Learn Chess from the Greats

Index

Introduction

There is a reason chess has survived as a popular game for over a millennium. Actually, there are two reasons!

First, chess is a wonderful mysterious puzzle to grandmaster and beginner alike. Chess is the type of mystery that allows you to solve parts of it, but never all of it. You can always learn from the game no matter who you are. The challenge is still there.

In the 1920s and 1930s, some grandmasters thought the game had pretty much been solved. They were wrong. The post World War II era created a new dynamic game that fascinated yet more generations. Computers will not kill chess either. Sure, they can calculate faster and further than we can. However, even these collections of nuts and bolts have their horizons beyond which they cannot see. Computers have, however, raised a challenge to the human species that needs to be met. It’s our turn to solve another part of the great mystery that is chess.

Secondly, chess really is a lot of fun! The more you learn about chess, the more fun it is. Too many people have an image of a couple of elderly gentlemen, with cobwebs about them, hunched over a board. If you have ever been to one of those scholastic tournaments with hundreds, even thousands of kids, you are amazed at two things. First, the children can stay quiet for a very long period time. Second, when these youngsters are done with their tournament game they, alive with delight, play even more chess between rounds—including the chaotic bughouse chess.

Of course, there is the quieter form of fun. Find a friend who is just about your strength and play regularly with that friend either at your homes or at a club. Or play with a perfect stranger at a club or in Washington Square Park in New York City and make a friend. The great fun of chess is not only its art and its beauty and its variations, but its human aspect. The bonds that are shared with other people because it’s a game you both love are crucial to the true enjoyment of the game.

My dad and my Uncle Bob used to play chess when we went to visit. They did not mind a curious seven-year-old watching the game. I was intrigued by the knight move. They were very patient teaching me the game. My uncle gave me a book by the British champion, Harry Golombek, and a Dover Publications collection of Morphy’s games. At home I eventually found a buddy who played. One summer we must have played a thousand games. I came to love the game for those very same two reasons. Every time I played or read I learned something. Fischer’s biographer, Frank Brady, once told me in an interview (www.correspondencechess/cja.com) that every time he played he felt his IQ went up a point. I felt that way, too.

Eventually, my group of chess playing friends expanded. I bought more books. I started playing in tournaments at fourteen. Chess had hooked me. Occasionally, it conflicted with other interests. Once, I had to explain to my high school basketball coach that I wouldn’t make the team bus because I would be coming directly from playing in the New Jersey high school chess championship. I still remember his bemused expression.

When I attended Dickinson College to further my education, I became friends with another chess player—Glenn Petersen. We formed a rather formidable small college team (we even upset Georgetown). A few years later (1973) Glenn came to me with the idea of starting the Atlantic Chess News, which still exists today. Glenn has become the superb editor of Chess Life, which has won countless awards under his leadership.

One day, in the fall of 1994, he called to ask me to write the U.S. Chess Federation’s syndicated weekly chess column, which eventually came to be sent to almost 200 newspapers around the country. In 1995 the column was recognized by the Chess Journalists of America as the Best Regular Newspaper Column.

Because the month’s worth of columns had to be sent out at once, I realized that I could not be up to the minute. The purpose of the columns then became to instruct and entertain. It became a kind of mission in another sense. Since the changeover to algebraic, a good deal of wonderful chess has been lost. Old games that have not been converted to the new notation and books with descriptive notation do not often see the light of day.

I started scouring my library—British Chess Magazine from 1920 to the present, Chess Review from the 1930s, C. J. S. Purdy’s Chess World from the 1940s on and several score of books on the enjoyment of chess. What a treasure trove! Reintroducing these old classics was my way of making sure a valuable heritage was not lost.

This book is meant to be your guide to learning and enjoying chess in an informal and user-friendly way. You will find the greats in here—Fischer, Tal, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Lasker and many more. In addition to these acknowledged giants who have left a permanent and profound imprint on chess, there are others in here who have achieved a kind of greatness to which all of us can aspire.

As Fred Wilson, in his popular book 101 Questions On How to Play Chess, points out, anyone can create beauty in chess. Even amateurs have moments of greatness because chess does not judge you on what your pedigree is. It judges you on the moves you make. So, in this book, you will find the great, the near great, the momentarily great and the never were great; however, all these positions and games were chosen so you, the reader, could learn and enjoy the wide variety of treasures I have unearthed.

You see, I am a chess fan. When I looked through old magazines and books to find these positions, it was as though I were searching for buried treasure. When I discovered this gem or that gem each position had an impact. I found that they stayed in my mind as ideas. I found myself remembering these vivid concepts when I played. There is a Spanish chess book in my library that I always get a chuckle out of when I open it. On the title page is a quote, in English(!), that we all know: A think of beauty is a joy forever. To this day I do not know if the author intended the g to become a k, but the quote on that page has certainly applied to the art between the covers of this book.

When considering how to arrange a diverse collection of newspaper columns, I concluded that we would stay with the theme of instruction and entertainment. As mentioned, this is a user-friendly book. For most of the pages you do not even need a chess set. Just turn to any page and enjoy the theme for that page. For real students of chess, there are over 60 complete games—and not a dull one in the bunch!

For beginners, the first 25 articles are some elementary ideas that are useful to use right away in your play. Scholastic chess coaches will find the positions helpful in teaching.

Then you can head to the attacking section, with such great masters of the assault as Fischer, Keres, Alekhine, Larsen and Rubinstein and others showing you how to polish someone off in the middle game.

And, if by chance, you find yourself in the endgame, chapter three will give you endgame concepts that are guaranteed to help you for the rest of your chess life. Endgame study is one of the great neglected areas of every player’s chess development. The examples chosen are memorable, and you are urged to spend a good deal of time here.

Chapter four is a bit of a break. If you want to stump a friend with a problem, this is the place to go. What is truly annoying about these problems is that you will feel that you should be able to solve them. They are pleasantly diabolical.

Chapters five and six give you complete games galore. For light fare we start with miniatures and finish with great known and unknown games. Playing over games is a surefire way to get better at chess.

And lest you forget to have fun, we finish the book (Chapter seven) with as much chess fun as we could fit.

Beyond the eight world champions represented in the book, exciting old-time players are included: Blackburne, Marshall, Rubinstein, Spielmann, Tartakower, Richter, Nezhmetdinov and Steiner. Some dynamic newer stars are also chosen: Basman, Ivanchuk. Kamsky, Kramnick, Polgar and Seirawan. The composers chosen are the cream of their field: Loyd, Reti, Troitzky, Wurzburg, White, Grigoriev, Kling and Rinck.

Even the noteworthy computers like Belle and Deep Thought make their appearance.

All of these greats and their ideas are in this book to inspire you to similar feats. That might be just a moment of greatness for most of us, but it will be enough. An interviewer once asked David Bronstein what his best game was. He answered, I haven’t played it yet. In chess, your best is always ahead of you—no matter how many setbacks. All you need to do is to let your mind dwell on the creative possibilities presented here, and you will find yourself creating your own wonderful moves when you play. Good Luck!

Peter J. Tamburro, Jr.

Morristown, NJ

Note: If you wish to have your local paper carry this column, contact the United States Chess Federation (uschess.org).

LEARN

CHESS

FROM THE

GREATS

1. For Students and Coaches

Ta’bi’a

There is an old Islamic phrase in the ancient version of chess—shatranj—which describes a set-up, a kind of opening formation for all the troops before you mix it up in actual battle. In the older, slower form of chess these ta’bi’as were quite common and useful.

Although understanding the principles of opening theory is far better than uselessly memorizing columns of moves without comprehending why they are being made, there is still room for a compromise using the ancient principles.

After all, kids like to be able to get out of the opening when they play in tournaments. The solution? Give them a map. For example, as White give them (notice no Black moves given) 1. d4 2. Nf3 3. e3 4. Bd3 5. c3 6. 0–0 7. Nbd2 8. Qe2 9. Re1 10. e4, known to many of you as the Colle System. You can play this with minor variations against anything. It gives you something to hang onto while you learn the game.

With Black, it’s tougher. In this game the player of the Black pieces was 13 years old. His adult opponent had played 1. d4 in earlier rounds and a concerned son sought out his dad to get some advice. Dad gave him 11 straight moves to remember.

Jan Kopleau–Peter J. Tamburro III Somerset, 1993

1. d4 f5 2. c4

Here Dad breathed a sigh of relief. What if White played the dangerous Staunton Gambit 2.e4?

2. ... Nf6 3. Nc3 e6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg5?! 0–0 6. e3 d6 7. Bd3 b6 8. 0–0 Bb7 9. Nd2! Nbd7 10. Re1 Qe8 (see diagram) 11. e4! Qf7?!

He forgot the 11th move, which was 11. ... Qg6, but at least he’s in a middle game where anything can happen and does!

12. exf5 exf5 13. Bxf5 Qe8? 14. Qa4?

This gives Black his chance to recover from the hesitancy of his last move.

14. ... Qh5! 15. Bxd7 Qxg5 16. Nf3 Bxf3 17. g3 Qh5 18. Bc6

This seemed to be the saving idea behind 16. Nf3, but Black comes up with a great move for a beginner’s game.

18. ... d5!! 19. Re3 Ng4! 20. Rxf3 Rxf3 21. Bxd5+ Kh8 22. Bxf3 Qxh2+ 23. Kf1 Qxf2 mate.

Seeing Combinations

Rudolf Spielmann, the Viennese grandmaster who wrote an entire book on chess sacrifice, wrote in emotional prose how the chess masses loved games with combinations over the technical, positional chess, which took greater effort to understand. This populist disregard for positional chess is the reason why Morphy, Chigorin, Marshall, Alekhine and Tal maintain their attraction.

There is something in their play and their moves that flaunts natural law, and we are amused and fascinated and awed by it.

In the 1940s, Irving Chernev and Kenneth Harkness wrote a delightful little book called An Invitation to Chess, and, frankly, no book published today of a similar size and nature can claim to be better. In one of their chapters, they show you how to see combinations. Using the two diagrams you see today, they demonstrate the fundamental truth behind all combinations. You must look at the board differently, indeed, more elementally.

The diagram with the White bishop and knight and Black king and queen clearly shows a basic possibility. Then, White has to figure out how to get the d4 pawn, the e5 knight and the f6 knight out of the way in the right order to achieve the objective. This approach makes it easier to understand a good many positional moves which put rooks opposite opposing queens even though there are five pieces and pawns in between.

In this position, Alekhine sees that he must play 1. c5 bxc5

2. dxc5 (1st goal accomplished) Bxc5+ 3. Rxc5! Rxc5 4. g5 Nd7 (2nd goal) 5. Nc6+ (all done!).

Death Ray Attack

In Star Wars, Darth Vader unleashes an awesome weapon—a death ray which destroys the Princess’s planet. The unsuspecting planet couldn’t see it coming, but the terrible explosion was such that even the force shuddered.

Chess can simulate that! Our Darth Vader for today is Anatoly Ufimtsev, champion of Kazakhstan, who took the dark forces (Black pieces) fifty years ago against grandmaster Isaak Bole-slavsky to demonstrate the power of