Thematic King's Indian Bishop Sacrifice

 Was reminded of an old chess friend from Houston, Texas in the following game. Mick Bighamian(USCF rating of around 2400 at the time) said something that really stuck in my mind. The specificity of his claim made me realize that Chess players are really inveterate nerds. "when the unmoved c8 Bishop sacrifices itself at h3 the result of game is frequently, if not always, in favor of the second player". Now that may not be exactly the way Mick phrased it, but if he reads this I am sure he would agree with the paraphrasing. He had close to a photographic memory for positions which is a big part of the reason he was a senior master and one of the top 5 or so players in Bayou City. 

Another master from the region, Todd Thomas, penned an accurate quote in the Texas Knights monthly periodical stating that the late Robert Brieger was on chess nerd fringe in the same fashion that chess nerds are on the fringe of society at large. Todd was lampooning Brieger for making a big deal about the difference between the terms Zugzwang and Squeeze. Funny how certain things just stick in your head!!

So check out the position, arising from a Dutch Defense,  where Mick's always winning move wipes out Australian player Pritoka. After Bxh3, the f8 Rook occupies f3 square with fatal consequences. The Black king regicide is only avoided by the 9 pointer giving herself up. 

I do love this kind of position where an "undeveloped piece" is actually the most active force on the board! This actually shows how the nebulous concept of development as it is taught sometime in middle school as "just getting you pieces out" is quite mistaken.

Would like to close by paying tribute to the now defunct Dave's Chess Studio. Lotta good times there around 20 years ago, but alas the inconstancy of friendship and life getting in the way prevails. 

Lisitsin Gambit Accident

 I can still remember Mike R. Flewelling exclaiming "I think your opening Sucks!!" despite absurd claims by chess commentator Miodrag Perunovic who ignorantly asserts the From's Gambit refutes the Bird's Opening, Michael knew it was viable opening. Perunovic was probably trying to elevate ad revenue on his YouTube channel with erroneous tripe.

Mike has a very bright daughter named Heather who shared her Dad's love for the Royal Game in Houston,Texas. 

The above diagrammed position details the tragicomedy experienced by ICC blitz player dutsbooi resulting in the dreaded checkmate delivered by the Lady on the g6 square. The poor dude had to stare at the abrasively cruel Qxg6# symbol on the scoresheet to add insult to injury.

 Alex Yermolinsky went public with his justified criticism of Kingside weakening aspect of the Dutch opening which is super amplified by 2. e4 in the Lisitsin's Gambit.  GM Larry Christiansen, who NEVER WAS AN IM,  did some beautiful pre computer engine analysis on refuting the Qd6 variation finding at least a forced draw for White if I recall(nothing to be proud of)

Strong Knight WEAK King

 Some of my old Russian buddies often spoke of a weak opponent King location as a long term positional consideration. I had a hard time with this concept initially, but over the years have learned exactly what these wise Russian School of Chess dudes actually meant.

In the position below, which arose out of a Dutch Defense Staunton Gambit, the country of India player AabhasJindal resigned when he could  not see an adequate way to defend his d pawn.  Chigorin would have rolled twice in his grave mocking the passive and gutless style of a guy who just gives up when his unjustified attack did not work.

The Indian's King is certainly pathetic at g1 blocking in his own Rook at h1 while also being placed on the weak g1-a7 dark diagonal. However, resigning and not playing on suggests a lack of maturity and resolve. He forgot or never learned Andy Soltis' recommendation to make your  opponent win the game as a last line of defense. 

I do understand that experienced Android Developers working as Mobile Engineers do not have as much time for chess and respect that. Life in Udaipur, Rajasthan can be competitive and a man has to feed his family first and then give up time for leisurely pursuits. 

Cattle Feed as it Relates to our Royal Game

 I can only speculate as to why the former 1998 Nashville, Tennessee city champion chose the name Cornfed for his ICC moniker. I am guessing either his alcohol consumption choice or the cattle he raises has something to do with it! I think I may have played a postal game with him around the time of the Y2K programming run up when planes were supposed to drop from the sky and interest rate calculations were gonna get all F....cked up.

So White just played Qe6 threatening Queen captures e5 Bishop with check. It is not mate since anemic looking f6 square is protected by h4 Queen and f8 Rook. So Black has the time to look for mating patterns himself. Not too hard to notice that Qh2 is curtains for the first player after Ne2 check. 

I also dropped out of correspondence chess after cheating with computers became intractable. BTW grass fed cattle have about 20% less fat than Corn Fed livestock.

"Universal" English Opening Setup EASY to equalize against

 I have a faint lack of respect for handlers of the White pieces who opt for safe play just hoping and praying, Nigel Short, that they can capitalize on a blunder by the second player.

A jugadore from the United Kingdom named OliverTheEighth has exactly this mealy mouthed approach in the following position. He traded off his Queen's Bishop for unknown reasons losing the "mini exchange" advocated by JEW HATER Robert Fischer who died on the the 64th square of the chess board still owing the USA a lot of unpaid income tax.

Oliver then arranged a rigid pawn structure and wasted tons of time getting his Horse to the d5 square which allows Black to reroute his c6 Knight to the Kingside while preparing c6 to drive away the Stead without a stable. 

Black won easily as his fianchettoed g7 Bishop landed on the g1-a7 diagonal pinning an impotent Rook at f2. 

A weak commentator at chess.com extols the "solid and flexible" Botvinnik structure without addressing how the Dutch Defense refutes it in the sense that 1.c4 f5  equalizes NUF SAID! Even weaker player and "chess entertainer" Nate Hill blindly plays the English afraid to play wide open tactically based openings.

Interesting points regarding the real King Oliver:

Puritan tenant adherents wanted people to spend Xmas thinking and concentrating on the life of Jesus Christ, rather than celebrating. Monthly fast days were also introduced to encourage people to focus on God our Savior.  This much the reason many people in the States HATE the over commercialization of the birth of baby JESUS!

If you were caught playing sport on a Sunday, you could be whipped OR harshly punished

Swearing was punishable by a fine, or a stint in prison GOD DAMIT

Another Defenseless Stonewall Dutch Formation

 Superboy playing out of the country Denmark loves playing the Stonewall Dutch and I equally love showing him how positionally bankrupt his opening choice is!

This particular Dutch Defense is characterized by voluntarily weakening all the dark squares and then allowing White to trade off the dark square guardian, the f8 Bishop! So Black is irrationally putting all his faith on the rigid c6,d5,e6,f5 pawn structure which leaves White with the juicy and unassailable e5 and d6 dark squares as outposts.

In the diagrammed position, Whites positional hegemony is manifest(one of Stu Rachels favorite words even though as a philosopher he uses very common language in his school classes, almost afraid of using the SAT exam type of vocabulary)

White can win with the pawn avalanche beginning with the tactically supported h5. Note that if the anemic bad bishop at e8 captures, then the knight fork Nd7 picks up the impotent Castle(Rook)

I doubt that even Krishna Prem really believes the Stonewall is a viable opening. Krishna has invested quite a bit of time in producing monetized YouTube videos advocating the Stonewall Dutch and could lose ad revenue if it was widely known it had been refuted!

Max Dlugy knew long ago that Nh3 refutes the entire setup CRUSHING D. Gurevich forcing the aloof GM to switch to the Slav Defense which his best friend Yermolinsky had long suggested.

An invasive Steed Saves the Day

I figured out why the guy my YouTube account defaults to is so damn popular:

1. He does not babble on while playing out the opening moves like some chess commentators do who pretend to know what the best move is.
2. The dude has the most tranquilizing, soothing voice I have heard.
3. He provides just a dollop of history as he quickly gets to the critical positions of the chess masterpieces he presents 

I wonder what Antonio Radic would think about the following position where Black is down the  exchange with an exposed and apparently vulnerable King. Czech Republic jugadore Nadateho must have believed the game was his after playing the instinctive Qd6 check. 

However, it is White who has to be careful and could easily lose with a careless misstep after Black moves his Monarch to the "safe square" h5. A key feature of the position is White's inactive f1 Rook viz a viz Black's hyperactive Horse! White's error was to ingest Black pawns at the expense of not activating his his f1 Rook. Rowson would certainly scold White for not having intimate cozy conversation with his phlegmatic Tower. White also unnecessarily weakened the f3 square providing a simple goal for the Black Knight. White can draw but has to acquiesce to a perpetual check which is hard to do psychologically when you had been winning the entire game.

Long live Agadmator and his lucrative passive income stream. 3.2 million subscribers to his channel and counting!!

Kuwait Player goes for too much out of Opening

Being patient enough to wait for the latent potential of King's Indian Bishop to be liberated was one of the favorite ideas of New Mexico chess talent Silas Perry. I had the pleasure of meeting Silas in Albuquerque during a National Guard deployment around a decade ago. 

Like many eccentric chess players, he has resisted attempts at communication, but that is OK since he helped me gain over 200 USCF rating points without knowing it! I did not want to admit it due to my extremely competitive spirit, but the four or five games I lost to the dude forced me to  retool my game!!

He and GM Kraai highly advocate taking paper notes in a real notebook and analyzing why one sometimes makes stupid moves at critical times in the game. 

One of Perry's favorite sayings was this guy should not be able to get away with "this attack". He won a game against Amarillo Master Simms when he felt the Texan had overreached. The game you see above where Kuwait player unexpected launched a suspicious attack reminded me of the sage advice of Silas. 

White's b2 Bishop is just oozing some latent potential  as the second player's "attack" has created an uncountable number of weak squares around his Monarch. This is sometimes OK in the Dutch Defense but not in this case as White mopped the mess up quite handily with an Ne1-Nd3 repositioning of his f3 horse which was being attacked by overextended g4 pawn

Declining Second Staunton Gambit Pawn

Couldn't find much information regarding comfortable setups for Black against the Staunton Gambit on the blog of Gambiteer Ian Simpson's authoritative source for aggressive and attacking Gambit Play, so I decided to add this ICC seminal game on declining the  Staunton Gambit.

The move order chosen by Swedish player Johh was 1. d4 f5 2. e4 fxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 c6 5. f3 e3. Johh only sports a 1525 USCF rating, but he has beaten IMs who are foolish enough to play ef allowing a strong initiative with no chances of losing the game!

So Black played 5. ... e3! which slows down the first players development and makes the e3 Bishop a cumbersomely  placed BIG PAWN searching for a role! I will never forget Saved By Bell TV star Samuel "Screech" Powers(Dustin Diamond) who was a benefactor of the Royal Game and a nice guy who spoke at a tournament I played in many years ago. Screech loved the game and appreciated aspects of positional play!

From the diagrammed position, one can readily observe a piece configuration not pleasing to an attacking check mate the King player. Johh moved his f pawn twice to prevent the liberating pawn move e5. Again, note how awful the prelate on the e3 square is placed while White's development lags immensely!! Black played the freeing contest the center move  c5 and won easily in the ending phase of the game.

A well known chess adage espoused by legends like Benjamin, Shirov, D. and M. Gurevich is to accept gambit pawn and then give it back if initiative reaches fever pitch. 

Marco Antonio Tavares,

MatoJelic, Rūdolfs Nukševičs,Lucas Wind,Avery Church,Antonio Innocente love the Dutch defense and don't want to abandon cuz of some inebriated player who is homicidal about his King Pawn!

Lifelong Influence of a Beloved Chess Coach

Before I forget, this is a tribute to GM Yury Shulman or Yuri. Sorry chess coach, I don't recall correct spelling. 

I had not thought of this excellent chess and LIFE coach in ages, but was reminded of him by the following position played at the Internet Chess Club.

A little background on how I remember this guy. My nephew Mark attended a college in Fort Worth or maybe Dallas Texas. The college had chess scholarships and while Mark did not earn a scholarship, he learned a lot about the Royal Game from the humble and patient GM who was employed there as a tutor I think. Been awhile so I could be wrong about the specifics. I never met Yuri, but feel like I know him well based on Mark's remarks. Shulman actually helped Mark in life much more than chess if you will tolerate that irony. My nephew was spoiled rotten and thought he was good in chess because he was good at tactics, but sucked pretty bad at long term strategy.

He would show Mr Shulman a game where he had beaten a fish(weak chess player) with piece sacrifices and unsound play. He could not understand why his coach/tutor would berate him, sometimes cursing emphatically that THIS WAS NOT THE WAY TO GET fuckin BETTER AT CHESS!!

Take a look at the above position to see why this reminds me of Dr Shulman. White(blitzen at ICC) has just played Be4 which allows a mate in 9 according to Komodo chess engine. It is based on White carelessly not noticing an elementary mate based on Ng3 and the Bishop owning the g1-a7 diagonal. 

I am certain the esteemed teacher would have given Mark an earful about his inattention to this detail. I want the teacher to know that Mark is quite successful in another field these days and will never forget the good times at the University in the DFW area where a Dr Root also guided him!

SSLC Score Chess Name

Many chess players lean towards antisocial if one is pressed to classify psychology. ICC players often have what appears to be random handles or names as their playing moniker. However the Indian player with the name karthick496 struck one as quite an information packed handle.

Indeed, it is related to a Scholastic Excellence Award where the 496 is the number of marks earned on a SSLC exam. Incidentally M.Prabhakaran won top honors with 497 marks way back in 2013. 

What does this have to do with Chess, American Jew Hater Bobby Fischer, would query? The guy with the exemplary score of 496 played 1. f4 allowing Black to take the initiative less than 10 moves into the game. This often happens when people try to play reverse openings like the Dutch Defense with White. Does anybody know if D. Gurevich still plays what many GMs consider an unsound opening? Somebody was saying he tutors rich Chicago kids for around $125 an hour which is better than living under a bridge like some high rated chess paupers. 

If you must know SSLC stands for Secondary School Leaving Certificate in India. It appears to be a test you have to pass to "graduate from 10th grade". Would be a good idea for American Public Schools who routinely graduate illiterate people not qualified to enter the work force or live independently.

Finally, chess commentator Stefan Emanuel Sylvester Kindermann, is the only player of any repute who really advocates the Dutch King as an active piece in endings. The Austrian book writer is quite personal in his exposition referencing wine sipping during  postmortems, adjournments and game analysis.  He is right! After the g7 fianchetto Bishop is gone, the a1-h8 diagonal becomes a super highway. 

Giving up pawn in KP ending to cement the Draw

Brazilian Jugadore Rafalvar must have thought he was winning the King and Pawn ending based on some of the ICC trash talking that is allowed in moderation at the most popular internet chess club in the entire fuckin WORLD!

He confidently played the pawn move c4 expecting an easy win if Black carelessly recaptured with his d pawn. However, we have a Dvoretsky example of widening the beachhead which essentially gives up a pawn to block all entry points of the menacing White Monarch! Note that Black's d6 pawn performs the vital function of controlling the c5 and e5 squares. So Black aloofly places Kb6 and becomes a King pendulum(another term used freely in the Russian's excellent endgame manual)

PHD and exceptional instructor WIM Alexey Root has produced some excellent lessons on KP endings, but I suspect widening the beachhead is too abstract and deep for her k-6 cute kids. Also GM chess instructor and ICC employee Yermolinsky knows that every Russian school boy is much smarter than their American counterparts. Alex is one helluva writer and commentator(despite his contempt for the Dutch Defence) as his Bally's Las Vegas Casino Hotel friend Shabalov. Some real poker studs in the group! Shahade Chess Bitch Fan club!!

Also see if you can calculate the variation which involves mutual/simultaneous queening if White tries to enter via the b1-h7 diagonal.

Even National Masters suffer from Materialism

The diagrammed position, arising from the Leningrad Dutch Defense, is sound evidence that even titled USCF players fall prey to the Chess Sin of greed. ICC player National Master rpenquin, is a gentleman and a scholar, but became fatally weak along the h1-a8 diagonal after mistakenly "winning the exchange" snapping off the inactive Rook in the corner.

It is just a blitz game, but look at the c1 Bishop and a1 Rook the NM is neglecting while all of Black's forces are active poised to attack on the permanently weakened light squares near White's Monarch. The NM should have "talked to his pieces" in the chess psychologist Rowson fashion. They would have articulated their abject misery about being locked out of the action and poorly coordinated due the avarice and materialism of the first player.

Concretely, with White to Move, the NM has no choice but to "castle into the menacing assault" on his trepidating King.

Neophyte players should be comforted to learn that even GMs are willing subject themselves to brutal onslaughts hoping to hang on to their precious material for an endgame conversion to victory.


Finally, I would welcome the valued input of Seattle, Washington GM Gregory Serper on the soundness of this National Master's decision to engage in such risky play. Serper is flexible in his approach to Royal Game capable of attacking or defending as the position dictates. Go Seahawks!!

Winning by Entering the Square of a Passed Pawn

Being familiar with the pawn structure is crucial at every point in a chess game. Pawns determine the topology of the board which is a major determinant of the strategy and tactics that will ensue. This is why Philidor referred to the pawn structure as the soul of chess.

In the following game played at the ICC, REVOLUCIONCHILE played his usual aggressive Dutch Defense. White won the exchange early and the following position was reached with White having a winning pawn structure due to his connected passed g and h pawns.

Black just played b5 to provide an outpost for his Knight at c4. White quickly reacted with Rook captures Horse at c4, giving back the exchange for a won King and Pawn ending. Note that this would have been a losing move had the White King been at h1 instead of g1.

After the obligatory recapture at c4 with the pawn, White enters the square of the pawn with either Kf1 or Kf2. The square or quadrangle of the pawn is any easy way avoid the calculation of determining whether one can catch up with a pawn before it queens.

After the forced recapture, the pawn at c4 helps form the vertices of square composed of the chess board squares f4,f1, and c1. Black's King which cannot support the queening of the c pawn has to stay close to the connected passed pawns while the White King is ingesting the separated and weak Black Queenside pawns.

I wonder if REVOLUCIONCHILE is serious about being part of a coup, insurgency, or revolution in Chile? The angry capitalization of his ICC name suggests more than a hot blooded Latina chess player.

Stonewall Dutch Defense Refuted in this Game

It requires King sized balls to declare that a well established chess opening has been refuted. I recall Alex Yermolinsky berating Dmitry Gurevich for playing the Dutch Defense because of the way the first move f5 irreversibly weakened Black's King Side.

The following game played at the the Internet Chess Club is a refutation of the Stonewall Dutch Defense. Just teasing! White swapped off Black's dark squared Bishop because Black's choice of pawn structure, namely c6,d5,e6, and f5 permanently weaken all the dark squares.

F4thebird, playing out of America, starts an unjustified pawn avalanche on the King side grossly overestimating his chances. Observe that he retreated his d7 Bishop to the e8 square after is was attacked by the unassailable horse at e5. Like the Knight was actually going to capture the pathetic stonewall Dutch Achilles heal!?!

In the following diagram, "Black's attack" has ran out of steam and he is still stuck with his miserable Bishop while White's Steed at e5 is optimally positioned. White offered a Queen trade which would lead to lost ending if accepted, so the cross bearing American name F4thebird walked face first into a well known tactical them called attraction/deflection.

See if you can find the move that would force a civil chess player to resign like a gentleman. Black chose to let his 53 seconds expire rather than resign. I am sure his Blood pressure was quite elevated as he watched his time expire.

BTW, do all Americans have crude, inane, loutish, sexist handles at ICC?

Knight Versus Bishop Endng -STOP SQUARE for Knight

Superboy, playing out of Denmark at the Internet Chess Club, is very fond of the so called Bishop advantage over the Knight in all circumstances and I have learned to use his misconception against him numerous times to my advantage.

In the diagrammed position arising from the Dutch Defense, White has a protected passed pawn on the e4 square, the Bishop, and pawns on both wings which one would expect to equate to an advantage.

However, the position is more blocked than it is open and Black OWNS the e5 square as a stop square. What is meant by a stop square in chess? It is a square that can NOT be attacked by pawns and in this case completely in the second players control.

Black can play Ne5 in this ending preventing Bc4 since after Knight captures Bishop, White's doubled c pawns at c2 and c4 would be weak and ultimately indefensible leading to a lost King and Pawn ending.

The great magnum opus titled My System by Nimzovitch treated the topic of weak squares very profoundly emphasizing the fact that a square could be organically weak/strong irrespective of whether said square was occupied or not. This is certainly the case with the unoccupied e5 square as White has nothing other than his King to contest Blacks hegemony of this crucial square!

A Whole Rook

KingRogue, playing white out of Australia at the Internet Chess Club, just grabbed the Black Rook at a8 with his Bishop and is up the proverbial "Whole Rook". How this phrase crept into chess parlance is beyond this writer. One rarely hears the corresponding phrases Whole Bishop, Whole Knight, etc. mentioned during raucous kibitzing sessions at USCF tournaments.

Moreover, his Rook,Queen, and other Rook are tripled in that order on the d-file. However, being up in material does not a chess game make! Chess would be way too much like checkers if all that mattered was material superiority.

White's King is stuck in the center which, in this case. more than negates his material advantage. With Black to move, find the shot that exploits a pin that effectively forces the First Player from down under to tip over his King.

Two Distant Passed Pawns Easily Worth Piece in this Ending

The following ending arose from a Dutch Defense played at the Internet Chess Club or ICC. Matakay, who did not want anybody to know what country he is from since his flag is missing, just played Kc6 attacking the Black Bishop at c7.

Black could play Kd8 protecting the feeble looking Prelate, but then White would just push his pawn to h4 with Queening threats of his own.

Note that Black has a protected passed pawn at f4 which is currently mechanically blockaded by White Knight at f3. Try to find a dramatic win for Black! Remember that two distant passed pawns are difficult to stop with a single minor piece especially when the defending King is Offside. 

Exchange Sacrifice Black Side of Dutch Defense

The oddly named exchange sacrifice in chess means giving up your Rook for a Bishop or Knight. Calling it a sacrifice can be misleading as sometimes an exchange sacrifice is just the best move and nothing is really being sacrificed.

Mat1983 of Brazil stands much worse here playing White in a 3 minute game at ICC. His King is exposed with many weak squares. Black played the aggressive Dutch Defense which is also known for weakening the king side on move one!




Given the sensitivity of the g2 and f3 squares, can you find a move that offers an exchange sacrifice and the removal of White's most active piece in the same breath? The Dutch Defense is for fighting players and with Black to play there is definitely a fighting move to be found!

Bg5 Against Dutch Defense

Ebochess of Belgium loves playing Bg5 against any variation of the Dutch Defense whether it be the Stonewall, Lenigrad, or the the more fluid setups. The strategy is well founded as Black has already weakened his king side with f5 and White intends to rip off the f6 Knight further denuding the king side of a much needed defender.

In the following game played at the internet chess club, he does just that. Black reacts with c5 pressuring the White center. Black also elected to play d5 driving the Knight from the e4 square leaving the second player with a backward e6 pawn and a problem Bishop at c8.




In this particular game, Black managed to get in e5 creating a strong pawn center and liberating the c8 Bishop and eventually mating the strong chess player from Belgium who eliminated the United States in World Cup Soccer.