I hope you all had a Happy New Year – I certainly did! In this blog post I’ll be talking about a more psychological aspect of chess – namely the significance of loving or hating something to do with chess. Sorry to disappoint those of you looking for ‘How to Beat Your Evil Rival at Chess’ or ‘How to beat your Girlfriend at Chess’ but I can assure you that I will publish these books around December this year.
Most people have at least one opening that they love to play/meet and at least one opening that they just can’t stand. For example, when I was a kid I loved the King’s Indian – who wouldn’t with such a name? It’s the king of the chess openings, with an ECO code of E60-E99! On the other hand, as a junior I found the London a bit sad to face – the opponent just builds a rock solid formation that’s really hard to break down!
The thing to remember is that a term such as ‘boring’ is subjective. What I’ve found with most people is that when they call something ‘boring’, it means they don’t understand it at all! So when a friend recently told me that the French is garbage, I knew exactly what I would play against them in our next encounter…
What’s the best thing to do about an opening you hate? Study it! One time a student absolutely hated facing a certain variation (I can’t remember what it was now, some nifty Sicilian). I suggested that they try playing the positions a bit from the opposite side of the board. I don’t think they actually followed my suggestion but it’s a good way to keep an objective perspective and also by playing the positions from the other side you learn how to beat the opening when someone plays a good line against you! A couple of months ago I toyed with the idea of playing my opponent’s repertoire against them for six months to learn what all of my opponents most feared. However it depends on the opponent – some will feel psychologically uncomfortable playing against their own opening while others will be delighted to get a position they actually understand.
OK, for those of you who aren’t such avid readers of long bodies of text, here’s a game to prove that first love never completely dies!}
[pgn]
[Event "Australian Championship"]
[Site "Melbourne AUS"]
[Date "2014.01.05"]
[Round "5.6"]
[White "Goldenberg, Igor"]
[Black "Illingworth, Max"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E97"]
[WhiteElo "2371"]
[BlackElo "2434"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[PlyCount "77"]
[Source "Max Illingworth"]
[SourceDate "2008.10.04"]
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. d4 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 Ne8 10. c5 f5 11. Nd2 Nf6 12. f3 f4 13. Nc4 g5 14. Bd2 Ng6 15. Rc1 Rf7 16. Be1 Bf8 17. Bf2 h5 18. h3 Rg7 19. a4 Nh8 20. cxd6 cxd6 21. Nb5 g4 22.Bxa7 gxh3 23. Rf2 hxg2 24. Rxg2 Ng6 25. Bf1 Bh3 26. Rh2 Nh4+ 27. Kh1 Bxf1 28. Qxf1 Ng4 29. Rh3 Rc8 30. Bf2 Nxf2+ 31. Qxf2 Ng2 32. Rg1 Ne3 33. Nxe3 fxe3 34.Qxe3 h4 35. Qf2 Be7 36. Rh2 Rxg1+ 37. Qxg1+ Bg5 38. Rg2 Rc1 39. Qxc1 1-0 [/pgn]
Unfortunately, the kingside attack doesn’t always lead to mate. I still haven’t analysed the game properly – too many painful memories! But I think that as you develop as a player you should change your openings, as admittedly it would be very boring to play any opening, even the Botvinnik Semi-Slav, for your entire life! Speaking of life, you might like to know a chess joke:
A chess player goes to another chess player's house to find Chess Player B dead. However when Chess Player A goes to sleep, Chess Player B appears to him in a dream. In this dream, A asks how B is going. 'Yeah it's great up here in heaven, I get to play against all these great players! I got to play Lasker in a match today and yesterday I analysed with Botvinnik!' A: 'Awesome! Anything else?' B: 'You're Black against Capablanca on Sunday.'
Another good thing to do against an opening you hate is to study it really thoroughly. Look at lots of games in it, learn the most important theory, and have one model win for you that you think of whenever you see someone play the opening on the board. If you had a good win against a higher-rated player with it, then it can be very psychologically uplifting to recall this memory of a prior success. For instance, I mentioned that the London used to drive me nuts – here’s a game where I overcame this fear with a good understanding of the position:
[pgn][Event "NSW Championship"]
[Site "Sydney AUS"]
[Date "2013.06.04"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Hu, Jason"]
[Black "Illingworth, Max"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2102"]
[BlackElo "2498"]
[PlyCount "122"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
[Source "Max Illingworth"]
[SourceDate "2008.10.04"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. c3 Qb6 6. Qb3 c4 7. Qxb6 axb6 8. Nbd2 b5 9. a3 Bf5 10. Rc1 h6 11. h3 e6 12. g4 Bh7 13. Bg2 Nd7 14. Ne5 Nb6 15. e4 f6 16. Nxc6 bxc6 17. O-O O-O-O 18. Rfe1 Na4 19. Rc2 g5 20. Bg3 Rg8 21. Nf1 f5 22. gxf5 exf5 23. exf5 Bxf5 24. Rd2 h5 25. Re5 Bd7 26. h4 Bg7 27. hxg5 h4 28. Bxh4 Bxe5 29. dxe5 Rdf8 30. Ne3 Nc5 31. Bxd5 cxd5 32. Nxd5 Rh8 33. Ne7+ Kb7 34. Ng6 Bc6 35. Rd4 Ne6 36. Rg4 Bf3 37. Rg3 Nf4 38. Nxh8 Ne2+ 39. Kh2 Nxg3 40. Kxg3 Be4 41. g6 Rxh8 42. g7 Rg8 43. Bf6 Kc6 44. Kf4 Kd5 45. Kg5 Ke6 46. Kf4 Bh7 47. Kg5 Rc8 48. Kh6 Bc2 49. Kg5 Kf7 50. f4 Rc5 51. Be7 Rd5 52. Bf8 Bh7 53. Kg4 Rd1 54. Kf3 Bf5 55. Kg3 Rf1 56. Bd6 Kxg7 57. Be7 Kf7 58. Bg5 Ke6 59. Bd8 Rb1 60. Ba5 Rxb2 61. Kf3 Rd2 0-1 [/pgn]
In this game, notice how I didn’t try to refute my opponent’s play early – I just played healthy moves that kept the pressure on him, and eventually White cracked. Actually my opponent has a similar sort of style, where he plays solidly, not committing to anything critical and just waiting for the opponent to do something silly. And this seemingly lazy approach often works for him! Indeed, sometimes you don’t have to force everything and can allow the opponent to make mistakes.
What about openings you love? Surely there’s not even any need to discuss this as you love the positions? Well, in chess there’s always room for improvement, and it’s not enough to know what positions you like best – you also have to think about how to get such positions in your games. For instance, if you like positions where you have a lot of space, then the most logical answer to 1.e4 is 1…e5 as this opening emphasises holding on to the ‘central strongpoint’ and not letting White have his two pawns in the centre so easily. Also if you hate cramped positions then it is hard to recommend the French or King’s Indian as in these openings the main thing you give up is a space disadvantage! But if you like closed positions, breaking down the opponent’s centre bit by bit and have a very good understanding of when and how you should open the position, these openings will work well for you. Actually I think nearly every junior in Victoria plays the French – don’t quote me on that though!
I’m White against Bobby Cheng tomorrow so I should finish up and get back to work! Have a good week!