Video completed - Foxy vol. 135: The Stonewall and Colle-Zukertort Systems

I recently completed the Foxy vol. 135 (e-DVD edition) of "Queen Pawn System: Stonewall & Colle-Zukertort" by IM Andrew Martin. The Foxy video series are older (non-HD) video presentations that don't offer the interactivity or extras of newer computer products, so are basically equivalent to a recorded lecture.

Martin makes no great claims about these systems, instead repeatedly emphasizing their playability and practical effectiveness at "club level", where Black players are unlikely to be familiar with the right plans and also lack obvious opportunities for early counterplay. With the adoption of the Stonewall Attack - what Martin calls an "antique variation" since its heyday was around the beginning of the 20th century - the White player deliberately slows down the game's pace, deprives Black of tactical opportunities in the opening, and can generate some early kingside attacking threats if Black is not careful.

Below is a summary outline of the DVD contents, which run a total of two hours. After an introductory segment from Martin, there are 17 example games presented, with Martin providing light commentary and occasionally some alternative recommendations for White.

The sum of the example games and explanations provides a more or less complete White repertoire, with a couple of different options in different places. Martin is correct in also stressing ideas over specific variations during the presentations, especially since there are a lot of different move-order possibilities to reach these positions. The Stonewall Attack and Colle-Zukertort structures are not just old ideas, though, as searching on these database positions will pull up a number of examples at GM/professional level that are contemporary. The DVD has content through around 2011, so anyone looking to construct or augment a White repertoire should make the effort to find some newer model games, for other examples and ideas.

Contents

Introduction: White systems based on 1.d4 followed by 2. e3. These include three broad categories:

• Stonewall Attack vs. Queen's Gambit Declined (QGD) and related Black setups with ...d5
• Colle-Zukertort (with a delayed or omitted f4) vs. Queen's Indian Defense (QID) or similar Black setups without ...d5
• Rapid queenside expansion plan with Nf3/Be2 development vs King's Indian Defense (KID) setup

Game 1: Standard Stonewall Attack White setup (Stonewall pawn formation c3-d4-e3-f4, Bd3, Nd2, Ne5, Qf3) vs. QGD; game is from a 2002 Cuban tournament

• Explores Black inaccuracies
• White idea is to mount an early kingside attack, with option of castling queenside when there is no Black counterplay there

Game 2: Black QGD setup with blocked center (c5-c4) from 1998 Asian Championship

• Removal of central pawn tension enables idea of White playing e4 to undermine Black's center
• Again shows how White can maneuver to take advantage of planless Black play

Game 3: Black QGD setup with ...b6 to develop the queen bishop; technically a Colle-Zukertort with a delayed f4. (Nikitina-Fedotova, 2011 Sterlitamak Open)

• Notably features White piece development with b3/Bb2, analogous to Modern Stonewall queenside fianchetto

Game 4: Kramnik - Deep Junior (2000 Dortmund Exhibition); Stonewall Attack against QGD with ...c5

• Kramnik uses an old anti-computer strategy, with Deep Junior (2700+ at the time) not able to recognize the long-term attacking potential of White's setup
• Computer plays an early 7...Ng4?! sally to attack e3, which is parried by Qe2 and delayed castling 
• White features play on the g and h files, also eventual queenside castling to bring the second rook into play; again, no Black counterplay on queenside
• Kramnik is familiar with the Dutch Stonewall from his training with Mark Dvoretsky, so understands the positional ideas deeply

Game 5: Black plays ...g6/Bg7 after 3. Bd3 (Parr-Broadbent 1946 British Championship)

• Standard White Stonewall Attack setup, followed by h4/g4 advance
• Relentless attacking play by White suitable for club level, according to Martin

Game 6: Early 2...Bf5 by Black (Liang-Shen, 2010 All China Games)

• Martin's recommendation is to play c4, followed by Qb3, to target b7; 
• White plan is to exchange pawns on d5, followed by Nc3 and Qb3 
• Martin's suggestion is to go for winning the two bishops by Nf3-h4, if the Black Bf5 can't get away

Game 7: Early 2...Bf5 with an early White Qb3, results in queenless maneuvering middlegame (Abdullah - Shaw, 2008 Dresden Olympiad) 

Game 8: "Book Antidote #1": 3...Bg4 (Wall-Olbrich, Bundesliga 2001)  

• Recommended for Black by Martin in previous QP openings video
• White reacts by playing f3 and c4, followed by Nc3/Ne2 development, then b3/Bb2
• White Knight can go to f4, king can go to f2 as needed

Game 9: "Book Antidote #2": 3...Nc6 threatening to follow up with ...e5 or ...Nb4 (Rubinstein-Reti, Vienna 1908; Marshall - Suctung also cited)

• Martin recommends proceeding with Stonewall formation, preventing ...e5
• Continue development with Nf3, allow minor piece exchange and pawn recapture on d3 to cover e4, then play Nc3
• Rf3-h3 rook lift idea, combined with standard Stonewall queen bishop maneuver over to kingside

Game 10: QID setup (Temnekov-Morisov, 2008 Russia) versus Stonewall Attack

• By delaying ...d5, Black prevents usual Ne5 ideas, with ...d6 in reserve
• However, allows for White idea of Qe2 followed by e4
• White continues to grab space with a3/b4
• Once rest of board is locked up, White can look to break on the kingside, but is not in a rush

Game 11: Colle-Zukertort move order (Alekhine-Del Turco, Zurich 1934)

• Leads to favorable version of Stonewall, after Nf3-e5 and f2-f4
• White has alert play on queenside with c2-c4 at the right moment, along with threats to open up long diagonal for the Bb2

Game 12: QID vs Colle-Zukertort (Bogdanovich-Lehman, Munich 1996)

• Less loose (because no initial f4) than Game 10 system
• White plays Qf3 and then e4, with queen moving to h3 after exchange on e4
• No f4 played, more of a central focus

Game 13: Early ...g6 / KID setup (Kovacevic-Zufic)

• White needs to find an alternative to Bd3 development, according to Martin, so goes Nf3/Be2, continuing with c4 and Nc3
• Recommended plan is for queenside pawn expansion, which was started with a4 in the game
• Need to find a place for the dark-square bishop development; default is to leave it on c1 to protect e3, unless specific opportunities/targets appear on the other available diagonals
• Prophylactic play shuts down a kingside attack from Black, after dominance established by White on queenside and center

Game 14: KID setup; (Piskov-De Jong, 2006 Hoogeveen tournament)

• Early b3 (before c4); Martin prefers to play b2-b4 in one go
• Queenside expansion plan

Game 15: Gruenfeld setup; (Savechenko-Baramidze, 2000 Sparkassen Open)

• White uses Nf3/Be2 development, followed by b3/Bb2, delaying or omtting c4
• Ne5 is now available again, now that Black has played ...d5
• Kingside attack after center is blocked
• Exchange sacrifice opens up center after extended maneuvering

Game 16: Gruenfeld setup with ...c5 (Del Rio de Angelis-Suarez Uriel, Madrid 2010)

• b3/Bb2 development again; follow up with Nbd2 and c2-c4; look to occupy e5 with a knight
• White ends up with a c/d hanging pawns structure; defends them, then uses h-pawn advance 

Game 17: KID setup (Zwaig-Poutiainen, Team 6 Nations, 1973)

• White plays early Qc2 after c4; Martin recommends continuing with b4 immediately
• After a/b pawn pushes, White plays Nd5 to exchange off the key Black Nf6
• White relies on c-file pressure and queenside play to break through, sacrificing a knight on c6 after a b-pawn advance

Perpetual Chess

I've recently started listening to a high-quality podcast, Perpetual Chess, which has chess improvement as one of its central themes. It's US-based and features both professional and amateur US players - including past US champions such as GM Gata Kamsky and IM Nazi Paikidze - but also has a number of international guests on it at the GM/IM level, including notables such as GM Jonathan Rowson, GM Jacob Aagaard, IM Tania Sachdev, and many more.

What drew me most to it, though, are the "Adult Improver" episodes featuring people who have been making significant progress as adults, at both the Master and Class level. Of course there are a number of other very interesting and relevant interviews at the professional level, and the episode notes give a detailed preview of the topics, which I find very helpful. There should be something useful for any chess enthusiast in the interview list.

Video completed - Pro Analysis With Alexandra & Danya: Time In The Opening

I recently completed the first in a new video series on Chess.com from WFM Alexandra Botez and GM Daniel Naroditsky, "Pro Analysis With Alexandra & Danya: Time In The Opening". Like other ones that are good for finishing in one sitting, it is around 15 minutes in length and focuses on a main theme, with a few key game examples.

In this video, there are three different late opening / early middlegame positions looked at from the White perspective - one each from 1.e4, 1.d4 and Reti openings. Botez in each case starts with a summary of what she sees in the position at the Expert level, including positional characteristics and some specific plausible candidate moves. Naroditsky then validates the positional elements and goes deeper into the keys to the position, in terms of both general considerations and specific tactics.

This type of live thinking process discussion, which looks at general principles, positional characteristics and tactical possibilities, I find particularly instructive. It illustrates how one needs to think beyond surface-level possibilities to really find the positional and tactical keys to a position and develop a suitable plan. The first example, taken from a Smyslov game, was particularly illustrative of this process. He (as White) enjoyed a lead in development and his opponent's king was in the center, which brings up the general principle of doing whatever is possible to take advantage of that before the king can castle. The actual breakthrough, however, only came by identifying a non-obvious weakness on the queenside and exploiting it using what appears to be a quiet queen move, which sets up some sacrificial tactics.

Botez and Naroditsky have good pace and clarity in their discussion, which makes it easy to follow and absorb, and the technical quality is high. I look forward to additional videos as they come out in the series. 

FT: Tom Morton-Smith on dramatising the ‘chess match of the century’

The Financial Times periodically covers chess topics in a thoughtful way and just put out an article on a new theatre production in London, entitled Ravens: Spassky vs Fischer, that centers on the 1972 Fischer-Spassky world championship match. All of the actual games are reportedly included in some fashion, so it sounds like a more serious effort than many pop culture depictions of chess.

Link to the FT article

Chess imagery in popular culture

From Captain America: Civil War

In a short detour from the usual topics, I'd like to take a moment to explore (and deplore) the often annoying and occasionally truly awful depictions of chess in pop culture - including movies, TV productions, advertisements, and the like. Chess has an intellectual and often-times sophisticated image associated with it, although of course this is not always the case in real life. It's when things just appear wrong that it becomes annoying (or sometimes funny) to any chessplayer with a true love of the game.

The most frequent error - based on a lifetime amount of (unscientific) observation - is setting up the board wrong. It seems that the vast majority of the time I've seen a chess board on screen, it's not correct - something which should take a production assistant maybe a few seconds to verify, especially in the smartphone era. The two most common problems are the initial position of the pieces - often the King and Queen are switched - or when the board is turned 90 degrees, with colors reversed (the lower right square being dark rather than light).

Here's one of the top Shutterstock chess images, which demonstrates the first sin, reversing the king and queen:



An example of the latter sin, wrong board orientation/colors, can be seen in the lead pic of this post, taken from the blockbuster-budgeted Captain America: Civil War. At least the wood board and set are very aesthetic-looking and high end, with the pieces set up in correct order. It's a relatively subtle error, but I suppose it still doesn't bode well for Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and her allies that they can't set up their chessboard right.

Another cringeworthy (and more blatant) example of this is in the TED-Ed "A brief history of chess" video, which is intended to educate its audience about chess:

It's also relatively common to see random positions that could never happen in a real game, are illegal, or impossible things like multiple same-color bishops or pawns on your first rank. Those of us who recognize these gaffes may inadvertently laugh out loud, causing our non-chessplaying companions to wonder what is going on. This can be slightly embarrassing in, say, a business meeting, but it's really not our fault, is it?

Business presentations are in fact an egregiously common example of chess-related blunders. I suppose consultants and others want to make dramatic and smart-looking statements, but they often just look silly. For example:

Like knocking over your opponent's king with your rook?

The above at least might show a real position, although it's not entirely clear from the visual. The below is worse, as the source article (from a chess-related domain, in fact) is about chess and business analysis, but it illustrates the idea with a randomly thrown-together board. This doesn't exactly convey an image of competence and deep understanding:

From https://www.ichess.net/blog/chess-and-business-analysis/

Some relief from the awfulness

To provide at least some contrast, my favorite chess depiction (if not completely accurate), far and away, is the opening scene in the Bond movie From Russia With Love (1963). It shows a slightly modified position from Spassky-Bronstein, 1960. (You can tell it's from the 1960s by the ticking chess clocks and the fact you can smoke at the board.)


The Chess.com article on it is very thorough and one of the comments points out that the extended analysis based on the movie's game position has a flaw. Oh well.

Two other movies that get the feeling and most (if not all) of the details right:

• The Luzhin Defense (2000), based on the Vladimir Nabokov novel. There is one major game inaccuracy depicted, according to the linked article, although the finale's combination sequence is correct.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (Dave plays White; based on the position shown, he is not really very good, and of course loses to Hal 9000.)