen. Interesting stuff…

The main body of this book contains his annotated games, which Krasenkow refers to as “Memorable Games”. Around 370 of the 408 pages are devoted to this, of which nearly 300 are for the complete games and the remainder for the endgames. The games are arranged into chapters with different themes, such as

“Combinations & Tactics”,
“Attack on the Uncastled King”,
“Flank attack on the King”,
“Positional Play”,
“Defence” and so on.

He also includes a “Various” chapter for games that can’t easily be categorised. Similarly, the endings are separated into chapters for Pawn, Rook and Bishop endings. I guess that this structure helps with the “Learn” part of the book’s title.

The book does have a flaw: the Index of Games is nothing other than a list of the games with numbers, players and tournament – there is no page number given ! To make it worse, the games themselves do not include the game number in the header. This means that to find a game from the index the reader has to leaf through the pages and look to see if a page has a game that is before or after the one being looked for. To be fair, the reader needs only search the relevant chapter, not the whole book, but it is still rather tedious. This is a shame, because the author uses the game numbers in his introduction and the production values of the book are otherwise excellent. It is also fair to say that an index is not so important in a games collection as it is in other types of chess book, so I will leave it there. (Ed: having reviewed several titles from Thinkers Publishing BCN is of the opinion that the publisher has a policy of no index.)

The compelling star feature of the book is the high quality of the annotations themselves. Krasenkow provides clear explanations of many of the moves, and supplements this with concrete (sometimes quite deep!) lines when the position requires it. In my opinion he gets the balance just right, and it is easy to see why Krasenkow is a top coach as well as a strong player. Players of widely differing strengths will be able to enjoy and benefit from the author’s annotations.

Here is an example of Krasenkow’s clarity of thought, when discussing a position from a game against Sveshnikov :

“16. Nxf6+?!
A) I didn’t want to play 16. f3, fearing 16… Nh5, but then White can keep an edge by means of 17. g3 [rather than 17. Nc2 Nf4! 18 Nxf4 exf4 followed by …Bg5-f6].
B) Besides, Qd3 was possible. After the exchange on f6 Black gets control of the d4-square.”

This sort of commentary is quite typical of his style, although he can and does give lengthy lines where he feels this is appropriate.

In summary: I highly recommend this book. It can be read for enjoyment by those who simply like going through well-annotated chess games, and there is little doubt that more serious study will benefit those looking to improve.

Colin Purdon, July 20th 2019