This article is brought to you by Chess Chronicle - an example of the excellent instructional material that can be found twice a month in the pages of Chess Chronicle, the First Ever Semi-Monthly Online Chess e-zine!  It contains theoretical analysis, opening survey, chess novelties and well annotated games, plus instructive articles by Grandmasters and International Masters.

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(3/24)  Review:  My 35 Most Memorable Games, Lessons of a Weekend Warrior by Andy Fletcher, reviewed by Rick Kennedy.  "Fletcher believes that players have different strengths in different parts of the game, and that he is highest rated in the endgame.  His game selections reflect this, as do his notes.  Although there are all sorts of topical openings such as the Sicilian Najdorf and the Benko Gambit, his analytical and explanatory focus is primarily on the middlegame and afterward.  This accounted for the near-migraine – no, more of a painful flashback – that I experienced after playing over the first half dozen or so of the games...Mind you, there’s plenty of slam-bang chess, as in the following position from 1985 when facing Rakhinshteyn and the Polugaevsky variation in the Sicilian Defense..."

(3/23)  Review:  Chess for Zebras - Thinking Differently about Black and White by Jonathan Rowson, reviewed by Michael Jeffreys.  "Rowson has clearly spent a lot of time thinking about chess and how to improve at it, and he shares his ideas in a very straightforward, yet chatty style.  The thing is so packed with great ideas (many that I have seen nowhere else), that I have pen and highlight marks (gasp!) on practically every page.  He is like a chess psychologist who delves into the mind of the average player and shines a flashlight on those parts of your thinking that are holding you back..."

Part 1

GM Amir Bagheri

(3/19)  Annotated Game: Short-Karpov, 10th Match game, 1992 World Championship Semi-Finals, with commentary by GM Amir Bagheri.  "Here we discuss the historic tenth and final game of the 1992 World Championship Semi-Finals match between GMs Nigel Short (right) and former World Champion, GM Anatoly Karpov.  It should be remembered that Short needed only a draw to ensure his qualification for the championship match against Garry Kasparov, while Karpov had to win to level the scores and prolong the match into the sudden death rapid-play tie-breaks..."

(3/19)  USCL Player Profiles - FM Elect David Pruess Annotates:  The San Francisco Mechanics player annotates his 8th-round encounter with League MVP Runner-Up, NM Elvin Wilson, of the Philadelphia Masterminds.  David Pruess is currently just an FM, but is well on his way towards gaining the IM title.  With two IM norms and a few near misses, David can be expected to gain the title quickly.  David's strongest point is his amazing fighting spirit and his confidence, as he always expects to win and will almost never accept a draw unless the position is totally devoid of life.  These aspects of David's play can make him a fun player to watch and also produce results that one wouldn't expect from someone at his rating level.  David's style is dynamic: dynamic players are usually pretty well rounded, but lean more towards the aggressive/tactical side.  They often play enterprising openings and try to simply outplay you.  They aren't scared to mix things up and are usually fighting constantly...

(3/19)  Seattle Sluggers and Tennessee Tempo unveil logos!  The USCL's two new teams for the 2006 season have been announced, and their logos have been officially released to the public.

The Seattle Sluggers hope to be a force in the Western division and have named their team after the Slugfest chess tournaments that are run by team manager Clint Ballard.

The Tennessee Tempo are ready to go as well, and hoping to outperform the Sluggers and show that they are the strongest new team in the USCL.  Team Manager FM Todd Andrews chose the nickname Tempo because Tennessee is known for its great musical heritage and also because the word tempo also has a chess meaning behind it.

Good luck to both new teams!  Stay tuned to Chessville for more information as it becomes available, including exact team rosters, schedules, and more!

(3/19)  Review:  Understanding the Chess Openings by Sam Collins, reviewed by S. Evan Kreider.  "...before discussing the book itself, I feel compelled to make a digression.  Many chess players I know are interested in this book, but wonder if they ought to buy it if they already own a similar book such as Fine’s Ideas or Gabor Kallai’s 2-volume work of the same type.  Thus, I take it as my primary responsibility to help the reader make this decision, and in order to do so, I must at least briefly consider these other works..."

(3/12)  Playing With the Position:
by FM Amatzia Avni.  "Chess players are used to analyzing variations that could have arisen during a game.  They take a specific position as a base for their calculations and ask themselves what would have happened had each side choose this or that move.  Being also a study composer, I am trained in shifting pieces to and fro, asking myself what would happen if the position were a bit different; say, one rank lower, or having a pawn on a certain square instead of a knight, and so on.  Taking this method to the field of practical battle allows one, I believe, to gain a better and fuller understanding of a chess position and its latent possibilities..."

(3/12)  Review:  The Hippopotamus Rises The Re-emergence of a Chess Opening by IM Andrew Martin, reviewed by Rick Kennedy.  "In 1957, John Crittenden Thompson, an Englishman, wrote and self-published a small pamphlet on the Hippopotamus Chess Opening.  The chess world, by and large, yawned.  To be fair, a contemporary, W. Evans, had suggested earlier that “Mr. Thompson may be the only man who has invented a completely new opening for a century or more!”  While Harry Golombek had been a bit less charitable, suggesting “He ought to be psycho-analysed!”  The Hippopotamus, which Thompson revealed in the pages of HCO, could be played with either the black or the white pieces, and the game should start out, if at all possible, with the moves 1.f3, 2.g3, 3.Nh3, 4.Nf2, 5.e3, 6.c3, 7.d3, 8.Be2, 9.Nd2, 10.Nf1 11.b3 or 1…f6, 2…g6, 3…Nh6, 4…Nf7, 5…e6, 6…c6, 7…d6, 8…Be7, 9…Nd7, 10…Nf8 and 11…b6.  There is much that is odd about this beast..."

(3/12)  Review:  Petroff Defense by Alexander Raetsky & Maxim Chetverik, reviewed by S. Evan Kreider.  "The Petroff Defense (a.k.a. “the Russian Game”) is an excellent choice for someone looking for an alternative to the Black side of the Scotch, Italian, or Spanish.  It is perfectly sound, solid yet active, and fairly easy to learn.  It also involves much less theory than the Two Knights Defense or the main lines of the Spanish – or so I would have thought before seeing this book!  In this work, Raetsky and Chetverik have created a thorough and up-to-date theoretical manual for the Petroff specialist.  However, its usefulness to the average club player is far from apparent..."

(3/5)  Recon64:  The Move-Prediction exercise from the creative genius of Prof. Chester Nuhmentz.  Click on the portrait of Aaron Nimzowitsch to try this month's Recon64 game selected especially for the readers of Chessville: Friedrich Saemisch vs. Nimzowitsch; Copenhagen, 1923. Note that this month you will be predicting the moves for Black.

Similar to Predict-A-Move and Solitaire-type chess exercises, Recon64 challenges players to find candidate moves from games played by masters.  Players are encouraged to search for several strong candidate moves in each position, and are rewarded as long as their list of moves includes the move selected by the master during the game.  As an extra twist, players invest Recon64-dollars on candidate moves based on how likely they think each move was used in the original game...  Play Recon64!!

GM Amir Bagheri

(3/5)  GM Amir Bagheri Annotates:  Miles-Short, London 1982 is the game, and what a game!  Short ties Miles into knots, then uncorks a doozey of a combo to finish the job.  GM Bagheri shows you how Short, step by step, puts Miles on the defensive - and keeps him there!

1.g3 Nf6 2.Bg2 d5 3.Nf3 c6 4.0-0 Bf5

A good solid reply to White's restrained and subtle flank opening.  Black sensibly sets up a bulwark of pawns in the centre.

Jonny Hector

(2/26)  Review:  Ideas Behind Modern Chess Openings: Black by Gary Lane, reviewed by Rick Kennedy.  "If you’re a club or tournament player who’s looking for something different to play with the black pieces – maybe your defenses are worn out, maybe they’ve been whacked around a bit, maybe you’re just plain bored with them – you might want to consider Gary Lane’s new offering, Ideas Behind Modern Chess Openings: Black.  About the title: although at first glance the book would appear to be a descendent of Fine’s Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, it is not – it is actually an opening repertoire book for Black..."

(2/26)  Understand Chess - The Restricted Mobility of a Piece: by GM Victor Gavrikov.  This instructive and fascinating look at piece mobility is brought to you by the kind folks at Chess Chronicle.  It is an example of the excellent instructional material that can be found twice a month in the pages of Chess Chronicle, the First Ever Semi-Monthly Online Chess e-zine!  Each issue brings you theoretical analysis, opening survey, chess novelties and well annotated games,
plus instructive articles by Grandmasters and Masters.

(2/26)  Review:  Play 1.e4 e5! - A Complete Repertoire for Black in the Open Games by Nigel Davies, reviewed by Michael Jeffreys.  “1…e5 is arguably the simplest and most logical reply to 1.e4, taking space in the centre and opening diagonals for the queen and bishop.  It has been played by every world champion in the history of the game, and many of them played nothing else.” – Nigel Davies  "Certainly Davies gives a strong endorsement for at the very least giving 1…e5 (assuming you don’t already play it) a try.  He spends over half the book (108 pages to be exact) on the Ruy Lopez, with the Two Knights Defence and The Scotch game getting the Lion’s share of the rest of the book, while The King’s Gambit and the Vienna receive honorable mentions.  Let’s take a quick look at each chapter, and see what Mr. Davies has to offer..."

(2/19)  On the Opening in Fischer Random Chess:  Robert Tuohey (Past Pawns) looks at one of the least investigated aspects of this intriguing version of the royal game - the opening.  [Editor's note: It is somewhat ironic that the whole idea behind Fischer Random Chess (FRC) is to avoid opening preparation!]  Writes Tuohey:  "Set firmly within the framework of standard chess, FRC is based upon a very refined usage of the 17th century “shuffle concept”: the resultant 960 starting arrays permit of a chess that is, at once, more profound and creative, and yet in no way burdened with a ponderous “openings theory”.  Therein, however, lies the drawback as well: the FRC player is required to analyze the particular starting array he finds before him based solely upon general principles.  Very strangely, considering the countless articles written on FRC, this, the most basic problem posed by this variant – i.e., How do I go about analyzing an FRC opening position? – has all but been ignored!  With this in mind, then, I’d like to offer the following basic method..."

(2/19)  Hybrid Chess Playing Sites:  Chess Maniac's Dennis Steele looks at the many advantages of sites that allow you to play live - or one move at a time.

Some of the lesser known ideas - involve using the open file as trampoline for transferring the Rook to another file.  This idea was mentioned by Aaron Nimtsovich in his masterpiece “My System.”  Mark Dvoretsky contributed greatly to the development of this subject.  I’d compare this to the elevator going to the middle floor and you have a skywalk (or something similar) to get to a different tower..."

(2/12)  Review:  Dealing with d4 Deviations - Fighting the Trompowsky, Torre, Blackmar-Diemer, London, Colle and other Problem Openings by John Cox, reviewed by Michael Jeffreys.  "I’m not sure why it took so long, but finally here is a new book out covering the non-mainline d4 openings.  There have been books written on the Trompowsky and the Veresov [Editor's Note: See The Trompowsky by Nigel Davies, and Winning With the Trompowsky by Peter Wells], but nowhere could you find suggestions for what to do against many of these so called “off beat” opening all in one book… until now.  (There is the Foxy Openings video by IM Andrew Martin called, “Annoying d-pawn openings,” but that came out in 1996!)  And I must say, it’s about time!"

(2/12)  Review: American Chess Bulletin Vol 1 1904, reviewed by Russell Miller.  "My interest in  chess history caused me to purchase this book.  American Chess Bulletin got started because of the International Masters’ Tournament held at Cambridge Springs, PA in 1904 and won by Frank J. Marshall.  Volume 1 number 1 is 40 pages and is all about the Cambridge Springs event.  The book starts with Marshall’s games, with a few notes by him to each of his 15 games..."

(2/5)  Chess Today:  GM Alexander Baburin famous daily chess internet newspaper is one of the best ways to stay in touch with chess news, while feeding your need for chess training and study material.  In today's brief review, GM Baburin provides two recent issues for you to download for free, or read online of you prefer!

Each issue of Chess Today usually ranges from five to eight pages in length and contains a puzzle, news reports from major chess events and matches, and annotated GM/IM games.  Occasional OpEd pieces discuss chess politics and other current chess events.  Some issues contain instructional materials, book review, interviews and cartoons. You can load the games onto your computer to follow along, or just print CT and take it with you to read during your commute to work, or on your lunch hour.  The extra versatility provided by the inclusion of the games files make CT the perfect daily chess information source.

(2/5)  Review:  Chess is a Struggle: My Selected Games by Neil Sullivan and Unorthodox Chess by Some Loser, reviewed by Rick Kennedy.  "You’ve played chess for years, you’ve gotten pretty good at it and you’d like to think that you have something to say to others on the subject.  What do you do?  Nowadays, with word processing and chess software available to anyone, with print-on-demand publishing houses readily accessible, and with the Internet awaiting your marketing efforts – you write a chess book!

Today’s review looks at the vastly different efforts of two Canadian chess players, Neil Sullivan and the pseudonymous “Some Loser.”  Sullivan, FIDE 2123, presents 50 of his best games in Chess is a Struggle, all annotated with a tone and at a level to appeal to the improving club and tournament player, in a way that brings to mind for me Alex Dunne’s How to Become A Candidate Master.  The book benefits greatly from the use of diagrams and the efforts of someone skilled in book layout...."

(2/4)  Recon64:  The Move-Prediction exercise from the creative genius of Prof. Chester Nuhmentz.  Click on the portrait of Jose Capablanca to try this month's Recon64 game selected especially for the readers of Chessville: Capablanca vs. Marc Fonaroff; New York, 1918.  AcademicChess.com critiques this miniature game (22 moves) in this way "... Capablanca's most brilliant short game.  An attack comes out of nowhere on the black castled king...truly amazing."

Similar to Predict-A-Move and Solitaire-type chess exercises, Recon64 challenges players to find candidate moves from games played by masters.  Players are encouraged to search for several strong candidate moves in each position, and are rewarded as long as their list of moves includes the move selected by the master during the game.  As an extra twist, players invest Recon64-dollars on candidate moves based on how likely they think each move was used in the original game...  Play Recon64!!

(2/4)  US Championship Update:  Max Dlugy & Alex Lenderman given the two AF4C wildcard berths to this year's edition of the US Championship.  The venue for the 2006 U.S. Chess Championships will be the newly-opened NTC Promenade in San Diego, and will run from February 28 through 12 March, 2006.  The field for the 2006 U.S. Championship will again be the “natural” chess number of 64 with a guaranteed minimum prize fund of $250,000!

(2/3)  Review:  Brooklyn Chess Chronicle Vol. 1, 1882-1883 Edited by J. B. & E. M. Munoz, reviewed by Russell Miller.  This is a hardbound reprint from the publisher Moravian Chess.  "One of things I really like about my chess hobby is the rich long history...The book under review covers not only chess in Brooklyn, New York but the whole United States...and Europe also...Some of the players covered were: Blackburne (8 games) , Steinitz (22), Zukertort (7),Mackenzie (10), Blackmar (4), Tchigorin (4), Bird (1), Golmayo (4), Mason (2), Winawer (2)plus many more lesser players.  The three tournaments in the index are: London International Chess Congress, Manhattan Chess Club 1882, and Nuremberg International Tournament of 1883."

(1/29)  Review:  The Chess Team by James Sawaski, reviewed by David Surratt.  "Hoosiers.  The Mighty Ducks.  The Bad News Bears.  The Karate Kid.  The Horatio Alger genre has served many authors well, and produced a number of memorable stories & films.  So why shouldn't a novice author make use of it in his first novel?  Maybe because it's such an over-used theme, that it really takes a lot of talent to pull it off; to make it work without seeming trite.  Does Sawatski succeed in doing so?  Well, walk with me a bit, and we'll talk...  The story's main character is Jim Berzchak, whose life is shattered by a finger-fehler in the final round of the State High School Championships which costs his team, the underdog Escanaba Eskimos, the state title..."