Video completed: Studies in the Stonewall, Volume 2

This ChessLecture.com DVD, the companion to Volume 1, has five presentations on it, from IM (at the time FM) Valeri Lilov, IM David Vigorito and IM Mark Diesen. 

Content:

"Excelling with Modern Stonewall": Lilov presents Van Wely - Vaisser, from early in Van Wely's career. This segment addresses an audience new to the Dutch, explaining some of the basic ideas behind the Bd6 development and Stonewall pawn structure while enthusiastically talking up Black's prospects. The game itself is a 7. Nbd2 sideline, met by ...b6, with a typical plan of continuing ...Bb7, Nbd7 and ...c5. Black ends up playing ...Ba6 early as White goes back and forth with his knights. This is a good example of how strong the Stonewall can be when White does not follow an active plan.

"The Stonewall Attack":  This is an introduction to the Stonewall Attack for White. Lilov pitches it as a way to avoid having to know a lot of theory. He presents standard setups and attacking plans against Black's responses with ...e6 and ...c5, as well as ...Bf5 and ...g6/Bg7. There are useful explanations of some key concepts, including White's problems (such as the dark-square bishop), avoiding initiating an exchange on f5 that will open the e-file for Black, and the need to keep watch over e4. 

"How to Exploit a Good Center": the classic 19th century game Pillsbury - Henem is presented by Lilov. Pillsbury plays the Stonewall Attack, which makes it fit into the Stonewall theme, although the primary topic of the lecture is central control. It's not Lilov's smoothest presentation, and it's rather wordy in relation to the amount of content presented, but the ideas still come through.

"Ideas in the Dutch Stonewall:" IM Vigorito's presentation is a relatively in-depth intro to the Modern Stonewall, looking at primarily at 7. b3 (essentially the main line). It offers a cogent summary of White's main plans (exchanging the dark square bishop on a3 vs. developing on Bb2 vs. alternatively developing 7. Bf4), Black's old vs. modern light square bishop development options, the factors involved in playing ...b6 and tactical tricks after a White Ne5 are all covered. Excellent, systematic treatment of the ideas involved in the main lines of the Stonewall.

"Winning with the Stonewall Attack": Santasiere - Welch is presented by IM Diesen, who also goes into typical ideas and some of the opening alternatives early on. Although the game is one-sided (in White's favor), the general concepts (including some better options for Black) are touched on and well-explained.

Comment: the DVD doesn't attempt to present a coherent picture of the Stonewall, as it's a compilation of different video lectures over time. However, for a player starting to get familiar with the Stonewall, it's helpful in providing a reasonably thorough sketch of the main ideas, and I like the fact that it looks at the Stonewall Attack for White as well.

Video completed: Studies in The Stonewall, Volume 1

I recently completed this ChessLecture.com DVD featuring GM Leonid Kritz presenting of four of his own games in the Dutch Defense. So it is not really about explaining the Stonewall, although there is useful discussion of some typical concepts and common tactical threats/sequences.

Contents:

"Playing the Dutch Stonewall for a Win, Part 1": the title of this segment is a misnomer, since the game is not actually a Stonewall (being a Nimzo-Dutch hybrid instead). So it was nice to see in general, as are all master-annotated games, but also disappointing, since it wasn't a Stonewall as advertised. This part would therefore be more applicable if you are a Dutch player looking to better understand early alternative options in White sidelines.

"Playing the Dutch Stonewall for a Win, Part 2": this features an offbeat White line with 7. Nbd2, starting from the standard Modern Stonewall position reached on move 6. Some thematic ideas are presented for Black: b6/Bb7 development with ideas of continuing with ...c5, ...Ba6; the ...Ne4 jump; watching out for the e6 pawn weakness.

"Suffer the Right Way Through the Stonewall, Part 1": this game has a non-standard opening sequence where White refrains from playing c4 and Black gets in an early ...b5, which again isn't really a Stonewall. Black then commits some inaccuracies and gets a worse position. Some general tactical ideas and considerations are touched on, including sacrifice ideas for White on d5/e6 and the vulnerability of c6/c7 after a c-pawn exchange by Black. Black has to suffer through the middlegame and endgame, hence the segment's title, although Kritz obtains a won endgame after some mistakes by White in time trouble.

"Suffer the Right Way Through the Stonewall, Part 2": this game reaches the move 6 Modern Stonewall position (so that makes 2 games out of 4 on the DVD). At this point Kritz quickly runs through some of the standard plans for White involving 7. b3 and exchanging the dark-squared bishops, with Black playing ...Qe7, exchanging on a3 if needed, and following up with the ...b6 and ...Bb7 bishop development. 7. Bf4 is also mentioned in a cursory fashion, with Kritz saying that after exchanging on f4 and playing b6/Bb7, Black is fine. This may be true, but this is in fact a major White system and no real plans are presented for either side in it. The game itself features 7. Qc2, another White sideline. Black commits an opening inaccuracy against White's follow-up with Bg5, by letting his opponent play e3 before he can exchange on f4, so then has to fight a while for equality. The general problem of the b5 square being available for a White knight after a pawn exchange on d5 using the Black c-pawn is highlighted, explaining why Kritz played an early ...a6. Black eventually reaches an advantageous major piece endgame, but an inaccuracy leads to a draw by repetition of moves.

I feel that the time spent on the DVD wasn't wasted, since it's always good to learn from master presentations of their own games. It was still rather disappointing to see only half of the content was directly applicable to study of the Stonewall, as was advertised. It's also worth noting that the content summary displayed on the cover (2 hours an 48 minutes, 9 lectures) applies to the full two-DVD set. I'll take a look at the second DVD in the near future.

Reflections on breakthrough tournaments

Part of the process of analyzing your own games is not just to see what goes wrong (and right) in each one, but to draw broader lessons for yourself as a player. What patterns emerge? What do you do well consistently? What kinds of mistakes do you often repeat, perhaps unknowingly at the time? Eliminating or reducing those mistakes and building on the strengths are what (eventually) cause a gain in chess strength and an increased rating. It may be useful to do a personal performance inventory as a baseline, which can help highlight different areas that most need work. (Although remember Training quote of the day #9).

For improvement purposes, this process of self-diagnosis is naturally helpful to do if you have a lousy tournament. Can you articulate the main factor behind that poor performance? Major mental distractions? Poor physical condition (sickness, lack of sleep, etc.)? Overconfidence? Fear? Repeated errors of a similar type in the opening/middlegame/endgame? Many times a bad tournament can just be a one-off occurrence, although it's important not to make excuses and to concretely address whichever issues that you identify.

I think it's equally important to examine your positive results and draw similar kinds of lessons from major inflection points in your chess career, which include having breakthrough tournaments. This means analyzing what went into the tournament results that marked a long-term change in your rating. At the most basic level, it should involve identifying what factors led to success and reinforcing that positive behavior. At the same time, it's not just a self-congratulatory exercise, and a candid assessment of your weaknesses is still necessary for further progress.

The last two tournaments presented here (Annotated Games #216-224) marked my own breakthrough into the Class A rating (1800), after spending most of my chess career around the 1700 level; this is covered in The Long Journey to Class A. I was wary of being too happy about these results, since I'd previously had a significant, positive tournament result after starting this blog, only to fall back to my long-term average. However, I've played in a number of tournaments since the breakthrough and have been able to maintain the new 1800 plateau. While I naturally would have preferred to make continuous progress, at least the results have validated the (not-insignificant) 100-point increase in strength over time.

Focusing on what went right with the two tournaments - what went wrong in each game you can see in detail in the annotations - here's what I came up with, in no particular order.

• Refusal to give up the fight, when down or even objectively lost according to the engine, while there was still the possibility my opponent could go wrong. (This is also called the art of the swindle.)
• Ability to better identify and calculate tactical counterblows, including naked sacrifices (Annotated Game #216) and exchange sacrifices.
• Isolating individual game results mentally, so a previous loss would not have a depressing effect on the next game.
• Willingness to try new openings (Dutch Stonewall) and start building the practical experience needed to play them well.
• The stamina, patience and willingness to go into and legitimately play out endgames. I've previously treated them as unwelcome guests, and the usual pattern for me was to play with resolve until around move 35-40, then drop precipitously in performance due to exhaustion and lack of focus/motivation.

I'm in a period now where I have fewer opportunities to play in OTB tournaments, but hopefully after a certain amount of time devoted to additional training and building more skills, I'll be able to make another post like this one. We shall see.

Annotated Game #224: Play on both sides of the board in the Dutch

This final-round game in the Stonewall Dutch features highly entertaining, if not particularly accurate, play. The main battleground is the kingside and the f-file, largely due to White's strategic choices. I do quite well out of this as Black and by move 18 have a decisive advantage built up on the board. This is also the point where I start missing chances to dominate on the queenside as well, focusing solely on kingside play.

The Dutch (in its various forms) often possesses this strategic tension, in which Black needs to properly evaluate if/when to switch to queenside play, or (in the Stonewall especially) when to dissolve the central pawn structure to obtain an advantage (see move 24). These kinds of decisions I expect will become easier with more experience; the below was only my third tournament game with a Stonewall.

In the game, I come late to the party on the queenside and take a kind of caveman approach to it, which results in my opponent getting a dangerous, then what should be a winning, attack on the kingside. Nevertheless, I don't give up, find a key defensive exchange sacrifice, distract my opponent with active defense, and at the end of a long, exhausting battle play a queen fork that ends the game.

I'll follow up in a later post with some reflections on the overall lessons learned from this tournament and the previous one, which when combined led me to break through the Class A ratings barrier.

[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Class A"] [Black "ChessAdmin"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A85"] [Annotator "ChessAdmin/Komodo 11.2"] [PlyCount "82"] {[%mdl 8192] A85: Dutch Defence: 2 c4 Nf6 3 Nc3} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 e6 4. e3 f5 {this move-order is known as the 'Slav Stonewall'} 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. Ne5 {the second most popular move here, after b3. White immediately occupies the hole on e5.} Ne4 (8... Bxe5 $5 {is an interesting option for Black that takes the game in a very different strategic direction.}) 9. f4 {White chooses a near-symmetrical structure, reinforcing e5.} (9. f3 $5 { has scored well for White, but on a very small sample (9) of lower-rated games. After the piece exchanges, a draw seems most likely.} Nxc3 10. bxc3 Bxe5 11. dxe5 Qc7 12. f4 Rd8 13. Qf3 Qa5 14. Bb2 Nd7 15. cxd5 cxd5 16. Rac1 Nc5 17. Bb1 Bd7 18. c4 Bc6 19. Qe2 Ne4 20. Bd4 Rac8 21. Qb2 {1/2-1/2 (21) Neunhoeffer,H (2281)-Ungerer,M (2144) Germany 2009}) 9... Nd7 10. Rf3 {White goes for an aggressive plan with the rook lift. This mirrors Black's usual strategic options in the Stonewall, since that is essentially what White is playing on his side as well.} (10. Nxe4 fxe4 11. Be2 Nxe5 12. fxe5 Rxf1+ 13. Qxf1 Be7 14. Bd2 Bd7 15. Bh5 g6 16. Bg4 Qf8 17. Qd1 Qh6 18. Qb3 b5 19. cxd5 cxd5 20. Rc1 Qf8 21. Rc7 Qd8 22. Ba5 a6 23. a3 Rc8 24. Qc3 Rxc7 {Adamski,J (2470)-Sydor,A (2395) Krakow 1978 1/2-1/2}) (10. Bd2 Ndf6 11. c5 Bc7 12. b4 Bd7 13. a4 b6 14. Nxe4 dxe4 15. Bc4 bxc5 16. bxc5 Nd5 17. Rb1 Bxe5 18. fxe5 Rb8 19. Rxb8 Qxb8 20. Bxd5 cxd5 21. Qc2 Qc8 22. Rb1 Qa6 23. a5 Bb5 24. Rb2 g5 {Izijk,J (2027)-Ramirez Gonzalez,M (2188) Aruba 2017 0-1 (35)}) 10... Nxe5 $146 {I judged that it would be best to eliminate White's strong knight, a choice validated by Komodo. The arrival of a pawn on e5 is somewhat cramping, but gives White fewer attacking chances.} (10... Ndf6 {had been universally played in the database prior to this.}) 11. fxe5 Be7 $11 12. Rh3 {continuing with the rook lift idea, focusing on pressure down the h-file.} Bd7 {time to activate the Stonewall bishop, or at least get it out of the way of Black's major pieces.} 13. Bxe4 { exchanging the centralized knight. This has the result of increasing the relative strength of my light-square bishop, however, as well as opening the f-file.} fxe4 $15 {Black has the pair of bishops, observes Komodo via the Fritz interface, along with a small positional plus.} 14. Qh5 {I'd had to calculate this far on move 12, given the threat on the h-file, but it is now easily refuted.} h6 $17 {under normal circumstances in the Stonewall this might be a weakening concession, but after the elimination of the Ne5 White has no minor pieces available to threaten g6 or sacrifice on h6. Black's control of the dark squares and g5 in particular means that a g-pawn thrust by White would also not work. My opponent is therefore lacking a good plan to make progress.} 15. Bd2 {activating his own 'Stonewall bishop'} Rf5 {although this harrasses the queen, the main point is to clear f8 for another heavy piece.} 16. Qe2 Bg5 {although e3 is well protected, the pressure is still annoying for White, and the bishop further blocks any ideas of a g-pawn thrust. More immediately, the move also clears the e7 square for my queen.} 17. Be1 $6 {White is having trouble activating his dark-square bishop. This maneuver only highlights Black's relative greater piece mobility.} (17. Qd1 $5) 17... Qe7 $17 18. Qg4 $2 {still dreaming of a kingside attack, it seems.} (18. Bf2) 18... Raf8 $19 {now the rooks have a stranglehold on the f-file and a mate in one is threatened on f1.} 19. Bh4 Qf7 $6 {in the Dutch, the Black player should be flexible in terms of kingside and queenside play. Here I make the same error on my opponent and fixate on the kingside, when my queen could make a decisive foray on the opposite wing.} (19... Qb4 $1 20. Rb1 Qxb2 {this is possible due to the back rank mate threat} (20... Bxh4 {is also sufficient for a major advantage.} 21. Qxh4 Qxc4 22. Qe1 c5 $19) 21. Qxf5 Qxc3 22. Qg4 Bxe3+ 23. Kh1 Qd3 $19) 20. Qe2 $17 Bxh4 21. Rxh4 Rf2 22. Qe1 $6 {a more practical-looking defense than the one given by the engine.} (22. Rf4 Rxf4 23. exf4 Qxf4 $17) 22... Qe7 {I thought for a while and played this somewhat less effective move. The idea was to hit the Rh4, but I did not have much of a follow up to it.} ( 22... Qf5 {this is more patient and threatens ...Qg5.} 23. Rf4 Rxf4 24. exf4 Qxf4 $19) 23. Rg4 {again, a reasonable-looking defense.} (23. Rf4 R8xf4 24. exf4 Rxb2 $17) 23... Rxb2 {an "obvious" move.} (23... Qb4 $5 24. Rb1 Qxc4 $19) 24. Ne2 {this is the main problem with Black's previous. Now the Rb2 is screened from the kingside action and White's knight can come into play.} Qa3 { this is too basic of an approach, simply targeting the a-pawn. I felt this at the time, but for whatever reason could not come up with something better.} ( 24... dxc4 $5 {having opted for queenside play, Black should logically follow up. I was illogically resistant to breaking up the Stonewall pawn formation, however. Knowing when to do this to your advantage is a key skill when playing the opening.} 25. Ng3 Qb4 26. Qxb4 Rxb4 27. Nxe4 Kh7 $19) (24... Qb4) 25. Nf4 { White is now successfully reorganizing his pieces for play on the kingside, which I have significantly weakened.} Rxa2 $2 {not a good decision, because now the opponent is right back in the game, comments Komodo via the Fritz interface.} (25... dxc4 {still preserves a Black advantage.} 26. Nh5 Rf7 27. Nf6+ Kh8 28. Nxe4 $17) 26. Rxa2 $14 {now we see that I have exchanged an active, dominant rook for White's previously inactive one, shifting the strategic balance. The extra pawn is not worth it.} Qxa2 27. h4 dxc4 $4 { throws away the game, notes the engine. An example of a good idea, but played too late.} (27... Rf7 {I had to think about defense first. On the 7th rank the rook covers both g7 and d7, which will come under pressure.}) 28. Qg3 $18 { now this comes with tempo, due to the attack on g7, and is crushing.} Rf7 ( 28... g5 {hardly improves anything} 29. Nh5 Kf7 30. hxg5 hxg5 31. Rxg5 $18) 29. Nh5 {White adds more attackers than Black can defenders.} Kf8 {the only way to keep playing.} 30. Rxg7 Qb1+ 31. Kh2 Qf1 {this maneuver added a defender on the f-file. I felt this was the best practical chance for me.} 32. Rg8+ Ke7 33. Nf6 c3 {for the moment, White has no immediate kill, so I decide to try to generate some counterplay, as a distraction if nothing else.} 34. Rg7 {my opponent thought for some time here. Black's formation is not easy to crack.} ( 34. Rh8 {is the non-obvious best move for Komodo. The point is that when Black sacrifices the exchange on f6 (as occurs in the game), White is better positioned with the rook.} Rxf6 35. exf6+ Qxf6 36. Rh7+ $18) 34... Be8 { this is what I had calculated and it appeared to frustrate my opponent.} 35. Rg8 Bd7 36. Rb8 $2 (36. Qg6 {in addition to the Rh8 idea, this would have kept the winning pressure on, although the path is complicated. For example} Qf5 37. Qxh6 c2 38. Rg7 c1=Q 39. Qh8 Qxf6 40. exf6+ Kxf6 41. Qh6+ Ke7 42. Qg5+ Kd6 43. Rxf7 $18) 36... Rxf6 $14 {another surprise for my opponent. This defensive exchange sacrifice is Black's only move to stay in the game.} 37. exf6+ Qxf6 38. Rxb7 c2 $16 {although White still has a slight plus in the endgame here, largely due to the active rook placement, it must have been very disappointing for him after having such a crushing attack going. Now he is forced to play some defense himself against the advanced passed c-pawn.} 39. Qe1 e5 40. Qc3 { I was happy to see this.} (40. d5 {is what I was concerned about as a response. } cxd5 41. Rc7 $16) 40... exd4 $11 {the engine evaluates this as equal. I had seen that there was a tactical trick lurking, however, and my opponent incorrectly goes for the "obvious move" of recapturing on d4.} 41. exd4 $4 { this now opens the c1-h6 diagonal and allows a queen fork of White's king and the c-pawn's queening square.} (41. Qxc2 $11) 41... Qf4+ 0-1

Book completed: Grandmaster Performance by Lyev Polugayevsky

I recently completed Grandmaster Performance by GM Lyev Polugayevsky (alternate spelling Lev Polugaevsky). Note: I have a hardcover of the original Pergamon Press edition (above left), although the currently available edition with Ishi Press (above right) has a similar cover design.

As with previously completed annotated games collections such as Bronstein's Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953 and Walter Browne's The Stress of Chess...and its Infinite Finesse, I used it primarily for single-session reviews of each game, typically taking 15-20 minutes to go through it. I find this to be the ideal amount of time for maintaining focus and being able to absorb the lessons of each game, before moving on to something different. to do this, the games need to be instructive, informative and judiciously well-annotated. Grandmaster Performance fit the bill very well, in all respects.

Contents:

From the author - a preface from which I got Training quote of the day #19

Problems from the first move - this chapter focused on games where opening preparation was a deciding factor.

In search of the truth - featuring attacking games by the author. The chapter title comes from Polugayevsky's preference for objectively sound attacks, rather than attacking for its own sake.

From defence to attack - featuring games where the author is on the defensive, then finds resources to turn the tables on his opponent.

The touchstone of mastery - games where the author won due to strategically outplaying his opponent.

Finale of the chess symphony - includes endgames of particular interest to the author. Most of these games are still fully annotated, although there is one endgame fragment presented in the chapter.

Psychology of the chess struggle - Polugayevsky presents a few key games from his chess career and the considerations that went into his strategic choices in each case, predicated on his own state of mind and his opponents' capabilities and styles.

Grandmaster Performance is elegantly written (and translated) and has an excellent balance in the annotations between explaining moves, providing variations, and "color commentary" by the author. Each chapter holds together thematically, but when going through complete games one learns much more than just a single lesson. Throughout the book, and especially in the last chapter, one also gets a good sense of the practical considerations used by a strong, competitive player in making decisions, as well as the errors that inevitably occur. For improving players, seeing and absorbing this kind of candid, high-level commentary on thought process and decisionmaking is undoubtedly beneficial. It is also psychologically helpful to understand that chess is not a perfect game, even at the grandmaster level, and success comes from finding ways to win, including when under pressure and on the defensive.