Meran Defense in Reverse

I believe it was IM John Donaldson, contributing editor to the wildly popular pre internet magazine Inside Chess, who wrote an excellent opening manual on the Meran variation of the Slav Defense.

The opening was exceptionally popular and effective to the extent that anti-Meran White systems were devised. The idea behind the opening was to wait until White developed his f1 Bishop and then give up the center with d pawn captures c pawn. When White recaptured with his twice moved prelate, Black would play a6 threatening  b5 with a tempo on c4 Bishop.

The pawn pawn move b5 also cleared b7 for the Black c8 bishop to occupy. Cliff Bunch, a high intensity Houston player, believed Black was already better not 10 moves out of the opening.

Check out the following lighting game played at ICC where Serbian Grandmaster PapMisa is flummoxed by Cuban or Peruvian player rayosx playing the Meran Defense in Reverse!

Battle of the Pawn Duos

In this interesting struggle between competing pawn duos, precise calculation is required. Black has just played pawn to g4 producing a menacing looking duo at g4 and h4. White's duo at c5 and d5 turns out to be stronger than ICC plyer Nc3-4Me estimated.

With White to move, pawn to c6 threatening a center pawn roller is in the air and impossible to stop owing to the fact that the d6 square is protected by the b7 White Knight.

White's King and Rook are adequate to block the advance of the the Black pawn duo deciding the game in White's favor. Also observe that the Black Rook at a6 is in hot water after pawn to a5 and Bishop to d3 where minor pieces and a pawn conspire to trap and inter the Black Castle.

The ICC user named Nc3-4Me may have known about the late Houston master Larry Englebretson who was familiar with all the transpositional nuances associated with 1. Nc3 . Damian Nash, a very strong chess player out of Colorado, is also quite fond of essaying Nc3 on the first move. I believe he sometimes gets Black defensive systems with the colors reversed which can be very dangerous and effective against unsuspecting opponents.

Damian Nash and Harold Stevens used to reside in Moab, Utah and wrote that Moab has the highest concentration of good chess players in the United States from a sheer percentage point of view. William Barefield is still smarting from losses to Nash and Mark Schwarman of NM

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?

Won King and Pawn Ending if Bishops can be forced off.

The following Bishop Ending is of practical and theoretical interest. It arose from a French Defense where Black captured White's e4 pawn on the third move of the game at the Internet Chess Club.

White has three pawn islands to Black's two. In a pure King and Pawn ending, the side with the fewer pawn islands frequently has the advantage. Such would be the case here if Black could figure out a way to force a trade of Bishops. Black would eventually win the game owing to his 4-3 King Side Pawn majority.

As you can see from the screenshot of the game, Black has just played Bc6 begging White, played by Taliesin of the the ICC, to exchange Bishops which would lead to previously mentioned losing end game for White.

Why is the ending losing for White? In short, because of the weakness of his isolated c5 pawn and a2 pawn. Black can convert is 4-3 majority to a single passed pawn which White must chase down which will lead to Black's a7 pawn queening.

Since this passed pawn is a rook pawn, Black has to prevent White getting to the stalemating c1 square.

Gurgenidze Defense Freak

 Stigern,playing out of Norway at the internet chess club, is adamantly and irreversibly attached to the Gurgenidze Defense variation of the modern defense in chess. With couples, a nice piece of advice is to not stand between a man and his wife. The same is true with a chess player and his opening. Stigern plays the Gurgenidze Defense against everything and may not know any other opening based on ICC data.

The Gurgenidze Defense is characterized by Black setting up a rigid pawn structure comprised of pawns at e6, f7, g6, and h5. In the following position White patiently organized file opening pawn pawn levers or breaks after Black brazenly did not castle leaving his King in the center.

Many chess players know that an exposed King constitutes a long term positional feature which means one does not have to be in a big hurry to mate the King and slow build ups are often the most effective. Matt Grinberg, a strong New Mexico master, is very well acquainted with this subtle strategical theme.

Note that Black is "threatening" Qe1 check in the diagrammed position with White to move. White ignored this threat and played Queen captures pawn at g6 apparently oblivious to the move order Qe1 check followed by Nc1 blocking and Bf4 pinning!

Can you see that this is a trap set by White due to the safe luft a2 square?

Game Ending X-Ray Attack

The game of chess has a rich and historical vernacular including terms like Zugzwang(Robert Brieger on high alert, seance required), skewer, tempo, fork, transpose, squeeze, pin, interpose, triangulate, opposition, etc.

The following game played at the internet chess club illustrates another entry in the Royal Game's very dense lexicon. Monkjunk, playing out of the United Kingdom, just played Qe7 on the black side of a Catalan opening expecting a quite drawish Rook and Pawn end game.

Little did the British player, with the sacrilegious user name, realize he had just walked face first into a tactical theme that was covered in Jeremy Silman's classic middle game work How to Reassess your Chess. The tactic is aptly named X-Ray attack because, in some sense, the attacking piece is "seeing through" one piece to attack another piece or square in this case.

In the diagrammed position, the Black Queen is X-Rayed to to the unoccupied d8 square which makes the winning move of Rd8 a no brainer for any veteran chess player familiar with the multitude of tactical patterns our beloved game enjoys.

Back to the ICC handle monkjunk. A monk is an individual who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of other monks. Asceticism means to live a self denying, austere sort of life, so one can only surmise that this chess player is not a monk, a monk on the way out, or being disrespectful to monks....... Come to think of it chess players are typically a bunch of guys who hang out with each other for long weekends to get away from their wives.....Hmmm food for thought.

Do NOT Exchange Pieces when you have a Space Advantage

Sultankam, playing at ICC out of the Island Nation named the Philippines, has a space advantage on the White Side of this French Defense. Why? Because Black elected to give up the center by capturing White's proud e pawn with his d pawn.

How does this confer a space advantage for White? White possesses a center pawn at d4, whereas Black has no center pawn. This gives White more space in the center and more maneuverability with his pieces.

This does not sound like much of an advantage, but very view Grand Master strength players give up the center in this fashion with the Black pieces. The attractive and strong female player Anna Zatonskih does not mind playing the Black side of this type of French Defense as established by her willingness to annotate a win of hers in the Berry brother's Oklahoma Chess Bulletin.

In the diagrammed position, the Filipino chess player retreated his Horse to g3 avoiding exchanges at e4 proving he understood his more than minute advantage. Something similar to this happens in Sicilian Defenses when White has a somewhat cramping e pawn and will retreat his Knight from d4 to b3.

Black can have problems finding a safe square for his Queen here. He also looks for the opportunity to play c5 to challenge White's central supremacy. GM Sergey Kudrin is an absolute maestro playing the White side of this position.

I remember witnessing a tense game between Anna Zatonskih and Irina Krush where Anna outblitzed Krush inducing an angry reaction by Irina. I admired Anna for not reacting to the outburst where Krush knocked her pieces over and exited the playing hall furiously. Still not sure what her grievance was? She lost by the smallest of margins, but lost nonetheless.

Tangentially, would like to point out that, The Berry Brothers of Stillwater, Oklahoma can lay claim to being most munificent benefactors to women's chess in the United States. Just ask WGM Camilla Baginskaite, WIM Nadia Ortiz, WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs, WIM Alexey Root, WFM Bayaraa Zorigt, WFM Tatev Abrahamyan, WFM Iryna Zenyuk, WFM Lilia Doibani, WCM Judit Simo, Tatiana Vayserberg, Vanessa West, Simone Sobel, Becky Huang, Stephanie Ballom, Sarah Chiang, Courtney Jamison, Stephanie Pitcher, Helen Jamison, Sylvia Yang, and Alexa Zolman.

These women all converged in Stillwater back around 2004 for chess Olympiad training and tournaments for any FIDE rated woman waiving transportation costs, lodging costs, and offering a $500 appearance fee. Those old Berry brother wool hounds know how to get a bunch of women assembled in one place and make it look legal now!! :)

Getting away from the joy of playing chess and the struggle of improving, all this proves that lots and lots of CASH makes the decision making for poor chess players infinitely easier, Money talks bullshit walks.