The NH Open is this weekend! Alas, this year the $42 entry fee for the New Hampshire Chess Championship (more if you pay at the door) hits the wallet too hard. I’m not used to this budgeting stuff!
The good news is I’ll be spending Sunday with my friend Scott, and we’ll be dropping in to the tournament site to catch the big match-ups during the final championship rounds.
And… he’s going to cook up some home-made vegan chili (starting with dried beans) for lunch at his place. Should be a fun day, and I think it’s supposed to finally stop raining and warm up around here. Woohoo!
I’ll see if any of the guys would be willing to send me a game or two for the blog after the event. <fingers crossed>
First off, big congratulations are due our new US Champion, Hikaru Nakamura. Steady play throughout the recently completed tournament netted him clear first. And thanks to Jen Shahade and all involved in pulling off such great live coverage. A most enjoyable event from the spectator’s point of view, with lots of fighting chess.
One game from close second, Robert Hess, particularly impressed and made me happy to see the great World Chess Champion Capablanca had clearly left his mark on our youth.
Any guesses as to which endgame of Capablanca’s both reminded me? This brilliant masterpiece, of course!
[Event "New York"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date "1924.??.??"]
[Round "06"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Jose Raul Capablanca"]
[Black "Savielly Tartakower"]
[ECO "A80"]
1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 f5 3. c4 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Nc3 O-O 6. e3 b6 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. O-O Qe8 9. Qe2 Ne4 10. Bxe7 Nxc3 11. bxc3 Qxe7 12. a4 Bxf3 13. Qxf3 Nc6 14. Rfb1 Rae8 15. Qh3 Rf6 16. f4 Na5 17. Qf3 d6 18. Re1 Qd7 19. e4 fxe4 20. Qxe4 g6 21. g3 Kf8 22. Kg2 Rf7 23. h4 d5 24. cxd5 exd5 25. Qxe8+ Qxe8 26. Rxe8+ Kxe8 27. h5! {This is the calamity–the Rook now enters the hostile camp. — Alekhine} Rf6 28. hxg6 hxg6 29. Rh1 {White plays logically to utilize his advantage on the K-side and very properly does not concern himself with the weakness of the Q-side. Black, on the other hand, makes a defensive move which he could perhaps have omitted. — Reti} Kf8 30. Rh7 Rc6 31. g4 {Anxious nature might have moved the King towards the queenside, but Capablanca adheres to the principle of aggression that governs rook endings. — Reti} Nc4 32. g5 {He gives his opponent the opportunity of winning a pawn. But Capablanca has confidence in the passed pawn which he obtains. — Reti} Ne3+ 33. Kf3 Nf5 34. Bxf5 {Simple and compelling. — Alekhine} gxf5 35. Kg3! {Decisive! White sacrifices material in order to obtain the classical position with King on f6, pawn on g6, and Rook on h7, whereupon the black pawns tumble like ripe apples. — Alekhine} Rxc3+ {It is extremely instructive to see how Capablanca is no longer in the least concerned about material equality, but thinks only of supporting his passed pawn. — Reti} 36. Kh4 Rf3 37. g6 Rxf4+ 38. Kg5 Re4 39. Kf6 {It is a frequently available finesse in such positions not to capture hostile pawns, but to pass them by in order to be protected in the rear against checks by the rook. — Reti} Kg8 40. Rg7+ Kh8 41. Rxc7 Re8 42. Kxf5 {Again the simplest. Kf7 would not yet have been disastrous because of Rd8, etc. — Alekhine} Re4 43. Kf6 Rf4+ 44. Ke5 Rg4 45. g7+ Kg8 {After exchanging rooks, White would win still more easily. — Alekhine} 46. Rxa7 Rg1 47. Kxd5 Rc1 48. Kd6 Rc2 49. d5 Rc1 50. Rc7 Ra1 51. Kc6 Rxa4 52. d6 {Capablanca’s management of the endgame gives the impression of being so natural that one easily forgets the difficulty of such precise play. The difficulty is chiefly psychological. In chess, as in life, one is so accustomed to place value on the material factors that it is not easy to conceive the idea of indulging in pawn sacrifices when there is so little available material. –Reti} 1-0
I first encountered this game in the excellent book Capablanca’s Best Chess Endings: 60 Complete Game by Irving Chernev, which I highly recommend. I’ve read it a couple times now, and it’s due for another.
What do these games have in common? In all three, the victor allowed his opponent to capture pawns WITH CHECK in order to advance his king into attacking position.
My first game using the chess.com Facebook app (a really cool piece of software) was against my friend Keith. We created a near miniature after he veered from known theory.
The time control was three days for each move, but I’d say we averaged more like a day each.
Note the bit of local flare in the embedded game won by the Massachusetts youth Max Enkin. I had forgotten this game and only recalled having seen it during the post-mortem.
You’re probably familiar with descriptive notation, the once standard manner of writing down games. With this form of recording a battle, the moves are described from the vantage point of the player on the move and in relation to their pieces starting squares. It’s also often referred to as simply old notation, ever since the advent of the current standard, algebraic form.
Many people who did not grow up on descriptive notation find it difficult to grasp. Part of this is no doubt due to the fact that each square has two names depending on whether it is a White or Black move. For example, the d4 square is either Q4 (Queen 4) from White’s point of view, or Q5 from Black’s.
Further complicating the situation is the apparent necessity of remembering from whence each piece came. This is because, when, say, two knights can both land on the same square, the piece making the move is distinguished by whether it is the KN (King’s Knight) or the QN that is to occupy that space.
You may find it interesting to learn there’s an even older, even more descriptive chess notation that was once the way games were recorded. It looked a little like the following pulled from Philidor’s classic instructional entitled Chess Analysed.
White. The King’s Pawn two Steps.
Black. The fame.
2.
W. The King’s Bifhop at his Queen’s Bishop’s fourth Square.
B. The fame.
3.
W. The Queen’s Bifhop’s Pawn one Move.
B. The King’s Knight at his Bifhop’s third Square.
4.
W. The Queen’s Pawn two Moves.
B. The Pawn takes it.
5.
W. The Pawn retakes the Pawn.
B. The King’s Bifhop at his Queen’s Knight’s third Square.
6.
W. The Queen’s Knight at his Bifhop’s third Square.
B. The King caftles.
7.
W. The King’s Knight at his King’s fecond Square.
B. The Queen’s Bifhop’s Pawn one Move.
8.
W. The King’s Bifhop at his Queen’s third Square.
B. The Queen’s Pawn two Moves.
Seriously, each move pair took up three lines(!), one for the move number, and full sentences for both the White and Black moves. Notice also the almost arbitrary capitalization throughout and the ‘f’s in Bishop and castles. These latter are, of course, the letter ’s’, but in olden times, they were more like long f’s.
Here’s that same start in our beloved algebraic notation.
