0 Manual of Chess Combinations

In January, a young woman showed up at a youth chess tournament that I was running with an interesting book of chess combinations. She told me that this book had been recommended by her coach, who is a Russian master.* She also said that she was working her way through the book and finding many challenging problems that demanded creative and flexible thinking.

I looked up the book on Amazon and added it to my wish list. It is Sergey Ivashchenko, The Manual of Chess Combinations, vol. II (Russian Chess House, 2002).

I almost bought the book that day, but I waffled because I was also planning to buy the Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations, 5th edition (Chess Informant, 2014). At the 23rd Dave Collyer Memorial Chess Tournament, a used copy of Ivashchenko's was among the books that IM John Donaldson brought to sell. It was $10. I grabbed it instantly while he was still unboxing the other books.

Ivashchenko claims that this book is designed to lift players from 1600-1700 up to 2200 or higher. Hence, in theory, I should be able to work through the first two or three sections rather quickly, and then find more challenging problems. Indeed, I have solved a few of the early problems in two minutes or less. Nonetheless, a couple have proven more difficult.

After five minutes with Problem 15, I worked out the idea and verified that it would succeed, but I missed a nuance in Black's defense and so did not have the whole sequence correct.

White to move

*The young woman has been playing in my youth tournaments since fourth or fifth grade. She is now a high school senior. When she was in middle school, I coached her for a month or so to prepare her for the Idaho Girls State Championship, where she tied for first. She now plays as well as a solid A Class player, albeit with a much lower rating. I was happy that I was not paired against her in the Collyer. If she keeps playing chess through college, she will become a master.

Detail: Manual of Chess Combinations

0 Calculation

Working through a random set of combinations from the Anthology of Chess Combinations, third edition, I find that I need the patience to slow down and improve the accuracy of my calculations. Too much blitz and timed tactics solving has cultivated an expectation that I should see things instantly.

This position is a case in point. I found the correct key (first move), the correct idea, and saw clearly and correctly the final position. However, I missed the second move of the sequence.

White to move

Detail: Calculation

0 The New Informants

Long a publication that crosses language barriers, in recent years Chess Informant has been expanding its front sections with articles written in English. These changes began with opening theory and expanded into articles on many topics.

Informant 110 offered a new feature called CI Labs with five articles concerned with new trends in the openings. Each article contained a short introduction in English. CI Labs expanded to six articles in the next issue, which also added two other articles. "Chess History" by Harald Fietz celebrates the centenary of Jose R. Capablanca's entry into the world elite. Anna Burtasova's "Women and Chess" marked the 50th birthday of Maia Chiburdanidze, five-time world champion.

CI Labs peaked at ten articles with Informant 113 and that issue also included the first "Garry's Choice" column, which ran through Informant 118. In these columns, Garry Kasparov offered his analysis of recent Grandmaster games. The number of articles continued to grow as did their breadth and depth. With Informant 119, the company added download versions customized for the ChessBase database software. Because I use ChessBase daily, this feature puts Informants in easier reach.

The new content is outstanding. While Informant has long been a periodical that was indispensable to professional players, some average players found it intimidating. Many of the new articles aim at the average tournament player.

Mihail Marin's column, "Old Wine in New Bottles," has proven illuminating. In Informant 119 (the Viking edition), he explored rook endings. Viswanathan Anand missed a draw in a difficult rook ending in his World Championship match with Magnus Carlsen. Most chess enthusiasts know that, but still may find Marin's analysis illuminating. In the same article, he points out a hidden resource in the well-known game Capablanca -- Tartakower, New York 1924. Marin poetically notes that the reputed author of the aphorism, "all rook endings are drawn," missed a drawing opportunity in his most famous loss.

In Informant 122, Marin examines the role of memory in chess through an exploration of the double bishop sacrifice. He works his way back through time, beginning with recent play by a teammate and working towards Emanuel Lasker's famous game against Johann Bauer (1889). The importance of pattern recognition in chess training is brought home for ambitious players and chess teachers working with all levels of students.

There are also compelling columns by Alexander Morozevich, Ivan Sokolov, Karsten Mueller, Wesley So, and an ever changing cast of Grandmasters. These columns are suitable for chess enthusiasts across a wide range of skill levels.

Informants have long had versions compatible with ChessBase, but not all commentary translated well. The image below shows Informant 75/156 in Chess Informant Expert (left) and ChessBase (right). The intended text "with the idea of 17...Rac8, 17...Qa1" is almost unreadable in ChessBase. (readers may click on the image for better viewing).

Side-by-side CI Expert and ChessBase

In the latest versions created especially for ChessBase, such commentary reads perfectly. Below is some text from "Midnight in Moscow: Avoiding the Saemisch by a Less Traveled Road" by Alexander Morozevich. "With the idea" is spelled out, and the figurine algebraic displays correctly.

Informant 122 in ChessBase

I have been a fan of Chess Informants for nearly two decades. My first issue in late 1996 or early 1997 was Informant 64 and it quickly paid dividends in a nice win in a correspondence game (see "Playing by the Book"). In the early years of this century, I started buying electronic editions of Informants and reading them in Chess Informant Reader (CIR). Later, the company came out with Chess Informant Expert, which offered editing and publishing functions not available in CIR. CI Expert also offered a more pleasing interface with options for different color combinations.

CI Expert offers functionality not available in ChessBase. For example, from the electronic edition of the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, it is possible to jump to reference games in the relevant issue of Informant, as I demonstrated in this YouTube video.

Despite the advantages of reading Informants in their proprietary software, or in print, I welcome these new ChessBase versions. Designing Chess Informant publications specifically for ChessBase software makes Informants more accessible.

Detail: The New Informants

0 Training with Morphy

Playing set positions against a computer develops technique. It is one thing to claim that Black has a decisive advantage, but quite another to demonstrate that advantage against an emotionless monster. During the wee hours of the morning earlier this week, I played out positions from Schulten -- Morphy against Hiarcs on the iPad. The app gives Hiarcs's rating as 2950.

I started with the position that I marked as a decisive advantage for Black in my annotations to the game..

Black to move

Morphy's move is correct and leads to a decisive advantage, so I played 13...Rxe2 to start the game against the app. I set the time control at 10 minutes.

14.Nxe2 Nd4 15.Rb1

Hiarcs deviated from Schulten's play, permitting me to win the queen.

15...Bxe2+ 16.Qxe2 Nxe2 17.Kxe2

Black to move

According to point count chess, I am ahead two points--queen and knight for a rook, bishop, and two pawns. At the same point in the game, Morphy was materially down a rook and two pawns for two knights. By sacrificing material, Hiarcs has reduced the vulnerability of White's king.

I went on to win the game, but I missed a few instructive tactics that were revealed when I went through my play later that morning with Stockfish.

17...Qe7 18.Kf3 b6 19.Rhe1 Qb7+ 20.Kf2 Qa6 21.Rec1 Re8 22.Kf1 h5 23.h3 Qc8 24.Kf2 Qc5+ 25.Kf3

Black to move

I played 25...h4.

I could have played 25...Ng4! 26.hxg4 hxg4+ 27.Kxg4 Qf2.

In this game, it seems beneficial to be down material because that is how the White king is rendered vulnerable to attack. If White tries to keep the bishop, the king might get mated.

After winning this game, I started anew from one move earlier in the game.

Hiarcs (Schulten) -- Stripes (Morphy)

12...Nxc6 13.Bc3

Hiarcs found an improvement over White's play.

Black to move

I drew the first game, played more aggressively in the second and lost. On the third effort the following morning, I managed to score a victory.

13...Nd4 14.Bxd4 Qxd4

Hiarcs played 15.c3 here in the game that was drawn, but 15.Rc1 in the other two.

After 15.Rc1 Rad8 16.Nf3, we reach the next diagram.

Black to move

Black is still down two pawns while White's forces have hope of completing mobilization.

In the third game, I played 16...Qe3, but Stockfish considers 16...Bxf3 superior by the value of a minor piece.

This exercise demonstrated that I have work to do learning to exploit an initiative after having sacrificed material to achieve it. In the first two games, I regained the sacrificed material but slowly lost my advantage. In one case, the initiative transferred to White and the silicon beast prevailed.

My win came as a result of a combination that gained material superior to the pawns that Morphy had sacrificed.

17.Qd2 Qxd2+ 18Kxd2 Ne4+!

White to move

19.Ke3 Nc3+ 20.Kd2 Nxe2

I have a bishop for the two pawns. Moreover, my pieces are more active than White's.

Detail: Training with Morphy

0 Training Regimen

I am spending a little time each day working through Rashid Ziyatdinov, and Peter Dyson, GM-RAM: Essential Grandmaster Knowledge (2000).

One way that I am working through this book is to devote time to one of the 59 games each week. In late 2014, I went through a three of these games in some detail (see "Training with Anderssen," and "Anderssen -- Staunton 1851"). Understanding these 59 games lead to mastery of 120 middlegame positions (see "To Know a Position"). This week I am working through the Evergreen Game, which I have been through several times in the past. Several books on my shelf have detailed annotations of this classic game, including Graham Burgess, John Nunn, and John Emms, The World's Greatest Chess Games (1998). I am studying these annotations.

External works are essential to proper reading of Ziyatdinov's text. He explains:

This book presents the key positions which must be known to achieve chess mastery. It does not undertake an explanation of them. There are other authors who have adequately explained the positions presented here. A list of references is included. (13)

Studying the 133 endgame positions is another way that I am working through Ziyatdinov's text. Several years ago, I wrote a note in my copy of the text concerning diagram 16: "1-175 Dvoretsky presents more difficulties--kings on g5 and g7. White pawn on g4" (29).

GM-RAM Diagram 16

Yesterday, I set out to find what Yuri Averbakh had to say regarding this position. Ziyatdinov lists Averbakh's Comprehensive Chess Endings. I have access to the Chess Digest edition, so started going through "Two Pawns v. One" in Yuri Averbakh and Ilya Maizelis, Pawn Endings, trans. Mary Lasher (1974).

I did not get far enough to discover whether this position is in this text. Instead, I worked through several somewhat more elementary positions. First, I played them rapidly against Rybka 4 to test my instincts. Then, I read what Averbakh had to say about each one.

The first presented no difficulties.

Averbakh Pawn 145

Stripes,James -- Rybka 4 x64
Blitz 5m Spokane, 02.01.2015

1.g4+ Kxg4 2.Kg6 c5 3.h4 Kxh4 4.Kf5 Kh5 5.Ke5 c4 6.Kd4 c3 7.Kxc3 ½–½

The second one required a second attempt because I did not calculate. My instincts were close, but wrong. Alas, there is no partial credit in chess games. A wrong answer can be fatal.

Averbakh Pawn 146

Stripes,James -- Rybka 4 x64
Blitz 5m Spokane, 02.01.2015

1.Kg7 e5 2.g4+

My first effort: 2.Kf6?? e4 3.Kf5 e3 4.g4+ Kxh4 5.g5 e2 6.g6 e1Q-+.

2...Kxg4 3.Kg6 e4 4.h5 e3 5.h6 e2 6.h7 e1Q 7.h8Q Qe4+ 8.Kg7 Qd4+ 9.Kg8 Qd8+ 10.Kg7 Qd7+ 11.Kg8 Qd8+ 12.Kg7 Qd7+ 13.Kg8 Qd5+ 14.Kg7 Qd4+ 15.Kg8 Qd5+ 16.Kg7 Qd3 17.Kg8 Qd8+ ½–½

The third position employs the same idea.

Averbakh Pawn 147

Stripes,James -- Rybka 4 x64
Blitz 5m Spokane, 02.01.2015

1.Ke7 b5 2.Ke6 

2.d5?? Kxd5

Pawn race produces a queen ending

2...Kf3!

Rybka played the least obvious of three drawing moves.

I expected 2...b4 3.d5 b3 4.d6 b2 5.d7 b1Q 6.d8Q Qa2+.

3.d5 b4 4.d6 b3 5.d7 b2 6.d8Q b1Q 7.Qf6+ Ke2 8.e4 Qxe4+ 9.Qe5 Kd3 10.Qxe4+ Kxe4 ½–½

After these three, I went back to the previous page in Averbakh's text. The first position is a simple matter of triangulation if White is on move. He offers solutions with both White and Black to move. I played these out against Rybka.

Averbakh Pawn 143

After two pages of Averbakh's Pawn Endings, I pulled another book off the shelf, Lazlo Polgar, Chess Endgames (1999) and glanced through the "Elementary Positions" section looking for similar positions. I played these against the box.

One diagram appears twice--with Black to move first, and then with White to move several pages later.

Two in Polgar

Detail: Training Regimen

0 To Know a Position

300 Positions

Rashid Ziyatdinov, in his provocative GM-RAM: Essential Grandmaster Knowledge (2000), builds on an idea that has been put forth by others: knowing well a set number of critical positions is essential to chess strength.*

In Russian chess folklore it is said there are 300 positions which comprise the most important knowledge which an aspiring player must acquire. (12)

Ziyatdinov continues with the recognition that several sets of 300 positions have been presented by other authors, that the collections vary, and that opinions "vary regarding which positions comprise the magical 300". He cites Lev Alburt, Chess Training Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Positions & Ideas (1997).** Alburt claims that his 300 positions will provide a foundation for becoming a "strong tournament player" (8). Ziyatdinov makes a more ambitious claim:

Assuming understanding of the strategy, openings, and of chess tactics, a student who knows every position in this book "by heart" ... will achieve Grandmaster status. (13)

I shall return in a moment to the important qualifications marked by the ellipses in this quote.

Both Alburt and Ziyatdinov employ computing metaphors in their work. Alburt refers to the 300 positions as "zipped files". Each contains "volumes of chess playing knowledge" that can be assessed via the "programs" of a player's "problem-solving skills" (9). Ziyatdinov, on the other hand, does not present the information as locked up and needing access by a special program. Rather, the essential positions are "tacit knowledge" akin to basic words in one's native language.

When using information in its RAM memory, a computer works more than 100 times faster than when using information from its hard drive. (7)

While Alburt presents positions that will be stored at the back of one's memory, Ziyatdinov asks that students know the position cold, "such that in a matter of seconds he or she understands everything important about the position" (13). Part of the knowledge of a position is memorization of the game from which it comes. Positions are "the fingerprint of the games" (77).


Anderssen -- Staunton 1851

Ziyatdinov's positions include 133 endgame positions and 120 middlegame positions (three positions are duplicated because Ziyatdinov discusses them). He leaves it to the reader to fill in the gap to bring the total to 300. The 120 middlegame positions stem from 59 games. Three positions are from the fifth match game between Adolf Anderssen and Howard Staunton at the First International Chess Tournament 1851. The diagram below is the first of these three.

GM-RAM, Position 140

What must I know about this position?

The moves leading up to it featured a queen sortie that netted Black the pawn on b2. Then the queen was driven back to her starting square. Black's dark-squared bishop also left its initial square, but then returned in an unsuccessful effort to keep the queen in play.

Staunton's annotations in the tournament book of the First International Chess Tournament explain his reasoning when he played 10...Bf8. I think that 10...Ne7 would have been better, although even then White already had a clear advantage.

I have been going through this game repeatedly over the past few days. After 14...Qd8, which led to the diagram position, I wrote:

Only one of Black's pieces is off its starting square. All of White's pieces have moved, except the queen. Although down a pawn, White's pieces are in action.

Black's lack of development is certainly one element that makes this position notable.

Over the course of the next few moves, Anderssen put pressure on the weak backwards pawn on d6. After 20...Nc5, Staunton wrote, "Child's play. Throwing away his most important Pawn for nothing!" The only way that I have found for him to retain this pawn leaves his position utterly hopeless, although he maintains a material advantage. White still gains the pawn, but sacrifices the exchange (rook for bishop) in order to do so.

Looking Toward 2015

I am ambivalent concerning any chess related New Year's Resolutions for 2015. My resolutions for 2013 were only partly successful and ended in disappointment. The year before, I met my rating goal but not my training goal. I did not bother in 2014.

Nonetheless, I am presently inclined to make an effort to work through one game per week from GM-RAM. How far into 2015 this current interest will carry me is unknown. I suspect that at some point other training interests or non-chess priorities will intervene and break me from this path. That is what always happens.

I cherish no illusions that I will attain Grandmaster strength. Even USCF Expert seems a long shot in the light of my current playing strength and tournament opportunities. I spend a lot of time on chess, but the bulk of this time is divided between the thrill--positive and negative--of online blitz, on the one hand, and nurturing the skills of children, on the other hand. I am privileged to coach several of the area's top elementary players. I am applying some of Ziyatdinov's training ideas in this coaching, using a batch of Paul Morphy's games (see "Morphy's Fingerprints"), followed by the eleven Anderssen games in GM-RAM.

Whether for my own progress, or for that of my students, the time that I invest studying Ziyatdinov's 59 games should prove beneficial.

I might also spend more time plowing through the 133 endgame positions in GM-RAM. The six positions in "Six Pawn Endings" are essentially identical to the first six in the book. These have been among the fundamental positions that I have been teaching youth players since even before I bought Ziyatdinov's book. In his 133 positions, however, are quite a few that I have yet to invest any serious time. Perhaps that will change in 2015.



*My initial review of this book is available at "GM-RAM: Essential Knowledge." Subsequent ruminations appear by clicking with the label "Ziyatdinov" below.

**Since the publication of GM-RAM, Alburt has brought out a second book with an additional 320 positions, Chess Training Pocket Book II: 320 Key Positions for Players at All Levels (2008).

Detail: To Know a Position

0 Morphy's Fingerprints

...from this fingerprint, the associated game can be identified.
Rashid Ziyatdinov, GM-RAM

Since mid-summer, a handful of my students have been slowly working through eighteen games played by Paul Morphy. I printed the scores for all of his games from the First American Chess Congress 1857. These game scores become part of the work my students and I go through during our time each week. I encourage them to go through the games as homework, too. They have other chess homework to which they usually give priority--problem sets from my "Checklist of Checkmates", for example, and the problem sets I call "Checkmates and Tactics".*

As we go through the games, we look for critical positions, the key decisive errors, and improvements for both sides. My own understanding of these games is informed by annotations of some of them in Valeri Beim, Paul Morphy: A Modern Perspective (2005), which has been in my chess teaching bag most of the past several months. In a few instances, my students and I also have looked at Philip W. Sergeant, Morphy's Games of Chess (1957).

Two of my students have been through all eighteen of Morphy's games from the American Chess Congress and are now working through a small selection of Anderssen's games, those selected by Rashid Ziyatdinov for inclusion in GM-RAM: Essential Grandmaster Chess Knowledge (2000). Ziyatdinov's 120 middlegame positions all occur in the 59 games that he includes in the book. Ziyatdinov advocates mastery of 300 positions, but includes only 256 in his book. He states that each individual will have his or her own additions to the list.

I am now assembling diagrams from these eighteen Morphy games. These diagrams, like the middlegame positions in GM-RAM, are fingerprints that should provoke recollection of the entire game from which each is extracted. My students have not yet set out to memorize Morphy's games, but each of these positions should be reasonably familiar. We discussed each one in some detail. In some cases, the position is where Morphy's tactical skills led him to a decisive blow. In other cases, they represent the moment where his opponent began to self-destruct. In one case, Morphy missed the best plan.

In each case, the idea of the diagram is to understand how both sides should play the position. Is the position one of equality or does one side have a clear advantage? The first set of four positions are from Morphy's three games against James Thompson, his first round opponent at the American Chess Congress.

Perhaps these are not the most important positions from these three games. Perhaps there are better fingerprints.

White to move

White to move

White to move

Black to move

I will select positions from the remaining fifteen games at a later date.


*An award certificate structured curriculum gives structure to many of my lessons with students receiving individual instruction and school clubs. Students work through "Checklist of Checkmates" as part of the Bishop, Rook, and Queen Awards. There are seven sets of problems for a total of 139. The "Checkmates and Tactics" worksheets begin with six checkmates in one move for the Pawn Award and culminate in sixty problems, only a few ending in checkmate, for the Queen Award. There are 150 problems in five sets.

Detail: Morphy's Fingerprints

0 The Camp Workbook

This morning concluded my seventh summer chess camp for elementary age chess players. The first camp was in June 2008 and drew only youth from Deer Park School District, where the camp was part of a very active summer enrichment program. With permission of the summer coordinators, I began recruiting students from outside the district in 2009. The second year, the three hour block was split: 1:45 for the advanced camp and 1:15 for the beginning camp. This time seemed too short for strong youth players, but about right for beginners.

In 2012, I moved the camp to a private school where I was now coaching.* At the new school, I restored the three hour block and extended the camp from four days to five. Although I do not run a beginners camp, a few beginning players join each year. I make accommodations for them with some separate activities. Sometimes I produce a separate workbook for the beginners.

A distinctive element of my camp is the camp workbook. I do not know how common this element is among others who run camps for young players. I am certain that I am not unique. Even so, my changing themes year after year put me outside the norm.

My workbooks generally include annotated games, other related games presented without comments, tactics problems and a short glossary of tactical motifs, essential pawn positions. Some workbooks have more endgame positions, some less. Some elements of the workbooks are carried over from previous years.

My first two camps used the same workbook, except for the date on the cover. In 2010, my camp theme was "Attacking with Anderssen." The 56 page workbook contained several Anderssen games that I annotated for young players (see the link for an example). Also, the tactics problems stemmed from Anderssen's games. I reworked some of these annotations for this year's camp.

In all my camps, awards at the end of the week are based on accumulated camp points. Youth earn camp points for good behavior, solving chess problems, recording their games in the camp tournament, answering questions during presentations, and so on. The winner of the camp tournament does not always accumulate the most points, although that win is also worth some points.

In 2011, I produced my shortest camp workbook (41 pages), but edited it carefully. The focus was Vasily Smyslov's search for truth. I also found tactics puzzles from Smyslov's play. A section from that workbook on rook endings was imported into this summer's workbook, too, but was not included in the camp curriculum. The workbooks always contain more materials than we have time for in camp. Ambitious students go home with study material that will carry them through the summer.

The 2012 camp and workbook profiled a different chess player each day: Jozsef Szen, Paul Morphy, Mikhail Tal, Alexander Chernin, and Yasser Seirawan. This year's workbook recycled some of my materials on Morphy, which are built on the solid work of Valeri Beim, Paul Morphy: A Modern Perspective (2005).

In 2013, I omitted the endings from the workbook, although pawn wars remained part of the week's activities. This ambitious workbook of 59 pages was almost all new material. It had a long section on Gioachino Greco that was built on my work converting all the games and fragments from William Lewis, Gioachino and the Game of Chess (1819) into ChessBase format. Unfortunately, I failed to back-up this database and my hard drive crashed a month after camp. The material included in the workbook is all that remains. There was a shorter section on François-André Danican Philidor, which was also based on work with an old English text.

Most of the materials in this year's workbook were revisions of materials from previous years. However, I added a wholly new section: teacher vs. student. For many years, I have notated games played with young chess players during their chess club practice. I annotated two of these games for the workbook to highlight common errors made by young novice players. A camp theme was learning from errors.

Mistakes are part of chess. It is often said that the winner of a game was not the player who made no mistakes. Rather, the winner made the second to the last mistake. 

Good chess players learn from their own errors. After the game, they analyze with their opponent and often with a stronger player or coach. They seek to understand where they might have improved their play. Even wins are subjected to critical analysis. 

Better chess players learn from mistakes made by other players. The best chess players invest a lot of time studying other players’ games. They look for patterns that will be useful in their own games. They practice finding the critical errors and seeking better moves. They look for new ideas.
Stripes, "Dragon Chess Camp 2014: Basic Training for Chess Success" (7).

After presentation of one of these games, students worked together to identify the errors in a batch of other student vs. teacher games. Among their tasks was to try to discern which player was the teacher.

I also added checkmate in one problems to the start of the tactics problems at the back of the workbook. These proved helpful to the beginning students while also building confidence for the stronger players. At 87 pages. it was my longest workbook so far.



*I continue to coach the teams in Deer Park, as well. I started coaching chess in Deer Park as a parent volunteer, becoming a paid coach when we moved out of the district.

Detail: The Camp Workbook

0 Target e6

It has been more than six months since I started working through every game in Chess Informant 113. It is a slow process that I do not pursue every day. Nonetheless, I am finding it instructive. When I finish, I plan to repeat the process through an older issue of Informant. The plan is to work through issues that I possess in both electronic and print versions. I play through the games on my computer screen, but use the print version to record light notes and to serve as a bookmark.

This position arises as a variation in Informant 113/142, Lalic -- Straka, Sunningdale 2011. It strikes me as an almost elementary example of how a player of the White pieces employs checkmate threats against h7 to weaken Black's castled position and wreck Black's central pawn structure. The pawn on e6 is the target.

White to move

Bogdan Lalic gives the line 14.Ng5 g6 15.Qh3 h5 16.Nxe6+-.

Detail: Target e6

0 Power of Knights

Even after too much online blitz, I sometimes review a batch of my games. Sometimes I look at the openings and make efforts to refine my repertoire. If I improve the quality of moves I make in the beginning of the game before I start thinking, I may reach better positions. Sometimes I review the tactics that I missed.

My database software, ChessBase 11, easily guides me to master games that shared the opening that I fell into (or played deliberately). One of these games (Kallio -- Anastasian, Batumi 2002) caught my eye with its spectacular finish.

Black to move

32...h1Q 33.Rxg7+ Qxg7 34.Rxh1 Nb3+ 35.Kb1 Nbd2+ 36.Kc2+ (36.Kc1 appears to save the game) 36...Nc4 37.Qc6 (hastening the end) 37...Qg2 38.Kb3 Na5+ 0-1

After looking through these moves several times, then going back through the game as a whole, I returned to the diagram position and began to ponder.

I liked 32...Nb3+ and wondered why it was not as good as the move played in the game.

White has two choices.

1) If 33.Kb1, then 33...Ned2+ 34.Kb2 Nf3+ (here I first considered 34...Nf1 to aid the pawn's promotion) 35.Kxb3 Nxe1 36.Rxg7+ Qxg7 37.Qxh2. White has exterminated the promotion threat, but leaves Black a rook ahead.

2) If 33. Kd1, the position seems complex.

Black to move

Checking my ideas with an engine, I learned two things. First, my 32...Nb3 is superior to the move played in the game. Second, I failed to find the correct continuation from the second diagram. Perhaps you can do better.

Detail: Power of Knights