You know it's bad when The Onion does a story on you losing at chess:
https://theonion.com/befuddled-magnus-carlsen-bested-by-dreaded-checkmate-gambit/
03 June 2025
Annotated Game #310: A just result (karma-wise)
I unexpectedly had two Whites in a row in this tournament, so was able to immediately rectify my error of an incorrect e3-e4 pawn push in Annotated Game #309 with an example of a correct e3-e4 pawn lever. The difference here is that Black closes the center early, making the pawn break possible since White's d-pawn cannot be undermined or exchanged as a result. My opponent then makes a tactical error which should have led to a loss, but I fritter away my advantage into an even endgame. A late blunder as we officially agreed a draw was bad, but given that I should have easily won earlier, perhaps it was just karma evening out.
02 June 2025
Annotated Game #309: Don't assume the move is good
In this next tournament game, I make two bad assumptions about a move being good, and am punished for it. The first one is the e3-e4 break in the Stonewall Attack, which has to be more carefully prepared. The second one is the result of a hallucination and assuming that I could escape a pawn fork, which in fact I could not. For whatever reason I was more mentally tired than I should have been during the game, which led to the unfortunate short-circuiting of my thinking process.
31 May 2025
Annotated Game #308: A practical swindle
This next first-round tournament game was useful for my study of the Caro-Kann Exchange, which seems to be more popular lately (at least for the opponents I've been facing). If Black ignores his queenside counterplay for too long, as happens here, White can get some kingside momentum. After my opponent builds up what should be a winning attack, I decide to go all in on the counterplay for practical chances, aided by my opponent's time pressure. This pays off when I spot a key equalizing tactic, then hold on for the simplified endgame draw.
25 May 2025
Book Completed: Bologan's Caro-Kann - A Modern Repertoire for Black
I recently completed Bologan's Caro-Kann: A Modern Repertoire for Black (New In Chess, 2018) by GM Victor Bologan; sample pages containing the variation choices can be found at the above link. As is normally the case with repertoire books, it doesn't fully match up with my personal choices of opening variations, but I found it quite useful for new insights into general position-types, as well as fleshing out certain parts of my Caro-Kann repertoire. It is worth mentioning that this is not a "pure" repertoire book, as he does offer multiple choices for Black responses fairly frequently.
My main intention was to focus on typical plans and how to play the position-types reached, which was at least partially satisfied. Bologan is a Caro-Kann tournament player himself and this comes through in his comments and choices based on experience, not just pure analysis. As with any reference work, reviewing the lines using an up-to-date games database and engine in your own opening repertoire database is still necessary. This also makes the learning process an engaging one, rather than simply accepting the author's judgments on everything. It also helps to stimulate your own thinking and allows you to make your own personal choices, based on what you can understand in a position and is best suited for your style of play.
Here are some comments on his treatment of different parts of the Caro-Kann, from the point of view of an improving player:
Part I - Minor Lines:
- This was the first treatment of 2. Ne2 that I had seen, so it was enlightening to examine the ideas involved. Essentially Black treats it very similarly as the Advance Variation with 3...c5, but has to watch out for different ideas involving Ne2-d4, as well as Ne2-g3. On the other hand, the white knight's absence from f3 helps Black target the advanced e-pawn. Black has to be careful to not be too aggressive, but is fine in all variations.
- Bologan has the most detailed treatment of the King's Indian Attack (KIA) that I've seen, with detailed recommended lines against different White choices, including earlier (move 5) than normal. In some cases he provides useful explanations and insights into his repertoire choices for Black; in others, not so much. This is generally the case throughout the book. For example, I would have liked more discussion about a locked vs. mobile center, and the question for Black about when and where to develop the light-square bishop.
- There is no discussion about the White setup with Nf3 and d2-d3, which can be reached in the typical KIA move-order after 3. Nf3. This is likely due to the fact it did not become more popular until after the book was released.
- For the Fantasy Variation, Bologan recommends the solid 3...e6, which I don't play. His treatment of it seems comprehensive, though.
- The Two Knights Variation is included in this section and he shows the lines with 3...Bg4, which are reliable for Black.
- Although these are treated as "minor" lines, Bologan presents them in more depth than introductory books and the preparation he shows will be valuable for Black at the Class level, where especially the Fantasy, Two Knights and KIA are all relatively popular.
Part II - The Steiner System, Panov Attack, Exchange Variation
- I don't play his recommendations for the first two variations, but I found his analysis of the Exchange Variation again to be the best for Black that I have encountered. This is important, given it is certainly popular at the Class level - I've personally encountered it recently - and seems to have had at least a minor resurgence in master games.
Part III - Classical System
- This part was a mixed bag for me, as there are a number of sidelines in the so-called Main Line Classical (4...Bf5). Most of his recommendations up to move 7 were very useful for me, and he treats in-depth the setups involving 6. N1e2 and 6. Bc4, as well as seriously examining the early f2-f4 ideas for White on moves 6 and 7, which is often under-analyzed or not treated in Caro-Kann references.
- I don't play the standard main line starting from move 8, and Bologan seems to like castling queenside versus kingside for Black, which is not my preference.
Part IV - Advance (Closed) Variation (with 3...Bf5)
- I don't play this.
Part V - Positions for Solving
- Bologan at the end presents 40 positions drawn from tournament (including ICCF) play, for solving from both the White and Black perspectives. I found this useful for boosting pattern recognition of typical tactical and positional ideas in the Caro-Kann, including situations with opposite-side castling, ideas of undermining of White's center with pawn breaks (...b5, ...c5 and ...f6) and identifying vulnerabilities allowing White to sacrifice successfully on e6 or g6/h6.
22 May 2025
Chess.com article - "The Rating Obsession: Why It's Ruining Your Progress"
"The Rating Obsession: Why It's Ruining Your Progress" over at Chess.com is an excellent article (and wakeup call for all improving players) about its title phenomenon. I think every serious chess improver has to grapple at least some of the time with the psychological problem of playing for rating, rather than playing for progress, which is a key point made by article author GM Gabuzyan. (One of the earliest posts here was on Ratings Fear and Loathing).
The full article is well worth the read, but this introductory excerpt really hit home:
One day, I nearly fell out of my chair during a 1-on-1 call with a new student.
The reason?
He told me, "I’m afraid to lose my rating."
I asked. "Alright. What’s your rating?"
A short silence. Then he said it.
"588."
The point is that this type of psychological affliction is common to all of us who take risks as players - something necessary to make progress - from beginners to IMs; GM Gabuzyan relates his own story about being 12 points shy of GM (2500) level and how he ultimately dealt with that. I don't think that we ever completely get rid of the rating monkey on our back, but we can certainly choose not to give our attention to it - and definitely should not listen to its advice.
29 April 2025
Annotated Game #307: The Colle that wasn't (quite)
After an early opening blunder led to a rapid loss in the penultimate round of the tournament, the following final-round game was a welcome point of stability. Both sides dance around entering the Colle System, with Black never committing to playing ...d5, while as White I pass up some more interesting alternatives on moves 12-13 that would have led either to a small positional plus, or a more imbalanced structure with attacking chances on the kingside. I correctly avoid a tempting-looking tactic later, but in a passive and slightly cramped way. Not my best game, but the careful road to a draw was still a positive outcome after the poor showing in the previous round, guaranteeing me a plus score for the tournament.
27 April 2025
Annotated Game #306: The Stonewall Attack formula
The Stonewall Attack has an undeserved reputation as a "system" opening, although perhaps some people do play the first several moves always by rote. As with its Dutch Stonewall counterpart as Black - see Annotated Game #305 - it is important to pay attention to move-order issues and not expect the same sequence to work every time against different setups from your opponent. However, in certain circumstances there is indeed a "formula" that usually works for White, which I am able to achieve in this next tournament game. Here I demonstrate that I finally have learned the lesson of the e-pawn lever in this position-type - after which, I have at worst a pleasant game, while giving my opponent a chance to mishandle the defense, which he does on move 15.
24 April 2025
Another pop culture chess fail, this time by Lady Gaga
(Original Source: Raync910's blog at https://www.chess.com/blog/raync910/lady-gaga-coachella-poker-face-chess-dance-battle)
What's wrong with this picture? From Lady Gaga's performance at the Coachella festival:
The first thing I noticed was that the bottom side's colors were reversed. Then I noticed the top side's were correct. Then I started counting squares...
That said, powerful use of the chess metaphor in dance and song.
(See also: Chess imagery in popular culture)
12 April 2025
Annotated Game #305: An endgame escape
This first-round tournament game had two big lessons. First, it highlighted a hole in my repertoire involving the move-order used to reach a Dutch Stonewall; I'll have to fix that for the future. Second, it demonstrated why at the Class level one should always keep yourself alive with practical chances in an endgame. Here I reached a situation where my opponent was up the exchange and could have sacrificed it back to lock in a win, but instead I exploited the opening he gave me to threaten mate and collect most of his pieces, forcing a resignation. A good illustration of why materialism can lead to bad outcomes in all phases of the game.
29 March 2025
FT article: India’s VC-backed chess academy churns out champions across the board
The latest Financial Times article involving the chess world - "India's VC-backed chess academy churns out champions across the board" - talks about the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (Waca for short). It's an example of how world-class expertise (former chess world champion Viswanathan Anand) has combined with patronage from WestBridge venture capital firm to create new champions through training and sponsorship.
While amateur chess improvers will not make the world champion grade, the formula for success is still similar: talent (of whatever level) + personal interest + time investment + master-guided training = skill improvement. We are fortunate at the amateur level that there now exists a great deal of master-guided training in a wide variety of accessible forms - video and online courses, books, coaching either live or asynchronous, etc. Making sense of which content and formats work the best for us as individual players is another challenge, admittedly.
One of the themes of this blog is a holistic approach to chess skill development, including cross-training and pulling practices and lessons from other sports and training programs. This is also valued at the highest level of chess training, as noted in the article and worth mentioning here:
Singhal said that at Waca they tried to think about “multiple intelligent perspectives . . . is there anything else that’s a little X Factor”. He noted the decision, unusual in the world of chess, to bring South African cricket coach Paddy Upton to help Dommaraju prepare mentally for the world championship.
17 March 2025
Annotated Game #304: Just enough activity
This last-round tournament game follows a trajectory that is all too typical of many of my games: I play reasonably well in the opening, then neglect the possibility of a pawn break or two, then somehow end up with my pieces passively placed on the back ranks while my opponent gains space. In this Caro-Kann Classical, however, I manage to find just enough activity and then open things up in the endgame, for an almost but not-quite win. In fact White may have had more chances, but I demonstrate how to use my bishop as a long-range piece effectively versus his knight, and thereby seal the draw.
08 March 2025
Book completed: John Nunn's Best Games, 1985-1993
I recently completed John Nunn's Best Games 1985-1993 (Batsford Chess Library, 1995), annotated by the author. GM Nunn is one of the chess world's most accomplished and interesting authors, and has been referenced multiple times on this blog. Some of his other works are specifically aimed at improving players; this is not one of them.
I would say it falls into a similar category as Victor Korchnoi's best games collection - these high-level annotated games are similarly high-quality, but have relatively little hand-holding for Class-level players. The benefit of studying annotated games collections from the author's own perspective is that you get a unique window into both their chess-related thought process and general psychological factors affecting the game. Nunn's thought process insights are uneven in their level of detail, but in many of the games he does provide more of an explanation of the positions' key characteristics and his evaluations, making them very pertinent for improving players. The biographical details are both personally interesting and lend useful context into his state of mind for each tournament and game, although the chess politics comments are now mostly irrelevant.
One theme that struck me while reviewing the games was Nunn's mastery of evaluation of compensation, which involves understanding positional factors that outweigh the material balance, in the absence of forcing tactics. His comments in that regard I found particularly useful, and are not something you can easily find in chess training material. Nunn's games were also routinely very tactical and combative, with a lot of King's Indian and Sicilian games, so there was plenty of material there as well for understanding tactical concepts, visualization and calculation.
I'll close this with an example of one of Nunn's games (number 34 in the collection) that I think very well illustrates his mastery of compensation for sacrificed material.
05 March 2025
Annotated Game #303: A strategically won game...is not an actually won game
The next tournament game illustrates how well one can be placed out of the opening, in this case a Stonewall Attack, and yet fail to convert a positional advantage. By move 13 my pieces were dominant and by move 18 I could effectively have been winning on both the queenside and kingside. Unfortunately a mishandled attack, which could at least have led to a perpetual check, failed and Black emerged with a winning material advantage.
01 March 2025
Annotated Game #302: All queen endings are drawn (?)
There is a saying that all rook endings are drawn - obviously not meant literally, but the idea is correct that with an active major piece, the defender can often draw even when down material, so should not despair. Queen endings are even more complicated and tricky for Class players, who are unlikely to know the key ideas or be able to calculate the greater possibilities for checks.
This next tournament game has some useful observations in the opening (a Caro-Kann Exchange) and middlegame phases, especially regarding the interplay between defense and counterplay possibilities. However, the main feature becomes the ending, which seesaws back-and-forth until I calculate out the correct K+P sequence to draw, after missing a win (which my opponent did as well).
22 February 2025
Annotated Game #301: Cramping is never good
This next first-round tournament game demonstrated multiple themes in analysis, which are worth remembering for the long term:
- The slightly cramped nature of the position for Black early on was unfortunately relieved by my poor decision to exchange minor pieces, which led to immediate equality.
- Later on, I cramped my own position progressively, with misplaced rooks and (more decisively) with a misjudged f2-f3, which created dark-square weaknesses and blocked my own bishop on the light squares.
- In this opening structure, the immediate d4-d5 advance to kick a black knight appearing on c6 is key.
12 January 2025
Training quote of the day #52: John Nunn
From John Nunn's Best Games 1985-1993, Batsford Chess Library, 1995:
Initiating tactics when you have a serious positional disadvantage usually results in an early train home.
(From the annotations to game 30 in the collection, comment made after Black's move 24.)
02 January 2025
Annotated Game #300: When the initiative turns
In analyzing this final-round tournament game, what struck me about it - other than yet again my failure to play the e3-e4 pawn break at the right time - was how quickly the game turned once I lost the initiative as White. The opening is unusual, but I come out of it in reasonable shape. The missed chance to play e3-e4 was the first inflection point in losing the initiative, but it really hurts only when my opponent targets the queenside pawn weaknesses I had ignored, once I had foolishly fixed the center by advancing the c-pawn. The collapse afterwards of White's structure is both quick and instructive.
01 January 2025
Annotated Game #299: What the Caro-Kann is good for (part 2)
The below third-round tournament game is thematically similar to Annotated Game #294, in which White first presses Black - this time in a Panov variation of the Caro-Kann - then missteps, not sensing the danger. This is typically what Black is going for in the Caro-Kann overall, being patient and then seizing counterplay when it becomes available. Here I deliberately chose the most dynamic middlegame plan on move 13, after a long think, which is what opens up the opportunity later on for White to stumble.
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