The Chess Files

The Chess Files

The answers are out there.

By Jim Eade

The Woman’s World Championship is being held in Russia as of this writing.  Results can be seen at: http://chess2012.ugrasport.com.  It is a fact that the best players are almost all male, but why is that?

In many parts of the world, cultural and or religious factors play a decisive role in preventing women from realizing their potential.  As for the United States, I think chess progress for females might be subject to the same influences as math and science, as detailed in Peggy Orenstein’s book “School Girls.”

She reported that young girls were at least equal to boys in math and science until they reached an age where they began to care about what boys thought about them.  Girls were subject to negative peer pressure, if they continued to excel.  This was coupled with a mostly unconscious bias in favor of the boys exhibited by the teachers themselves.  They often demonstrated a tendency to acknowledge boys more frequently, and were prone to give the boys more positive feedback.

If you argue that there are intrinsic reasons that males outperform females in chess, you will undoubtedly, and correctly, be confronted with the example of the Polgar sisters.  Home schooled, the three sisters were systematically trained in chess from a young age.  The eldest, Zsuzsa, became a world renowned Grandmaster, and eventually Women’s world champion.  The middle sister, Zsofia, became an International Master, while the youngest, Judit, became one of the strongest Grandmasters in the world.

The Polgar sisters became inspirations to young girls all over the world.  When I asked former US Champion Jennifer Shahade who her role model as a player was, she didn’t hesitate in naming Judit.  Thanks to players such as the Polgars and Shahade, young girls across the country now know that the sky is the limit when it comes to chess.

Judit Polgar delivered mate in five moves from the following position in a 1990 games against Krotonias:

1…Rd1+ 2. Kg2 Rc2+ 3. Kh3 Rxh2+ 4. Kg3 Rg1+ 5. Kf3 Rf2#.

As always, you can send your chess questions directly to me at jimeade@comcast.net.

The Chess Files

The Chess Files

The answers are out there.

By Jim Eade

I’ve supplied partial answers to the question: “What do you do after you’ve learned the basic?” in previous columns.  A recommendation from the first half of the 20^th century was Nimzowitsch’s “My System.”   One from the middle part of the century was Larry Evans’ “New Ideas in Chess.”  It is now time to turn the spotlight on a contemporary chess author.

Jeremy Silman is an International Chess Master, who has won the American Open, the National Open and the US Open.  He is a world renowned chess teacher, who has served many times as a coach for the US delegation to World Junior Championships.

Most importantly for our purposes, Silman has authored a number of excellent instructional books on chess.  It is very difficult to choose just one, but I am comforted in the knowledge that I can’t go too far wrong.  Silman is just that good.

My recommendation is his “The Complete Book of Chess Strategy.”   It is sub-titled “Grandmaster Techniques From A to Z.”    He has sections on the three phases of the game: Opening, Middlegame, and Endgame, but also includes a useful section on what he calls “Practical Matters.”  Each section concludes with a set of Quizzes, which I think is a valuable methodology.

In a tip of the hat to the past, Silman gives an example of prophylaxis in chess.  This was a term coined by Nimzowitsch, who taught that it was sometimes more important to prevent your opponent from playing a good move than to make one yourself.  The example Silman uses to illustrate this concept is given below:

Silman writes that “White has a substantial advantage in space and piece activity.”  He continues, “However, Black is about to play …c6-c5.  What should White do about this?

1.c5!

Silman concludes as follows: “By following up with Ne5, White can build a kingside attack at his leisure, while Black can only stare helplessly and wait for his doom to arrive.”

As always, you can send your chess questions directly to me at jimeade@comcast.net.

chess files

The Chess Files

The answers are out there.

By Jim Eade

The US Game/30 and Game/60 Championships were held in Pleasanton earlier this month.  In the former event each player gets 30 minutes for the entire game, while in the latter they get 60 minutes.  You run out of time and you forfeit the game.  The Championships were organized by Salman Azhar, and were directed by John McCumiskey and Tom Langland.

What is the optimal amount of time for serious game of chess?  When I began playing in tournaments it was standard to have 2 ½ hours for 40 moves, and an hour for the next 20.  Every time you completed 20 moves you were given another hour. This was referred to as the time control.  Five hour games were routine, and in the US, we would often play two rounds in the same day!  Eating and sleeping properly became logistically challenging.

Eventually, the initial time limit was reduced from 2 ½ hours to two for the first forty moves.  The thinking was that this would shorten the games by about an hour on average.  You would think the players would’ve welcomed this change, but many of them complained that it was destroying the quality of the games, by forcing players to move faster.

With the development of digital chess clocks, it became possible to give a small amount of time for every completed move.  This meant that you could keep playing as long as you liked, as long as you kept moving quickly.  This caused most games to be completed in five hours or less, but there were howls of protest!

Younger players, who grew up with the new rules, generally had no such complaints.  They were used to moving quickly and accurately!  Older players would either have to adapt, see their results suffer, or drop out entirely.  There is still some grumbling, but most of it has died down.  The fact is that today’s players can produce high quality chess games at almost any speed.

If you don’t like a certain time control, you can always organize an event yourself.  Or, better yet, get Salman Azhar to do it for you!

I had the white pieces in the position below.  Black probably expected me to capture his rook in b3, but White has a far stronger continuation.

  

1.Nf6+ forces mate.  Because, the black king is in check by both the rook on d1 and the knight on f6, it must move.  It’s only legal move would be to play 1…Kc8, which would allow 2. Rd8#.  Checking the king with two pieces simultaneously is called “double check” and it can be one of the most powerful maneuvers in chess.

As always, you can send your chess questions directly to me at jimeade@comcast.net.