inside

the chess mind

hou players
of alL levels
think about the game

I CHESS JACOB AAGAARD
Hello everybody!!

Hola a lodos!!

"We are a group of chess fans who are producing chess material. We have several projects and ideas. We have members
from all around the world, belonging to different cultures and speaking different languages, all of us joined by our
common love for chess!." We hope you will enjoy our work!

”Somos un grupo de fanaticos del ajedrez, que estamos tratando de producir material de ajedrez, desarrollando
diferentes proyectos e ideas. Tenemos miembros de diferentes partes del mundo, provenientes de diferentes
culturas, hablando diferentes lenguas, unidos por nuestra pasion por el ajedrez!.” Esperamos que disfruten de
esta muestra de nuestro trabajo!.

If you are interested in joining us, or send any comments drop us an email at: thecaissalovers@gmail.com
Si alguien estuviese interesado en unirse al grupo nos pueden escribir a: thecaissalovers@gmail.com

Best regards!!

Saludos!

" Caissa Lovers'*
CONTENTS

Introduction

1	The Test Positions	8

2	The Participants	13

3	Test Position	1	29

4	Test Position	2	39

5	Test Position	3	50

6	Test Position	4	60

7	Test Position	5	65

8	Test Position	6	75

9	Test Position	7	89

10	Test Position	8	98

11	Test Position	9	112

12	Test Position	10	123

13	What can we	learn from the Tests?	142
INTRODUCTION

There are two kinds of chess books. There are the books the authors for some reason
just needed to write; and then there are the books the publisher wants the author, any
author, to write. The first are usually books with general themes: biographies on long
dead Russian International Masters (who grew up in a Communist system, and there-
fore have no place in their value-system for material concerns), or other kinds of idio-
syncrasies, which might be weird but definitely worth reading. The second kind of
books are mainly dedicated to the opening, often part of a series with a fixed number
of pages and maybe even a written formula no one ever reads anyway.

Both kinds of books have their relevance and I enjoy to read and write both types.
But sometimes there are hybrid projects, books that it could be argued include both
categories. This book started out being one of these, when my editor, Byron Jacobs,
in his eternal hunt for fame, glory and not the least wealth, asked me to write a book
with the title Inside the Chess Mind comparing players of different strength. His choice
in asking me seemed obvious due to my knowledge of cognitive science and my oc-
cupation of full time chess writer and trainer, with pupils of different age groups and
different playing levels. Or at least 1 would like to think so. Reality has shown me
there are certain advantages connected with my surname Aagaard, which places me
almost last in Danish phone books but first in chess databases and outlook archives
around the world. When Byron and others think about who they should hire for a
project they go to their email program and scan the list until they find someone suit-
able. So often I am not the best choice, but simply the first and lazy choice. At least
that is my theory.

But anyway, I was asked and my imagination was immediately fuelled with different
ideas and possible exercises. And as my hobby as a fourth category guitarist in a third
category band has made me acquire a minidisk-player and a microphone, and as I
have a large number of exercises in different archives used in general training, I al-
ready had the tools necessary to perform the experiments.

The first consideration in doing something like this is, of course, if anything similar
has ever been done before. It has. The Dutch psychologist and chess fan Adriaan de
Groot tested a lot of top chess players in the late 30’s and early 40’s (the decades, not
the age groups). This led to different conclusions, which it is logical to relate to.

But then we are already at the second consideration. What kind of book would I
like to write, and with that comes: what kind of book would I personally have Eked to
read, had I not disposed of my last name in favour of my middle name at the age of
12 (which would have meant that someone else would have been asked to write the
book). I quickly came to the conclusion that a scientifically-oriented book was not
really something that interested me. What fascinated me about this project was the
diversity I expected in the tests, originating from the test subjects’ different personali-
ties, age, idiosyncrasies and backgrounds. This is what 1 have tried to bring into the
book by quoting the players as precisely as possible while still making sense; i.e. avoid-
ing redundancy and less coherent talking or, in other words, changing spoken lan-
guage into written language.

Still, though this book should be seen mostly as an empirical study — where the au-
thor has aUowed the material to take its own form, and found himself messed up and
confused as a twelve-year-old boy in a nudist colony — there has been some room for
basic questions and conclusions along the way. The main conclusion is the limitation
of the experiment as such. It almost instantly became obvious to me that the selection
of exercises could have been cleverer and more rounded. Also, that in order to make
any conclusions of scientific value, more tests would have been needed. Probably the
best way would have been to do the tests at least three times (though maybe with dif-
ferent exercises from time to time), allowing the possibility of reshaping the tests
based on the conclusions of the first set of results. For practical reasons this was not
possible, mainly because it was hard to summon the guts to ask people Eke Peter
Heine Nielsen and Artur Yusupov to participate even once in the testing. Asking
them to participate almost regularly would simply have been impossible — and inde-
cent.

Another important conclusion was that performance in the tests would never fully
correspond with the actual playing strength of the different participants. (This goes
beyond the obvious diversity of form on the day.) Practical use of and knowledge
about opening theory does not play a great part in the testing (mainly because, as an
author of many opening books, the subject has a tendency to be represented enough
in my writing already); neither does the abiEty to sec simple tactics, nor the psycho-
logical aspect of the game; minor piece endings and pawn endings are not repre-
sented; chaotic positions are simply absent; closed positions also did not get a fair
representation here (mainly because I had decided to give a solution to all exercises
and would not have been able to write anything decent about a closed position). That
every position has a final solution is both a strength and a weakness. It is certainly a
strength for the book as a reading experience, but it does influence the comparative
value of the exercises, as this greatly favours the logical player over the intuitive player
(Peter Heine Nielsen vs. Artur Yusupov could be mentioned).

6
What is very important for me to stress — Silence now. Shut that book and listen.
Hey! Open it again, I was just kidding — is that the exercises are not meant to be com-
petitive in any way. To judge the performance of Peter Heine Nielsen against Yusu-
pov, or Skovgaard against Skovgaard is not really interesting, as it would in no way
reflect how these people would do in a real over-the-board game. The strength of a
player in a fluent situation is not the same as that of the test room. The positions will
naturally appeal more to some than others, and concentration level will not be that of
the tournament hall for everyone. Talking into a microphone might decrease the abili-
ties of one and increase the ability of another.

What is interesting is to examine the thought process itself, and try to judge when it
is successful and when it is unsuccessful, and why. Not that there will be an answer
on how best to think, or a certain algorithm to follow. There simply cannot be, as
there is no single answer. But with all its imperfections and reservations, this is a book
about chess as the sport of the mind. It is a deep study of ten positions of different
origin and character, and an insight into what different chess players of different
strength have thought about them. This can be used as infotainment or even as a mir-
ror to the reader, who is of course invited to do the exercises himself.

Rather than giving answers, this book sets out to pose questions. Rather than to
teach and preach a truth, this book is intelligent. Rather than being scientific or in-
structional, this book wants to inspire and communicate. Chess is a game of beautiful
complexity, evolved to give the most possible meaning to our many-sided imagina-
tion, as well as the greatest possible challenge to our minds. Chess thinking is the es-
sence of chess as an art and as a competitive sport. It is where we can be rewarded for
our attempts to grasp the depth of this artistic combinatorial mathematics with mo-
ments of clarity and revelation.

This book is dedicated in great gratitude to its heroes: the people who were brave
enough to open up their minds for the rest of us to gain some insight into the diver-
sity of chess thinking.

Jacob Aagaard,
Copenhagen,
May 2004.
CHA PTER ONE

The Test Positions

The following ten positions will be dis-
cussed fot the next 150 pages of this
book by chess players at all levels. But
first you have the chance to compare
your own findings with those of GMs
Peter Heine Nielsen and Artur Yusupov,
as well as those of IM Jesper Hall, Dr.
Ivo Timmermans, Frit%8 tl 5, and several
other really nice and smart people who
play chess at different levels and who
were kind enough to help me with this
little project.

The best method would probably be
to try to solve the exercises in exactly the
same fashion as they did. In order to do
this you need to have a tape recorder or
recordable minidisk, or just a micro-
phone inserted into a computer. In case
the reality check is of less importance to
you, you can of course jot down candi-
date moves and the most important
main lines on a piece of paper. Only for
Test Position 2 you need to have opposi-
tion of some kind: either a friend who
can use the comments in this book to
play the strongest reply to almost any
move you can come up with, or maybe
more realistically, by playing the position

against a strong chess-playing program
such as FnAj 8, Here the computer
should be given at least 10 seconds to
come up with an answer, but not much
more than that. That is if your computer
has 256 Mb RAM and a processor of at
least 1000 MHz. If your computer is
slower, then give it more time. If you do
not own a computer you can try the old
trick with a piece of paper and the solu-
tions.

I would recommend that you do all
the tests before proceeding with the
book, as did the subjects, though the
order in which you do them is com-
pletely irrelevant. This will give a more
continuous thought process: you will be
concentrated and not starting from
scratch each time. To complete the test
will take somewhere around three hours
all in all. The main reasons for doing
these exercises as a reader is that, if you
have not faced these positions with un-
certainty yourself, it will be very difficult
to associate with the challenges and diffi-
culties of the participants in this experi-
ment. The danger is that you will then
find it less valuable to go through their

8
differently structured thought processes.
The second best option is that you look
at the positions and then follow the
thought processes of the participants in
order to learn more about the position as
you go along. In both cases it is highly
important that you refrain from looking at the
solutions to the different exercises before you
actually get to that part of the book. The
eyes that see do structure the world, just
as far as the world exists and is thereby
within the structures we see.

Imagine that you do not know the rules
of chess and then try to look at the board
without seeing possible moves, but only
chunks of wood. It should not be possi-
ble. Or that you do not see possible cap-
tures. You cannot unlearn the rules of

chess or forget how to take a piece.
Equally, only with the assistance of time
would you be able to forget the solutions,
and be able to meet the positions anew.
But it would be strange to go through the
solutions to the 10 exercises and then put
the book away in a drawer for three years
before you continue reading it.

So why not forget about looking at the
solutions for now, and take a trip into
the unknown together with these won-
derful and intelligent and highly different
people, who have been so kind as to
look at these exercises and share their
thought processes, well aware of the mis-
takes they were bound to commit.

Without further ado, let us turn to the
different positions.
Test Position 1

Test Position 3

White to move. Take 5 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

White to play. Take 7 minutes to find
the strongest continuation, talking into a
microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Test Position 2

Test Position 4

White to move. Take 30 minutes and
play the white position as if it was a
game and you had 30 minutes to the end
of the game. This can be done against a
friend who is finding the relevant replies
in this book, or against a computer
chess-playing program like

White to move. Take 10 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.
Test Position 5

Test Position 7

Black to move. Take 6 minutes to find
the strongest continuation, talking into a
microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Test Position 6

White to move. Take 5 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Test Position 8

White to move. Take 8 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Black to move. Take 12 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.
Test Position 9

Test Position 10

Black to move. Take 10 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

White to move. Find the strongest
continuation. Do this talking to a micro-
phone or taking notes on a piece of pa-
per at timely intervals. Take the time you
find necessary and write it down too.
CHAPTER TWO

The Participants

Grandmaster Artur Yusupov

Artur is originally from Moscow, but
now lives with his wife and his two chil-
dren, a 12-year-old girl and a 1 O-year-old
boy, in Weissenhorn in southern Ger-
many. He considers his greatest
achievement in life to be becoming a
father to his children, but in chess reach-
ing the semi-final of the candidates tour-
nament on three separate occasions. His
best world ranking was 3rd, in 1986, af-
ter Kasparov and Karpov.

He used to be a professional chess
player, but these days he calls himself a
professional trainer — probably!

At the age of 43 he has an Elo rating
of 2589 and is ranked 7th in Germany
and 142 in the world (as of January 1st
2004). According to this author, this is
mainly due to his peaceful nature and
lowered ambitions; Yusupov is still a
very strong player.

During the testing Yusupov was calm
and focused, scratching his legendary big
red beard, mumbling out phrases in Eng-
lish, often with Russian syntax. His atti-
tude towards the test was generally very
relaxed and full of adventure. ‘I no

longer consider myself a professional
player,’ he would say. T no longer do any
training and I am no longer in top
shape.’ To the fact that he had recently
departed from FIDE’s top 100 list, he
exclaimed: What a relief! Now I no
longer have to worry about such silly
things as rating.’

Testing Yusupov was a very pleasant
experience, except for a most unfortu-
nate feature: during the fourth test posi-
tion the microphone broke. The failure
to the microphone was minor, but suffi-
cient to ruin the taping. This was only
discovered some days after the test had
finished and the poor writer had few
choices at his disposal:

One was to completely disregard the
participation of this, the most famous of
participants. Definitely not fair to the
readers, though it would save the au-
thor’s face.

Another was to rearrange the test,
hypnotise the German grandmaster and
make him lose all recollection of the po-
sitions and do the test all over. Unfortu-
nately the writer did not possess the
abilities required for this Harry Potter
solution, nor the owl-number of Harry
Potter himself. So he was left with:

The third and only option. When the
mistake was discovered the writer had a
complete fit and threw his laptop out the
window. A few minutes down the line,
when no improvement to the situation
had been detected, the writer did the
only possible thing. He sat down and
reconstructed Yusupov’s answers and
thoughts to the best of his ability. The
writer of this book would like to express
his deepest regrets to the readers for the
absence of a complete account of the
testing of Grandmaster Yusupov. I hope
that the book will not lose gready in
overall value from this obvious flaw.

On the way I would like to thank God
for yet another sublime lesson in humil-
ity. If you continue this way 1 am sure
very small things are in store for me in-
deed.

The game I have chosen to present
Yusupov is one he himself considered to
be his best ever.

Y usupov-Sokolov

Moscow Championships 1988
Catalan Opening

1 d4 Of6 2 c4 e6 3 g3 d5 4 ±g2
dxc4 5 2>f3 c5 6 0-0 &c6 7 vie5
±d7

Sokolov played this line all the time
against the Catalan in the 80’s.

8 £lxc4l?

Not the main choice at the time; 8
$3a3 was more mainstream.

8...cxd4 9 i.f4 v^d5 10 v^d6+ £xd6
11 Axd6 Cide7 12 2>d2 0-0 13 Wb3
Дс8

A new move at the time.

14 vic4 2e8

In Informant 46 Yusupov gives
14...£ia5 15 JLxe7 43xb3 16 JLxd8 <23xal
17 JLe7 as clearly better for White, but
after 17...£3c2 this is not so clear, as
White cannot play 18 Scl?? because of
18...d3! and Black is much better. After
18 £3d6 White would still keep the ad-
vantage though.

15Sfd1 2rf5 16&C5 e5

Black is trying to cling on to the extra
pawn — his excuse for giving away the
two bishops.

16...Wf6 is brutally met by 17 g4! £ih4
18 JLxc6! and Black is very weak on the
dark squares and might be about to lose
material.

17 e4!

A wonderful positional decision. Black
is allowed to have a passed pawn, but
White has the initiative and the two
bishops, and therefore also the advan-
tage.

17...£rfe7

The alternative was 17...^3h6 18 £k!6
Se6 19 ^3xc8 Sxc8 20 JLh3 “53a5 21
Wd5 and White wins the exchange. The
endgame is only slightly better for him,
but in practice this might prove to be
torture for Black.

18^d6 2f8 19&xb7

This is not about winning a pawn, as it
does not do so, but about eliminating the
black bishop.

19...ДхЬ7

19...Wc7!? was probably better here.

20 Wxb7 Hb8

21 Wa6!

After 21 ±xc7 &xe7 22 Wxa7 Yusu-
pov gives 22...Wd6! and Black has good
counterplay along the open files and
against the ill-placed white queen. In our
time and age Frit% 8 thinks the position is
simply equal.

21...Hxb2 22 Wa4!? Wb8?!

Yusupov thinks that 22...Wc8 is bet-
ter, but after 23 JLa3 he likes the com-
pensation given to him by his two bish-
ops and the better coordination.

23 Af 1!

The second bishop is brought into
play.

23..Л	5!? 24 ka3 Sb6

24...fxe4? 25 £xb2 Wxb2 26 Wb3+
and Black will have a difficult endgame.
25 exf5 |ЙЬ4

25...flxf5 26 Sacl was the alternative
(preferable according to Yusupov), but
White is much better here as well.

26 Sabi! ^ec6?

After this White is able to organise a
strong attack. Necessary was 26...‘?3ed5
when Yusupov was intending 27 JLc4
&h8 28 kxb4 ДхЬ4 29 ДхЬ4 Wxb4 30
Wxb4 with excellent winning chances in
the endgame. White has a superior
bishop against knight and the black king
has difficulties getting into the game.

27 kg 2 Sd8

27...	Uc8 28 kxb4 ^xb4 29 a3 £k6
30 Sxb6 Wxb6 31 flcl and White wins
material.

28 кхсб! ^xc6 29 Sxb6 Wxb6 30
Wc4+ kh8

31 Wf7!

With the threats 32 Jlf8 and 32 f6.

31...Sg8

Forced, if 31...&b4 32 £6! Sg8 33
fxg7+ 2xg7 34 Wf8+ and White wins a
piece.

32 f6 Wd8 33 ke7!

With the idea 34 fxg7+ and 35 kf6.

33...£>xe7 34 fxe7 Wd7 35 Sd3!

With the idea 36 Sf3 and 37 Wxg8+
winning.

35...h6

35...e4 36 Sxd4! Wxd4 37 Wxg8+
^xg8 38 e8W mate.

36 Ef3 Sc8
This attempt at counterplay is futile,
probably the product of time trouble.

37 Wf8+ *h7 38 Hf7 Пс1 + 39 *g2
Wc6+ 40 ФЬЗ We6+ 41 £>h4 1-0

Grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen

Peter is a 30-year-old grandmaster, born
May 1973, living in Aarhus, Denmark.
He is currendy Scandinavia’s number
one by a narrow margin, but will soon
lose this position due to a few bad re-
sults. But that he belongs to the absolute
top here is beyond question. He is well
known for his preparation and for his
great physical size: 1 metre and 98 cm in
height he is a true tower, terribly intimi-
dating when he leans over the board.

His best result so far was to win the
North Sea Cup in Esbjerg 2001 together
with Peter Svidler, but I am sure that
even greater things will happen to him
over the years. His Elo at the time of
writing is 2638, but as said he will lose a
few points on the next list.

Outside of tournament life he is sin-
gle, at times a history student, and also
the joint author of The Accelerated Dragon
with Carsten Hansen (Batsford 1998).

During the test Peter had a few prob-
lems concentrating but, as he said, these
kind of exercises are not the natural play-
ing field for him, which also explains
some of his mistakes. He sees himself
more as a intuitive player.

Here is a very attractive game from
him, in which he beat the Bulgarian no.2.

Nielsen-Kir.Georgiev

Istanbul Olympiad 2000
Semi-Slav Defence

1 d4 2>f6 2 2>f3 d5 3 c4 c6 4 £c3

e6 5 JLg5 h6 6 JLh4 dxc4 7 e4 g5 8
£g3 b5 9 Jke2 ДЬ7 10 h4 g4 11
Cie5 h5 12 0-0&fd7?!

Certainly an invitation. Peter’s first
thought was: is this really possible? His
answer to this question was: probably
not.

13&xf7!!

With this sacrifice White opens the
black king’s position for a perpetually
ongoing attack.

13...*xf7 14 f3 &g8

14...gxf3 was played in another game,
but did not help Black much.

15 fxg4 e5 16 g5!

Peter Heine explains: The idea is to
take on h5 with bishop, as well as con-
trolling f6, making sure Black’s knights
will have their problems protecting their
king.’

16 gxh5 was also dangerous for Black.

16...exd4

16...We8!? was maybe better, but after
17 d5 Peter thinks that the white attack is
very dangerous. An important point here
is that it is hard for Black to develop the
queenside, as the pieces seem to be in
each other’s way.

17 £xh5 Sh7

White’s attack is very strong. The
following line given by Peter shows how
lowing line given by Peter shows how
dangerous the attack is. 17...dxc3 18
&f7+ &g7 19 Wd4+ £if6 20 Wxc3 ФхГ7
21 Hxf6+ &g8 22 Sg6+ ФЬ7 23 Wf3
and White wins.

18£g6 We7

Against 18...Sg7 the German grand-
master Christopher Lutz gives the fol-
lowing winning line 19 Wh5 We7 20
Hf3! dxc3 21 Safi when Black has no
defence. He might in principle be two
pieces up, but he has 3 or 4 pieces out of
play, so White has more pieces where it
counts; e.g. 21...We6 22 i.f7+ Sxf7 23
Sxf7 JLg7 24 g6 and White wins.

19 JLd6!

A wonderful shot that increases the
pressure with gain of tempo.

19...Wg7

19..>xd6 loses to 20 Axh7+ &xh7
21 Wh5+ &g8 22 g6 We7 23 Sf7 and it
seems like it is all over. A computer
might come up with 23...£3f6 24 Sxf6
$М7 25 Ef7 £)f6 26 Sxf6 dxc3 27 e5
cxb2 28 Safi and White wins with 29
Sf7.

20 £xh7+ Wxh7 21 Wg4!

After destroying the black pawn struc-
ture on the light squares, White can enter
as he pleases.

21...Wg6

21...Axd6 22 We6+ ФЬ8 23 Sf7 and
White wins.

22 £xf8 Cie5

Black cannot save the position. After
22...SW8 White wins in the following
way: 23 Sxf8+ Фх!8 24 Hfl+ Фс7 25
Hf6 Wg8 26 Wf4 2kl7 27 Wd6+ &d8 28
e5 Фс8 29 fl£2 dxc3 30 e6 cxb2 31
Wxd7+ ФЬ8 32 Wd6+ Фс8 33 e7 blW+
34 ФЬ2 and wins (Nielsen).

23 Wh3 61bd7 24 Ae7 Se8

Black accepts simply being material
down as well as under attack. But then
24...dxc3 25 h5 We8 26 We6+ ФЬ7 27
Wh6+ ^g8 28 JLf6 and Black is toast.

25 h5 Wg7 26 Af6 £xf6 27 gxf6
Wf7 28 Sf5 <£>h7 29 Wg3 dxc3 30
Hxe5 cxb2 31 Sf1 3xe5 32 Wxe5
jlc8 33 Wxb2 Деб 34 We5 b4 35
ZH3 c3 36 Zg3 c2 37 Wf4 clW+ 38
Wxc1 Wxh5 39 Sg5 Wh4 40 g3 Wh3
41 Пд7+ &h8 42 Wg5 1-0

International Master Jesper Hall

Chess writer, teacher and player. 32 years
old. Elo 2487. Currendy working on
both chess books and a children’s book.
From Lund in Sweden, but has recently
purchased a house in the countryside
with his wife, with whom he has a baby
daughter.

Hall-Sadler

German Bundesliga 2002
Саго-Капп Defence

1 e4 c6 2 <йсЗ d5 3

This is a less standard variation, which
suits the non-theoretical and non-
standard Hall well.

З...Дд4 4 h3 Axf3 5 Wxf3 ^f6 6 d3
e6 7 jcd2 £bd7 8 g4 b51?

Many moves have been played here.

9 g5 b4 10 4ld1 2ig8 11 £ie3

11 d4 with a slight edge was also pos-
sible.

11...±d6 12 h4 <^e7 13 h5 Hb8 14
Wg2 Де5 15 2Ы

15 0-0-0?? would bring the white king
into a true thunderstorm, as the majority
of the white pieces are aimed at the king-
side. Black would have a winning attack
after 15...Wa5!.

15...Wc7

15...JLc3! (Lukacs) was stronger, in
order to rid White of the two bishops.

16 Ae2 a5 17Hh4 Sb6?l

This looks very artificial. Better
17...a4!? with unclear play (Lukacs).

18 Wh3 ФсЗ! 19 g6 hxg6 20 hxg6
2xh4 21 gxf7+ &xf7

White is always better now. He has
fewer pawns islands, and Black will suf-
fer from the weakness of the g-pawn for
a very long time. Theoretically that is. In
the game he just loses that pawn without
much resistance.

22 Wxh4 2)f6 23 ЬхсЗ bxc3 24
Sxb6 cxd2+ 25 <&xd2 Wxb6 26 e5!

White starts his attack on the black
king.

26...2id7 27 JLh5+ g6

28 £xg6+!

This tactic decides the game.

28...^xg6 29 Wh7+ &f8 30 Wxg6
Wb4+ 31 Фе2 Фе7 32 Wg7+ &d8
33 Wg8+ Фе 7 34 Wg5+ Фе8 35
£>g4 Wc3 36 *d1 Wd4 37 £tf6+
2ixf6 38 Wxf6 Wg4+ 39 &d2 c5 40
a3 a4 41 f3 Wg8 42 ФсЗ &d7 43
Wf4 d4+ 44 &d2 Феб 45 We4+
ФЬ6 46 Wg4 Wf7 47 f4 ФЬ5 48 Фе2
Wb7 49 Wf3 Wh7 50 Фd2 ФЬ6 51
Фс1 Wh4 52 We4 Wf2 53 ФЬ2 Wd2
54 Wg6 Wc3+ 55 ФЬ1 Wxa3 56
Wxe6+ Фс7 57 Wc4 Wb4+ 58 Фа2
Фd7 59 f5 a3 60 Wb3 1-0

Dr. Ivo Timmermans

Ivo Timmermans is a medical doctor
from Maastricht, Holland. He was bom
famously on April 1st 1960. When his
parents sent a telegram to his grandpar-
ents, they replied, ‘Ha ha, very funny.’
For the last 12 years Ivo has worked as
drug researcher for different biotech
companies. He is single and with no
children is not responsible for overpopu-
lating the planet.

His highest ever Elo was 2295. In the
past few years he has circled around
2200, but recently he has improved
somewhat and now has 2237 Flo. Uis
playing level varies much from day to
day: one day he can beat two strong IMs,
as indeed happened at Santa Domingo
2003, and the next he can lose like a
child. 1 lis best result is probably Gronin-
gen Open 1997, a 2400 performance
where he had a game for the IM norm.
He was also ghost writer and assistant
for Xie Jun’s autobiography Chess Cham-
pion from China (Gambit 1998), which
comes highly recommended.

(Of his other achievements it could be
mentioned that Ivo has twice completed
an Ironman triathlon (swim 2.4 miles,
bike 112 miles, then run a marathon), has
run a marathon in just over 3 hours, has
a helicopter licence and a brilliant sense
of humour.

The following game jusdy makes him
proud.

Timmermans-Hennigan

Boca Chica 2003
Sicilian Defence

'fhis is the second game in a double
round in Santa Domingo. In the morn-
ing Ivo had won against Rene Stern, a
very strong German IM, with Black in
only 25 moves. Here, in the afternoon,
he proved to himself that it was no
coincidence.

1 e4 c5 2 £f3 £c6 3 d4 cxd4 4
£xd4 £f6 5 £c3 d6 6 Дд5 еб 7
Id2 аб 8 0-0-0 &d7 9 f4 kel 10
£f3 Ь5 11 Ji.xf6 gxf6 12 ФЫ b4?l

12...Wb6 is considered more solid.

13£e2 Wb6 14 f5 e5

This is considered forced. The threat

of White’s last move is to play as follows:
14...a5 15 £lf4 Wc5 16 fxe6 fxe6 17 g3
2a7 18 JLh3 and the light squares in the
black camp are under heavy fire (Radu-
lov-Padevskij, Bulgaria 1975).

15 Wh6 £a7

This is a new idea and though it looks
dubious, it might be the entire line which
is to blame. A previous game continued
15...0-0-0 16 £)g3 £a5 17 £h5 £c6
(Yeo-I lennigan, Swansea 1995), and now
White could have gained a clear advan-
tage with 18 £xf6! because of 18...JLxf6
19 Wxf6 JLxe4 20 £3xe5! and White is
winning.

16£g3

Ivo correcdy targets the black camp
where it is weakest. First he develops,
then he strikes.

16...£b5 17 Дс4 Wc5 18 ДЬЗ a5
19 £h5 Sf8

19...a4 20 JLxf7+! &d8 21 &xf6 and
White is winning.

20 £g5!!

'1Ъе only inactive minor piece is
brought into the game. If White had
played with less imagination the game
would probably have ended with a draw:
20 £)xf6+ £xf6 21 Wxf6 a4 22 ±d5
Hc8 23 £)g5 (23 Scl? a3 24 £)g5 axb2
and Black even wins) 23...£>a3+ 24 ЬхаЗ
Wxc2+ with perpetual check to come.

2O...fxg5

Black is also worse after 2O...a4 21
&g7+ &d8 22 £ixf7+ Фс7 23 £)e6+
JLxe6 24 JLxe6 a3 25 JZd5 Wc6 26 Exb5!
Wxb5 27 Wxh7 and White has managed
to protect his king and win some pawns.
Black’s fragile king and his inability to
activate his rooks gives him a bleak fu-
ture.

21 f6 Феб

21... JLd8 22 <?3g7 mate.

22 fxe7 Фхе7 23 #xg5+ id7 24
<2rf6+ Фс8?

Better was 24...Фс7 when White
needs to find 25 Wg7! (25 <21x117 Hg8 26
We7+ Ф>Ь6 27 Wxf7 Sxg2 28 £)f6 a4 29
JLc4 <21d4 is not clear) 25...£kl4 26 Hd2
with a clear advantage.

25 Wf5+ Фс7 26 2)xh7 a4 27 <^xf8!

Everything has been calculated very
accurately.

27...axb3

27...Hxf8 28 £d5 <?Ш 29 Wf2 and
White is technically winning.

28 Wxf7+ ФЬб

29 axb3!

Again a matter of accuracy. After 29
cxb3? White loses to 29...JLxe4+ 30 Фа1

Hxa2+! 31 Фха2 <51c3+ 32 bxc3 Wa5+ 33
ФЬ2 Wa3 mate.

29...£ld4

29...£1c3+ looks tempting, but White
wins with 30 bxc3 Wxc3 (3O...bxc3 31
Wc7+ Фхс7 32 <51e6+ ФЬб 33 <2fxc5 and
it is all over) 31 £ld7+ JLxd7 32 Hxd6+
JLc6 33 Дхс6+ Wxc6 34 Hfl and Black
has no chance.

30 Sxd4! exd4

3O...Wxd4 31 21e6 Wxe4 32 Wc7+
ФЬ5 33 Wxd6 and White wins.

31 £ie6

The start of a brilliant cooperation be-
tween the knight and the queen.

31...We5 32 Wc7+ ФЬ5 33 2)d8
Фхе4 34	7!

It is beautiful, don’t you think?

34...Wd5 35 2>xd6+ Фаб 36 2>xe4
Wxe4 37 Wc4+ Фа5 38 Wc5+ Фаб
39 Hfl 1-0

Tom Skovgaard

Residence: Skovlunde, Denmark

Bom month and year: February 1951
Profession: IT consultant

Height: 1.78m

Family status: Married, 4 children
Highest Elo rating ever: 2076 (current)
Best result: No. 1 with 4’/г/5 in ‘Sydkys-
ten’, October 1998 (performance rating
2384; average of the opponents’ rating
2020)

Skovgaard-Mortensen

Danish Primary League 1972
Sicilian Defence

1 e4 c5 2 <51f3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 £>xd4
a6 5 id3 ftc6 6 ФеЗ Wc7 7 0-0
2)f6 8 2ib3 Фв7 9 <2>c3 b5 10 a3 0-0
11 f4 d6 12 Wf3 ФЬ7 13 Wh3 e5 14
f5

14 £k!5 is a more obvious choice, but
as the text move turns out to work well,
there are no reasons for complaints.

14...£id8?!

This does not seem like the most
natural move., but still it is not the rea-
son for Black’s downfall. Still it was
more natural to play something like
14...£3a5!? with chances for both sides.

15 g4 h6 16 Sae 1

16 g5!? is more thematic, opening lines
on the kingside.

16...2ic6?

After this Black has simply wasted two
tempi. Necessary was 16...d5! with the
idea 17 exd5 JLxa3!? and the position
remains complicated, even though White
is to be preferred.

17 Sf3 Sad8

18i.xh6!

White is ready to begin his attack. No
piece could be improved upon.

18...2)d4

The only move. If 18...gxh6 19 Wxh6
^3h7 20 Hh3 JLh4 21 f6! leads to mate.

19 Sg3 d5

White has a winning attack after
19...^xb3 20 g5 £le8 21 ±xg7! £ixg7 22
g6 fxg6 23 fxg6 JLh4 24 Wxh4 ^3e6 25

£ki5 JLxd5 26 exd5 and Black has all the
problems one could possibly invent for
him.

20 g5!

White does not hesitate.

20...£>h7

The win against 20...£3e8 is less obvi-
ous, but still to be found: 21 f6! £lxb3 22
JLxg7! <53xg7 23 exd5 Ac5+ 24 ФЬ1 and
Black is soon to be mated.

21 Дхд7! Wb6

21...<&xg7 22 f6+ and White wins.

22 <£>h1

22 “53xd4 was perhaps slightly more
accurate.

22...dxe4 23 2>xe4 i_c8

23...&xg7 24 f6+ JLxf6 25 gxf6+ ФЬ8
26 Sg7 still mates.

24 £xe5 2ixf5

24...£ixb3 25 Wxh7+! ФхЬ7 26 Hh3+-
and Black is mated.

25 2>f6+ jLxf6 26 gxf6+ &h8 27
_£_xf5

White has won a piece and the attack
continues.

27...£xf5 28 Wxf5 Wc6+ 29 We4
#c8 30 Пд4 Hg8 31 Hh4 Hg6

32 Wxg6!

A nice way to end the show.

32...fxg6 33 f7 mate
Peter Skovgaard

Peter lives with his family in Skovlunde,
Denmark, which obviously includes his
father Tom. He was bom in April 1990
and still attends school. (In Denmark we
have a system of 1st to 9th grade of
compulsory schooling.) He is a slender
boy of normal build (1 metre and 67 cm
tall) with a pleasant mood. He is into
computer games, sports and other usual
teenage activities.

His Elo has been circling 2050 for
some time. It is my impression that he is
very talented, but raw talent is only an
opportunity. He is a generally talented
boy, likely to find happiness in whatever
endeavour he pursuits.

During the test Peter was focused and
relaxed, not at all intimidated. I attach
this to his general easy-going character,
and not to the fact that we know each
other. Occasional lapses in concentration
are bound to happen to 13-year-olds,
and did to Peter. Still, his overall per-
formance left a positive impression.

His best result by far is the 2003 Nor-
dic championship in his age group. The
Nordic countries include Denmark, Nor-
way, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the
Danish self-ruling colony, the Faeroe
Islands. He won this event with Wi/6 in
a convincing fashion, even though he
occasionally was in trouble. When I
asked him to present a game for this
book, he chose the following swift kill.

Skovgaard-Olsen

Lyngby 2003
Modem Defence
(Express notes by P. Skovgaard)

1 e4 c6 2 d4 g6 3 2ic3 d5 4 &f3

J*.g4 5 ДеЗ Дд7 6 h3 £xf3 7 Wxf3
e6 8 £d3	9 Sd1l? f5!? 10 e5

0-0 11 2)e2!

'Fhe knight is going to f4. The e6-
pawn is weak.

11. ..b5

ll...c5 12 c3.

12£if4 Wd7 13 «дЗ!

...g6-g5 is prevented and the attack on
the king initiated.

13...£la6 14 h4 £ib4 15 h5 *f7 16
hxg6+ hxg6

Now comes the winning attacking
move...

17 i.xf5!!

The bishop can be captured by three
pieces, but all these moves lose.

17...^xf5

If 17...gxf5 18 Sh7 Hg8 19 Wi5 £lg6
20 £h6!.

18 Wxg6+ Фе7

IS.-.'&gS also does not last: 19 £\xe6
£3xe3 (19...Sf7 20 Wh7 mate or
19...£)xc2+ 20 <£>d2) 20 Wh7+ &f7 21
Wxg7+ Фхеб 22 Sh6+ and so on...

19 g4

The exact continuation.

19...2>xc2+ 20 &d2 £)fxd4 21

Wxg7+ Sf7

21...Фе8 22 Wxd7+ &xd7 23 Sh7+
&e8 24Scl! and Black loses material.

22 <5ig6+ <^d8

23Wg8+! 1-0

Black resigned as the rook on a8 is
lost.

Sidsel Heeg

Sidsel is 23 years old, a student of politi-
cal science, living in the heart of Copen-
hagen, with a penthouse view over the
city from her student flat (allegedly). Her
best results as a chess player have been
winning her groups at the North Sea
Cup in 2002 with 6/7 and in her club
Bronshoj with 772/9 in 2000. Her high-
est rating has been 1535, but recently she
has dropped to the area around 1400. As
national ratings are different from coun-
try' to country, this probably does not say
so much. It would be higher in the US,
lower in Australia and probably about
the same in the UK.

She has not yet settled down nor pro-
duced future world champions of her
own.

Sidsel deviates from the other partici-
pants first and foremost by being the
only female player involved in the test-
ing. Also, she is the most calm by far.
This showed in her approach to talking

into the microphone. Often she would
say nothing for 45 seconds or so, keep-
ing parts of her thought process to her-
self. As this was the natural way for her
to do her part of the test, I did press her
to talk more than she did. When she
spoke, it was open and direct, and the
final result gives a good image of her
thought process excellendy all the same.

The following game is a good repre-
sentation for Sidsel as a chess player.

Bloom-Heeg

Hastings 2002/03
Sicilian Defence

1 e4 c5 2 c3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 cxd4
£>f6 5 2>c3 e6 6 £>f3 a6 7 a4 &e7 8
i.d3 0-0 9 0-0 Wc7

White has emerged from the opening
with a slight edge, but in the coming
middlegame struggle he is not able to
keep up the pressure.

10 £d2 2>c6 11 d5 exd5 12 £)xd5
£>xd5 13 exd5 14 5ixe5 dxe5
15Sc1 Wd6 16£c3 £d7!

Though the e-pawn is indirccdy
threatened, Sidsel concentrates on her
development.

17 Wh5?! h6?
After this White has strong pressure.
17...f5 would give Black full equality.

18 ЬЗ?!

White misses 18 Wxe5 Wxe5 19 JLxc5
jLxd7 20 Hc7 with a strong position.

18...	Wxd5?!

This is probably too risky. 18...JLg5!
would have solved all problems immedi-
ately.

19 &c4 Wc6 20 £xe5 Wb6 21 £c7

21 Hfdl!? with the idea 21,..Had8 22
JLc7! and White wins.

21...Wf6 22 Hid 1

22 JLd5 looks strong here.

22...	£c6!

Black is out of the worst problems
with this move.

23 Ad5 Wg5l? 24 Wf3

24 Wxg5 JLxg5 25 f4 JLxd5 26 Hxd5
Af6 27 Hd7 would have kept up the
pressure.

24...Hac8!

Again Sidsel is highly aware of the im-
portance of bringing her pieces into ac-
tion.

25 Af4?

This is a miscalculation. Sidsel now
wins the game with ice cool clarity.

25...£xd5! 26 £xg5 Jkxf3 27 £xe7

_*.xd1

White probably overlooked that 28
Дх f8 Sxcl loses the game.

28 Hxd1 Sfe8

Now we enter a purely technical
phase.

29 &b4 3e2 30 &11 Hcc2 31 &e1
He7 32 a5 Hec7 33 b4 Hcl!

The exchange of a pair of rooks pre-
vents all counterplay.

34 Hxc1 Hxc1 35 &e2 *f8 36 l_d2
Hc6 37 ДеЗ h5 38 &d3 g6 39
£c5+ Фе8 40 *c4 &d7 41 £>d5 Hf6
42 g3 Hf5+ 43 Фс4 Феб 44 h4 f6
45 &d3 Hxc5 0-1

Sten Vesterli

Sten Vesterli is a 37-year-old IT-
consultant from Haraskovby in Den-
mark. He has been invited to participate
in this experiment because he only re-
cently started to play chess in a chess
club. He did so at the same time as his 9-
year-old son, who won the F-group in
the Danish children championships
shortly before the testing. Sten is married
and has no results nor any recollection of
any great games from his career.

I would like to thank him immensely
for participating in this project. It was
very important to me that an intelligent
adult with little experience in chess
should share his thoughts, so that we
would have a sound basis to compare
with the more accomplished players.
One thing that I have changed in his
answers is recurring problems with the
terminology and problems with naming
the right squares. Often the g5-square
became f5, £3 became c6 and so on. All
of this was obviously caused by a chess
board without letters and numbers at the
sides.
Fritz 8, Test Version 15

The test of Fritz 8, test version 15 took
place in the summer of 2003 in Ham-
burg on an office computer at the Chess-
Base offices. Programmer Mathias Feist
was assisting, and interpreting Fritfs
thoughts for me, while explaining about
the recent areas of focus in the pro-
gramming of Fritz-

The computer used was a 2.2 GHz
Pentium 4 with 512 RAM, though the
program only used 144.

Mathias explained that the computer
program would often analyse the primary
candidates and come to solid conclu-
sions, and then still go through all other
moves at the same depth, just in case,
before executing a move.

Fritz was calm and focused all the way
through the test, and never once blinked
nor showed any sign of indecision. It
solved the calculation exercises bril-
liantly, as expected, though there was
one great surprise to the author. Also, it
showed the weaknesses which could
have been predicted, even though here it
also surprised a little by being the only
test’person’ to solve a certain positional
exercise.

When I told Mathias that I had the
feeling that the recent commercial ver-
sion of Fritz had a much higher respect
for dynamic features, a big wide smile
broke out on his face. ‘Yes,’ he said. We
worked a lot on this. It is playing chess
now, not just counting pieces. It took
some time to come around to it, as it is
obviously much harder to evaluate dy-
namic features than it is to simply count
material.’ Before the match with Kram-
nik they worked a lot on positional
evaluation.

He also explained that when Fritz
gives a move T it does not mean that it is
a strong move, but simply that the com-
puter has changed its main line.

One thing that made a clear impres-
sion on me at the time, was that Mathias
Feist would also try to work out the po-
sitions by himself. At the time I believed
that this guy simply loves chess (which
he obviously does), but later it dawned
on me, that this is actually a truly profes-
sional approach. In order to check on
the program, he has learned to con-
stantly use his own thinking abilities, just
in the way that I use the program to
check on my own ideas for obvious
blunders. This could very well be a good
lesson to everyone who has too much
faith in silicon monsters (a modem su-
perstition of sorts), and who have ever
uttered the sentence: Well, Fritz said 1
was slighdy better...’ Because, as Mathias
explained to me,’the important thing to
us is not so much to get the evaluation
right, but for Fritz to find the best move.’

The most famous game Fritz has
played is the following controversial win
against the classical World Champion in
2002. A match that also gave Fritz ^ts
best result to date, a 4-4 result against the
strongest match player in the world.

Kramnik-Deep Fritz

Bahrain 2002

Queen’s Indian Defence

Deep Fritz basically means that the
hardware is a multiprocessor computer.
This increases the search depth. The ver-
sion of Fritz that played this game was
later released as Fritz $
1 d4 2if6 2 c4 e6 3 £if3 b6 4 g3
Даб 5 ЬЗ ДЬ4+ 6 Дс12 Де7 7 Дд2
сб 8 ДсЗ d5 9 2ie5 £>fd7 10 £ixd7
£lxd7 11 <51d2 0-0 12 0-0 Пс8 13 a4

This is a less than usual move, trying
to get out of its enormous openings
library.

13...if6 14e4c5

Both players are in for a real fight.

15 exd5 cxd4 16 Ab4 Ze8

16...£)c5 is probably sounder and a
more human choice.

17 £ie4 exd5 18 £id6 dxc4

Frit^ of course has no real qualms
about sacrificing the exchange. The days
when computers defended all threatened
pieces are over.

19 2>xf7?

Kramnik later stated that he simply
could not resist the temptation to play
this move, seeing a plenitude of beautiful
variations. The move he overlooked (not
an issue for Fn'Aj of course) is given be-
low. Probably the game should have
continued something like 19 Дс15 £k5
20 JLxf7+ (20 £3xe8 Wxd5 21 41xf6+
gxf6 22 bxc4 Wxc4 is even according to
Frify though I think few humans would
like to be White here) 20...Ф£8 21 Дхе8
Wxd6 22 Д.Ь5 with a very complicated

game slighdy better for White, according
to Frit^.

19...&xf7 20 £d5+ Фдб 21 Wg4+
Дд5 22 Де4+ Sxe4 23 Wxe4+ &h6
24 h4

24...Д16

Kramnik was probably focusing on
lines like 24...c3 25 hxg5+ ^xg5 26 ^g2!
£xfl+ 27 Hxfl g6 28 Wxd4 £)f6 29
Axc3 Wd5+ 30 Wxd5 ^3xd5 31 JZhl+
“^g5 32 JLd2+ ФЬ5 33 Sxh7 with a pref-
erable endgame (0.72) according to Frit^
after 30 seconds.

25 id2+ g5

Around here the horror of what he
had done must have started to get to
Kramnik. But there is no way back once
you have sacrificed on f7. This is truly
the magic of Mikhail Tai defeated by
German industrial coolness.

26 hxg5+

After 26 bxc4 <?ic5 27 hxg5+ JLxg5 28
Wh4+ ^?g6 29 JLxg5 Wxg5 30 Wxd4
Hd8 31 Wc3 2>e4 32 Wc2 Wf5 Black
wins because of the different threats like
...£lxg3 and ...Ef2. One line is 33 Eadl
JLxdl 34 Exdl JLxc4! and Black has a
winning endgame. Still, 1 suspect that
Kramnik would have had some chances
of creating counterplay in lines like 35
Ed8 JLe6 36 Ea8 41xg3 37 Wxf5+ £)xf5
38 Exa7 JLb3 39 Sa6 and though Black
might win with his passed h-pawn, it is
by no means easy business.

26..JLxg5 27 Wh4+

Kramnik later explained that he had
overlooked the following line 27 We6+

28 f4

word starting buzzing around the Inter-
net, that Kramnik could have made a
draw.

The right way for White is:

35 Hxa6 b2 36 Ea7+! Фдб 37 Sd7
Ec1

38 Ed6+!l

Now Black has no choice but to put
the knight in between sooner or later, as
it is either a perpetual check or a loss
with Hxd5+.

38...6 39 Sdd1 blW 40 fixci

This position is winning for Black, but
not the way that Frit^ wants to play it.

4O...Wf5 41 Ec6 b5 42 Еееб b4

Otherwise the pawn ending is drawn.

43 Hb6 &f7 44 3xf6+! Wxf6 45
Sxb4

28...JLh4!'. The only move, but good
enough to decide the game. Even though
White is an exchange up after something
like 29 Wh3, Black will win easily with
29...c3.

27...&g6 28 We4+ &g7 29 £xg5
txg5 30 Hfel cxb3 31 Wxd4+ Of6
32 a5 Wd5 33 Wxd5 ^xd5 34 axb6
axb6 0-1

Here Kramnik resigned, but soon the
and with the rook interposing between
f4 and h4, White is able to make a draw.
This is a fortress, a thing a computer is
not built to understand, as the advantage
never expires for Black.

But then of course humans have bad
programming too. Kramnik never even
speculated about this...

About this position Mathias said: “This
is of course horrible! The problem with
chess is that there are more exceptions
than rules, so it is a terribly difficult thing
to program!’. Many humans have loved
to look for these exceptions and feed
them into the computers. Tim Krabbe
writes on his homepage that computers
cannot be said to be playing chess before
they can find the text move in two posi-
tions. The first is the famous blunder of
the queen by Petrosian, the second is the
following study.

J. HaSek 1951

1	^g4+l!

This move the computer cannot find
by itself. But it is also the only move in
the exercise that it cannot find.

1...	hxg4 2d4+ i453Sh1!

This defensive idea comes quickly to
the computer, but that it is anything else
than a temporary fix is not apparent to it.

3...	Wf8 4&e1 Wa8 5*f1

- 5.53 is Fritzs stable evaluation here.

5...Wa6+

Only here Frit^ realises it cannot win.

6 &g1

The solution is:

and either White is stalemated or
Black will have to give up the idea of
penetrating with the queen.

I do not think you should be waiting
impatiently for computers to blunder
queens in the future, but if you think
they will not one day be able to solve
these kinds of puzzles, I fear that you
might be wrong.

With these words of introduction, let
us now proceed to the tests themselves!
CHAPTER THREE

Test Position 1

Test Position 1

White to move. Take 5 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

The first test position is taken from
the game Finn Norh-Michael Nielsen,
Denmark 2002. If you have not yet tried
to solve it by yourself, I recommend you
to do so. Below you will find the moves
and explanations found by the chess
players kind enough to participate in this
project. The solutions are ordered ac-
cording to how well the test subject did,
with the answer furthest from the solu-

tion first, and so on. Apologies are of-
fered to those mentioned first, but we
will hold the readers of this book in high
regard, and assume that they do not mis-
take taking the wrong turn in a chess
position for anything else than exactly
that.

Sten Vesterli

‘Well. White has a far advanced pawn,
threatened twice, defended once. If I
want to keep the pawn I will have to do
something. It is on a dark square. Hmm.
I have the two bishops.’

“The black knight on f7 is pinned. It is
threatened twice and defended twice.
That means that if I attacked it, and
thereby sacrificing my d-pawn ... Maybe
with 1 £ig5. This will force him to pro-
tect f7. He cannot block the diagonal.’

‘He has a very strange knight on b6.
The c-file is open, but it does not seem
that interested.’

‘If I take on e7, then he will recapture
with the queen. No, that makes little
sense, as the rook on el is unprotected,
not connected with Sal.’

‘I am leaning on 1 £ig5. It is an extra
threat on f7 and at the same time it
opens for the rook.’

‘Ah, if he takes with the pawn, then he
will also protect the knight. That would
be a shame. No. The knight would be
threatened three times then. No, the
knight does not count. I am threatening
with the bishop and the queen.’

‘If I sacrifice my bishop on f7 for the
knight, then I need something strong, as
I am materially behind. Right now it is
ok, as £ib6 does not contribute much.’

‘1 do not think I can take on f7, as the
queen is near by. So when exd6, then the
queen will protect the knight as well.’

“Then the question is if I can protect
my advanced pawn. Hmm. 1 JLf4.’

(pause) ‘It defends the pawn. He can-
not play l...g5 to threaten my bishop, or
can he? It will weaken his king’s position.
If l...g5, then 2 £lxg5, then I lose my
pawn. I will then have exchanged my
pawn for his.’

‘Oops, time up, I have to make a
move.’

1 JLf4.

Jesper Hall

The first thing I look at is the pawn on
d6, I can say that it has come a bit for-
ward, but on the other hand...’

‘And then I can see that there is a pin
on the knight on f7. White has got pres-
sure with the queen on £3. The first thing
I look at is the move 1 £ig5 in order to
do something about it. I also thereby
threaten to bring my rook from el to e7,
putting even more pressure on this black
knight. Black’s cramped pieces have dif-
ficulties with defending f7. After 1 ^3g5
it is difficult to find a good move, one
possibility is of course l...exd6 2 £>xf7
Sxf7 3 Wxf7+ Wxf7 4 He8+ &f8 5 £h6.

Mmm.’

“But maybe then 5...JLe6 might possi-
bly hold for Black.’

‘So let us go through this variation
again. 1 £ig5 exd6 2 ^3xf7 Sxf7. (pause)
Of course White can always win the ex-
change, oh, he is already a piece down. It
is not that easy then. Hmm.’

‘So. It is actually not that easy to prove
compensation. But anyway White must
do something quickly, so I believe that 1
£ig5 should be good anyway. How to
get compensation?’ (pause)

‘1 £lg5 exd6 2 “53xf7 Sxf7 3 Wxf7+
Wxf7 4 Se8+ i.f8 5 Ah6 Деб. Hmm. 6
Sxe6 of course, but it does not look
good. 6...JLxh6 7 He8+. No.’

‘I am starting to look at 1 JLg5, is that
a possibility? I...exd6 2 £)f6+ JLxf6 3
*xf6Wf5.’

‘4 Hadi. No, I cannot really make it
work.’

‘Oh, my time is running low.’

Time up.

‘I think I would have tried 1 £ig5 in a
game situation.’

Peter Skovgaard

‘Materially it is even, but White has
strong pressure — weak pawn at e7 — and
it is maybe possible to exploit this. Now
I just have to work out how.’

“Maybe there is a double threat against
e7 and something else. Maybe 1 £1c5,
but maybe there is a defence. l...Wb5
maybe. 2 dxe7 Wxc5.’

‘3 exf8W+ and if ..JtfxfB, then maybe I
can play 4 JLg5. The queen is not so well
placed on f8. But if he takes with the

bishop, 3...JLxf8, then, well, there is 4
Wxf7+ with mate.’

“But maybe there are better moves in
the beginning. Maybe l...Wc6, but I still
have 2 dxe7, transposing to those previ-
ous lines. So it looks promising.’

‘1 ?3c5 Wxd6 2 ^3xb7 maybe.’

“But it might not be that beneficial.
Maybe 1 £3c5 does not look so great
anyway. Maybe 1 4±3g5 looks better. I...e6
is not so strong, 2 JLxe6. l...Wf5 maybe,
no 2 JLxf7+ or maybe 2 dxe7 first. Yes, 2
dxe7 looks strong then.’

‘1 £ig5 Wf5 2 dxe7 does not look
good for Black. Maybe he has something
better than 1...Wf5, as for instance
l...We8 — no, that looks passive, and 2
dxe7 looks strong. So what else?’

‘l...JLf6 maybe. Then 2 JLxf7+ Sxf7 3
<53xf7 ФхГ7’
‘and then 4 dxe7 and the position
looks really good. And it does not look
as if he has other options against 1 £>g5.’

Peter then executed 1 41g5, obviously
without seeing l...exd6.

Sidsel Ниед

“The first thing I notice is the pin on the
knight on f7, as a tactical feature, and the
open e-file. And then the pawns — what
to do about them?’

‘How to exploit the light-squared di-
agonal? And what to do against his con-
trol over the dark-squared diagonal,
which is irritating the white develop-
ment.’

‘Maybe 1 £lg5 in order to put more
pressure on f7 somehow, or to take on
e7 in order to open some lines some-
how.’

‘It is also an idea to take on e7 in or-
der to develop the dark-squared bishop
with a gain of tempo, and in this way
negate the threat against b2 with 1 Ag5.’

‘Unfortunately that is garbage.’

‘No. It is actually possible. Then it is a
real possibility, as the biggest problem
for White is to finish his development.
So to get the dark-squared bishop devel-
oped seems to be the most important
thing right now.’

1

Time up!

dxe7 Wxe7 2 £g5

Sidsel had missed that she had sacri-
ficed a piece here, which of course is
forgivable, as she was not in charge
when it happened.

Tom Skovgaard

T start by counting the pieces. White has
a pawn for a piece. Black has a weak
king. There is a knight at f7 instead of a
pawn, and there is a pin on the knight.
White has a strong pawn on d6, a strong
knight on e4. White’s rook on al is not
active, but the rook on el is very active.
There is pressure on e7. Let’s see some
possible moves. Take on e7 maybe?’

What can Black do? He cannot move
the king, it would lose the knight. There
are threats in the e-file. Is there some-
thing tactically? Maybe ^g5? No, it will
be captured. Maybe ^Ac5 then, queen
takes pawn and the attack reaches the
end.’

‘How can we use the pressure on e7?
How can we use it.’

‘Can we increase the pressure with a
bishop move? Black’s knight cannot
move. Maybe ^g5 with an extra threat
to f7. However, Black can play ...e6
blocking the pin. So maybe we should
take on e7 first. Pawn takes, queen takes,
&g5.’

“Nope! There is a mate on el. Pawn
takes, queen takes, JLg5, possibly. And
then when the queen moves a knight
move. Maybe £)f6. Is there an attack
after that? I am not sure. However, we
have engaged our pieces in the attack.’

‘Okay, a quick check of alternatives.
There does not seem to be a combina-
tion. But maybe just a bishop move
straight away. JLf4 maybe. No. The at-
tack will die — it seems. It looks as if tak-
ing on e7 is right, as it opens for the
bishop, and afterwards all my pieces will
be attacking, and hopefully a combina-
tionwill arise.’

“Elements after that. 1 dxe7 Wxe7 2
i.g5.’

“Where will he put his queen? Proba-
bly back to the d-file. Or the c-file. Then
the other rook will come into play, and 1
will play 41d6. 1 might win a knight
there. I think I will win a knight there. I’ll
try that.’

‘I still have some time, so 1 will just
check for alternatives. $Lef> maybe? Is
that interesting. Queen takes. No, not
interested.’

‘I do not see other moves.’

1 dxe7.

Ivo Timmermans

‘Okay. Just starting with counting the
material to see what is happening. White
has sacrificed a piece. He has a pawn on
d6 and a pin on the diagonal b3-g8.
Black has problems with developing Ha8
and JLc8. “$3b6 is a bit awkward and Wd7
is worse. For White the problem is how
to get Act and Hal into play. One idea
is to go for a direct attack, which is for
instance 1 £}g5, plus everything that fol-
lows. Another idea is to play the attack a
bit more slowly in order to bring all the
pieces into play, which is developing the
bishop on cl and then the rook on al.’

T^et us see what Black is threatening
to play. Maybe he could try to play ...e6.
And he could tty to take with the pawn
on d6. So at least I should try to keep the
pressure on.’

Tberc are a few candidate moves.
One is 1 dxe7. Another is 1 ^3g5, going
for the attack. Yet another could be de-
veloping the bishop, 1 JLf4,1 JLg5.’

‘I am just checking if there is any
move I could have forgotten.’

‘1 £1c5 is another alternative, even
though it looks as if the knight is going
to the wrong side.’

Candidate Moves
‘Ok, first 1 dxe7 Wxe7 then for in-
stance 2 Ag5 with the threat of 3 £)f6+.
Where does the queen go? Maybe
2...Wc7 then 3 Sacl. Maybe 2...Wb4.
Yes, this is quite difficult.’

‘2...Wc7 3 Had, so 2...Wb4 looks like
the only move. You play 3 a3...’

‘...and the queen has only a few
squares, so this is a quite attractive move,
1 dxe7. Is there any other kind of coun-
terplay you can think of?’

‘Okay, 1 dxe7 Wxe7 2 JLg5 Wb4 3 a3.
There are no threats on the white queen.
So this is a promising continuation to
start with. So White should have com-
pensation, but still it is a full piece down.
He can create further weaknesses for
instance with the exchange of bishops
with JLf6. He still has to work to get the
attack going.’

‘Let us look at the knight move.’

‘1 ^3g5. The threat is possibly to take
the piece back on f7, and one additional
threat is of course Hxe7. Another threat
is dxe7 straight away, winning back eve-
rything.’

‘So Black probably has just one move
he can play, l...e5, and he can also play
1 ...exd6.’

‘If he plays l...e5 I have to proceed. 2
JLe6 is one alternative. I am attacking f7

1-2-3 times, and it is defended only by
the rook and the queen.’

Time up!

‘Five minutes already gone? So far I
have only looked at 1 dxe7 and I have
started to look at 1 ^g5.’

‘I think 1 dxe7 looks promising.’

Artur Yusupov

‘Okay. I have sacrificed a piece for a
pawn. The position looks interesting.

Very interesting pieces.’

‘Possibilities: 1 dxe7,1 £k5, 1 ^g5.’

Candidate Moves

‘Maybe I will start with 1 ^3g5. Let us
say he plays l...exd6 2 ^xf7 he has some
reactions: 2...d5 maybe. It looks like al-
most the only move. Ok. 2...Hxf7 should
be considered. 1 do not see any immedi-
ate checkmates.’

‘Of course it would be nice to retain
the pin, so even 1 dxe7 Wxe7 2 JLg5 and
maybe 3 £lf6+, which should be taken
quite seriously. But there are some pos-
sibilities. Taking on f7 is a little bit opti-
mistic.’

‘It should be possible to play even 1
JLh6 if then l...exd6 then 2 £)f6+.’

‘I have a problem with speaking and
thinking. As a chess trainer I know that if
you are speaking you should be thinking.’

‘So what about 1 dxe7 Wxe7 2 Ag5.
What can he play? There are two moves.
2.>c7 and 2...Wb4. 2...Wc7. I can even
continue with 3 Had. I do not see any
strong defence for him, so 2...Wb4 ... It
looks very promising.’

“Even 3 a3 is good. If 3...Wa5 then 4

$3d6.’

“My time is running short! Hmm.’

If I have to play I will play 1 dxe7,
but actually I have lost on time...’

Peter Heine Nielsen

“Okay. You got the tape rolling? This is
Peter Heine, it is live, it is raw and it is
good!’

The first move you look at in this po-
sition is 1 £3g5, or there are many
moves. 1 dxe7 looks to be a move, while
1 *xf7+ looks like overriding the sys-
tem.’

Hut let me calculate on 1 £lg5 first.’

‘On 1 £lg5 then l...exd6 looks like a
good idea. I cannot see any alternatives.’

‘1 ^3g5 exd6, what then?’

‘It does not look convincing to me.
Hmm.’

‘1 ^g5 and then after l...e5 then 2
Jle6 is probably strong. But l...exd6.

2...d5 is threatening, so 2 £lxf7 XLxf7. I
cannot really see anything. 2 Jle6 instead
of taking on f7.’

‘Maybe then 2...Wc7 3 JLxf7+ Hxf7 4
He8+ Sf8. It does not look convincing.
Ok, move on.’

‘1 dxe7 is also pretty forcing, the only
move is l...Wxe7. 2 ^3g5 would not be
just a bit dubious. Л logical move is 2
.&g5.’

‘How many squares does the queen
have then. It looks to be c7 and d7. Iz:t
us try 2...1йгс7 3 £lf6+ *i£?h8 4 £)e8.’

‘I am not completely convinced.’

‘Another move I would consider is 1
-fcg5, but maybe it is too much. On
l...exd6 2 £lf6+ looks strong. What 1
would fear is probably l...e6 in order to
cancel out the pin. Then 2 JLe7 is possi-
ble, but 2...£kl5 looks good enough for
Black. Then I have 3 Axd5 exd5 4 ^3f6+
Axf6 5 Wxf6. It is not 100% convincing.
But I do not see that any of the forcing
moves wins for me.’

"There could also be a move like 1
Ah6 in this position.’

"With the idea of 1 ...JLxh6 2 dxe7, but
if 1 Ah6 is really decisive is hard to say.’

Time up!

1 Ah 6 executed.

Fritz 8

Mathias: ‘In this position Drii^ immedi-
ately wants to play 1 Ah6. In the begin-
ning it thinks Black is slighdy better, but
with higher search it comes around and
sees that White is winning with this
move. It never considers other moves.’

1 Ah6

Test Position 1

Proposed Solution

Nehr-Mi.Nielsen

Taastrup 2002
Sicilian Defence

1 e4 c5 2 c3 5¥6 3 e5 2id5 4 d4
cxd4 5	3 2>c6 6 Ac4 &b6 7 Ab3

g6 8 0-0 d5 9 exd6 Wxd6 10 ^g5

2>d8 11 Wf3 f6 12 £>e4 Wc6 13
cxd4 Ag7 14 £>bc3 f5 15 d5 fxe4
16 2>xe4 Wd7 17 He1 2if7 18 d6
0-0

The game concluded 19 &g5? exd6
20 <Ae6 Se8 21 Ad2 d5 22 £>xg7
Axe1 + 23 Axel Фхд7 24 Ac3+ d4
25 Axd4+ Wxd4 26 Wxf7+ Ah6 27
Wf8+ Wg7 28 #d8 g5 29 Wd6+
Wg6 30 Wf8+ Wg7 31 Wd6+ Wg6
32Wf8+ ’Л-Уг

About the game there is not much to
say. White could have won with 28 Wd6!
Wd7 29 W4+ &g7 30 Wh4! and the
attack is irresistible, but then again, Black
could have won with 20...We8! followed
by 21...Axe6 or even 2O...Wc6!?.

Let us start with looking at the text
move, 19 <53g5?. The reason for the’?’ to
this move is not only concrete, but 19
^3g5 is also wrong on principle. Instead
of including the queenside in the attack,
White attacks f7 without a realistic
chance of regaining the sacrificed mate- i
rial. His attack simply loses momentum.
After 19...exd6 20 Ae6 Wc7 21 Ae3
Axe6 22 £3xe6 Wc6 Black wins. Of'
course this move needs to be investi-'
gated, but also quickly dismissed once it 
is dear that it does not win material im-
mediately.

The third best move is probably 19
Af4 which should be answered with
19...e5! 20 Ag5 <£>h8 21 Ae7 £>g5!!

Only move. All other moves lose.

22 We3 ^xe4 23 Axf8 Axf8 24
txe4 Axd6 gives Black better chances,
but the position is not completely clear.
Black has some problems developing.

The second best move is even more
bound to the notion that development
precedes attack.

19dxe7!? Wxe7 20 Ag5!

To understand the position without ana-
lysing 19 Ah6, this is the most natural
way to continue. The bishop is devel-
oped with a gain of tempo and f6 is un-

der attack. Black now needs to continue
with 2O...Wb4!

After 2O...Wd7? 21 Af6!! Black cannot
defend himself:

a)	21...$h8 22 Wc3 £>h6 23 Wc5 Hg8
24 Sadi Axf6 25 £3xf6 and White wins.

b)	21...Wf5 22 Wc3 £h6 23 £ld6
Wh5 24 £)xf7 Sxf7 25 Se8+ Af8 26
Sxf8+ &xf8 27 Wb4+ and Black is
mated.

2O...Wc7? 21 Sacl Wd7 22 Af6 is
similar to 20...Wd7. It is not easy to
imagine a line where the rook is worse
on cl than it was on al.

Now, if he has nothing better, White
has 21 Ad 2 We7 22 Ag5 with repeti-
tion, even though 22 £>g5!? looks tempt-
ing in a way it did not earlier. Sometimes
it is enough to know you have a draw in
order to go for a line, especially if the
line includes the sacrifice of a piece, a
rook or something more.

The right move however is 19 Ah6I!

The main idea behind 19 Ah6! is not
so hard to spot. If Black plays 19...Axh6
then White wins a lot of material after 20
dxe7 Wxe7 21 £if6+ and Black will have
to give up his queen for insufficient
compensation. Besides this, it is little
more than activating the bishop, throw-
ing it into the enemy camp — a feature
called launching by Tai, an expression
taken from ice hockey, where the puck
sometimes is shot deep into the oppo-
nents’ half, before any attackers are there
to exploit it.

But Black of course needs to respond.
He cannot play 19...exd6 because of 20
£)ftrl-. Nor can he play 19...Wf5 (an at-
tempt to free the queenside and relieve
the pressure on the king by exchanging
queens) as White wins after 20 dxe7
Wx£3 21 exf8W+ £xf8 22 gxf3 ±xh6
23 £kI6 and the pin costs Black a piece,
and he ends up being an exchange down.
But what is White threatening? Nothing
really. His next move would be 20 Eadl
after which he is suddenly starting to
have a lot of threats, but mainly 19 JLh6!
is about domination. Black somehow
needs to get out of this. It cannot be
done by 19...e6 as after 20 JLxg7 l&xg7
21 Wf6+ &g8 (21...ФЬ6 22 Se3 or 22
^3g5 illustrates the importance of being
able to see candidates and little more) 22
Wd4 White has a very strong, probably
decisive attack. The only move is to
force White to exchange on g7, without
Black giving up the rather weak, but still
existing, control over f6. 19...ФЬ8!? is
therefore the only defensive option that
gives Black any hope of surviving. White
should now proceed with 20 JLxg7 +
Фхд7 21 Hadi! bringing the rook into
play as described in the abstract objec-
tives above. It has not been possible to

find a defence here for Black, and most
likely there is none. One attempt starts
with 21 ...Wd8 and now after 22 Wc3 +
e5 (Black has no choice here as after
22...Ф116 23 dxe7 Wxe7 24 £}d6! he is
under heavy artillery fire, unable to find
cover anywhere) White has time and
active pieces enough to launch a deadly
attack on the dark squares, weakened by
the exchange of the bishops. Best is 23
f4! and Black seems to be quite lost.

The lines go something like this:

а)	23...Дд4 24 fxe5 £xd1 25 e6+
&h6 26 e7 Wd7 27 Wd2+ Фд7 28
Wd4+ &h6 29 Exd1!.

b)	23... ^d7 24 &xf7 &xf7
(24...Sxf7 25 fxe5 Wb6+ 26 &hl Wc6
27 e6+ Wxc3 28 £ixc3 Hf5 29 e7 30
e8W £3xe8 31 Sxe8 Hf8 32 d7 and
White has not yet finished cashing in) 25
2ig5+ Фд8 26 Wc4+ *h8 27 ^kf7+
Sxf 7 28 Wxf7 and White has a winning
attack without having invested any seri-
ous material in the process.
CHAPTER FOUR

Test Position 2

Test Position 2

White to move. Take 30 minutes and
play the white position as if it was a
game and you had 30 minutes to the end
of the game. This can be done against a
friend who is finding the relevant replies
in this book, or against a computer
chess-playing program like the famous

Tom Skovgaard

‘So. We have two rooks each, two minor
pieces each, two queens and five pawns
each. It is a completely even position,
materially. However Black has some kind
of attack here. We have a weak king’s

position. He threatens l...Wal+, chasing
the king out. Maybe I can go to c2, but
...b4 is threatening. Everything is threat-
ening here. We also have some heavy
pressure on the black king. He cannot
casde. He cannot do anything here. He
cannot get his rook out. It is a very sharp
position. Oh my God. It is a very sharp
position indeed.’

What can we do to prevent l...b4 and
the breaking up of the king’s position?
We probably need to activate some de-
fending pieces. Probably 1 JLd3 or
something like that. Do we have any
threats here? No. If that bishop moves —
we cannot even go to d7 with a check.
Hmm. We need to get the other rook
into the e-file. 1 JLd3 looks sensible.
I...b4 2 JLbl maybe. Yes. Then 3 Hhel.
What can Black do?’

24 He1

7 min.

24...Wa1 + 25 &d2 Wxb2+ 26 ФеЗ

8 min.

26...£e6 27 &f4 Wf2 28 £xb5+

12 min.

28...axb5 29 ®c6
29...Wh4+ 30 g4

13 min.

3O...Wf6+ 31 &g3 0-1

J lere the arbiter/writcr stepped in and
declared the position as winning for
Black. White does not have enough for
his piece at all.

Ivo Timmermans

‘Materially the position is equal. Both
kings are in danger. White has pinned the
black king down on e8 and all he needs
now is another check somewhere, along
the e-file. Anything that keeps the king in
the centre basically.’

“Black has a queen on a2 and White
should be careful. There are some attack-
ing ideas for Black, for instance 1...^3a4
and l...Hxc3 or l...Wal+ followed by
2..JLb3+. Even l...b4 is an option.

1...£1c4. So Black has a lot of counter-
play, which means that White will have
to move fast and open the lines to keep
the momentum going.’

‘At the moment White is to move and
the knight on b6 is hanging. I am not
sure if this is a real problem. But let us
first have a look at 1 Wxb6.’

24 jkd3

19 min.

24...'#a1 + 25 1Ы Aa2

26 v>c4

26...WxM + 27 &d2 2>xc4+ 0-1

Sten Vesterli

‘Even material. My king is badly placed. I
have not castled. I am a bit in trouble, as
his queen and bishop work well together.
They should be able to create threats.’
Ъ1аск is also not doing well in this re-
spect. He has not cashed yet. And he
cannot castle now. Can I see a check.
No, not immediately.’

What if I just ignore his attack and
take the knight?’

Sten played the following way:
24£d3

After 4 minutes of thinking.

24...Wa1 + 25 1Ы

6	min.

25.,.Aa2 26 Фс2

7	min.

Sidsel Haag

‘It is a very open position. Black has yet
to casde. f7 looks as a possible target
square. White has not really finished her
development yet. It would be nice to
bring the rook into the game. It would
also be nice to prevent Black from cas-
hing. ’

‘It is also important to take care of the
white king. The black queen is near and
there is a rook aiming down the open c-
file. The knight can also quickly enter the
attack.’

White’s light-squared bishop does not
have many squares. c4 looks as an im-
portant square.’

24 £d3

After 10 min.

24...Wa1 + 25 ±Ы

12 min.

25...£a2 26 Wd3

14 min.

26...Ab3+ 27 Фс1

27...Sxc3+ 28 bxc3

10 min.

28...Wxc3+

and he resigned.

0-1

26...g6 27 Hhe1
17 min.

27...0-0 28 2>g4
20 min.

28...Cia4 29 Wc2

22 min.

29...£sxc3 0-1
Peter Heine Nielsen

‘I have seen the position before, it is
from a game played by Arakhamia
against, someone.’ (long pause)

ТЪе first move that catches the eye is
of course to play 1 JLxb5+ and 2 Shel.
But it does allow a certain counter-
attack.’ (pause)

‘A move I like based on general feel-
ing is 1 JLd3, as it develops a piece,
opens the rook and protects my king,
though I am far from certain as to what
happens on the reply l...Wal+ 2 JLbl
JLa2. It could easily turn out to be
somewhat complicated. Besides, on 1
JLd3 then the move l...£ia4 looks like an
option as well.’

24£d3

17 min.

24...Wa1 + 25 £b1 ia2 26 Wd3

23 min.

26...g6

27 £)d7

26 min.

27... 1хЫ 28 2rf6+ <^f8 29 Wxb1
0-1

Peter’s final evaluation was that he
was in trouble, but might be able to
make a draw in the endgame after
29...Sxc3+.

Jesper Hall

“The black king is stuck in the centre. It
seems natural to get an attack started. I Ie
has a counter-attack against my king with
his queen on a2. It feels like I should
have some opportunities with 1 JLxb5+
and 2 Shel with full speed forward.’

“The knight on b6 is also hanging, of
course. And there are always such tricky
things as ...Exc3+ or ...Wal+. But besides
that, it seems very7 natural to play 1
JLxb5+ and 2 Hhel.’

24 Wxb6

After 20 min.

24...Wal + 25 Ad2

20 min.

25...Wxb2+ 26 Ae3

20 min.

26...Wxc3+ 27 Af2

22 min.
27...Wxe5 28 ДхЬ5+

23 min.

28...&f8 29 Xhe1
23 min.

29...Wb2+ 30 £g1
26 min.

3O...Wxb5

31 Wd6+

27 min.

31...*g8 32 Exd5

27 min.

32...Wb8 33 Wxa6

27 min.

33...h5 34 2g 5 %-%

28 min.

Here we stopped the game. The posi-
tion is very slighdy better for White. To
see what would happen in a blitz finish
did not seem appealing to either Jesper
or the writer.

Peter Skovgaard

White has fairly good pressure against
the black king, which cannot casde as the
white queen is currently preventing it
from doing so. But Black also has his
queen a fair way into the white position.
But on the other hand he does not have
that many other attacking pieces. Maybe
the rook on c8 can become dangerous.
But White can quickly come with all his
pieces against the black king. So I think
White has a nice position. And the black
knight on b6 is hanging, but so does the
white rook on dl, with some checks.’

‘White has pressure against the black
king, which cannot escape, while the
white king probably seems more safe.’

24 Дс4

15 min.
24...Wal + 25 *c2 Wa4+ 26 &Ы

16 min.

26...Zd8 27 Wxb6

22 min.

27...bxc4 28 Wxd8+

28	min.

28...	&xd8 29 Bxd5+

29	min.

29...	Фс7 30 Shd1

Time scramble

30..Л6 31 Дс5+ Уг-Уг

We stopped here; Peter had 16 sec.
left on the clock.

Later analysis showed that the posi-
tion would still have been drawn for
White after 31...ФЬб> 32 Пс6+ and Black
is forced to enter an even rook endgame,
or after 31...ФЬ8 32 £k6+ ФЬ7 33
^3d8+ Фа7 (ЗЗ...ФЬ6 34 Sc6+ gives the
rook endgame again) 34 2c7+ ФЬ8

35 Hdd7! Hxd8! 36 ЙЬ7+ with per-
petual check.

Fritz 8

ГгИ% wants to play 1 JLc4 after 9 sec-
onds. After 14 seconds the evaluation is
+2.8, which is more or less a piece up.
We continued with the move 1 JLc4, and
went down the line some moves, before
wondering what would happen if Black
castled in a certain position.’Oh, of
course!’ exclaimed Mathias.’Black is not
allowed to castle. The position is set up
wrong, we have to start over.’ Mathias
explained that in the old set-up box the
flag was set for castling as possible, but
several complaints from customers who
could not change this into castling not
possible themselves, made Mathias re-
verse the dialogue box.

So we returned to the diagram. After 2
seconds wanted to play 1 JLc4
again. But this time it was only plus 1.
After some time, about 30 seconds, the
program changes to 1 £lc6. Mathias said:
‘Now the evaluation is clearly not stable.
The program is ever changing between 1
JLc4 and 1 £3c6.’

Even though the position was 10
moves deep, the lines seemed very un-
trustworthy to me. Mathias explained
that the last moves in long lines are not
very trustworthy. He only makes the
lines so long in the output on the screen
because people like it (and he is right — I
like it too). In the older versions the
main lines were restricted to just a couple
of moves. It is not a matter of horizon,
Mathias explained, but a question of how
the search is done.’Ftz'/^ does not have
the problems of other main programs,’
Mathias explained.’Sometimes Shredder
will have some weird move in the main
lines on move 2 or 3, just dropping a
queen.’ (This was not said to put Shredder
down. This program is maybe even
stronger than Frit% these days, though
the difference is limited.)

‘Often the main lines are right, but
sometimes they end with absolutely non-
sense.’ After З'/z min. the main line
changed, which was an indication for
Mathias, that the evaluation was not sta-
ble.’So I wait a bit longer,’ he said.

After 5 min. the evaluation of 1 £3c6
increased, and Mathias said he would
execute it if 1 JLc4 did not score very
high on the same search depth.

24Fic6

After 6 min.

24...Wa1 + 25 *d2

There are no alternatives because of

25 Фс2 JLb3+’ (Mathias).

25...Wxb2+

26 Фаз

Frit^ is certain that this is the move to
play after 13 seconds.

26...	Sxc6 27 Se1 +

Again no choice.

27...£e6 28 Wxc6+ Фе7 29 Wc5+

3 min.

29...*d7 30 Sxe6

After 4 min.

3O...fxe6 31 Wxb6 Sd8 1-0

We decided that, as White had many
strong moves here, we would stop and
say that Frit% had managed to achieve a
winning position, and that the game
would now enter a technical phase.

Artur Yusupov

The position looks very promising. We
have good attacking chances. Of course
our own king is also weak. So sometimes
we should be careful, c.g. ...Wal+, Фс2
JLb3+ and so on. There are some possi-
bilities for bringing Shi to el quickly by
sacrificing on b5. This should probably
be considered.’

‘...Sxc3 can sometimes be a resource
for the black defence, and I can perhaps
also play something like 1 JLd3 to pro-
tect my king. Of course, I also need to
check what will happen if T simply take
on b6. Some checks for sure. 1...Wal+ 2.
Фс2 ±b3+ so 2 &d2 Wxb2 3 ФеЗ
Wxc3. This should be calculated as well.’

24 Дс4

20 min.

24...Wa1+ 25 Фс2 Wa4+ 26 ФЫ
Ed8

26 min.

27...Фе4+ 28 fxe4 Sxd7

29 £xf7+

28 min.

29...&xf7 30 Shf1+ Фе8 31 We6+
Se7 32 Wc6+ Sd7

33 Sd4 1-0

29 min.

27 £>d7

Proposed solution
Test Position 2

Arakhamia Grant-Benderac
Bled Olympiad 2002
Drench Defence

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 ^c3 dxe4 4 2ixe4
£3d7 5 £if3 vigf6 6 2ixf6+ 2>xf6 7
c3 c5 8 5ie5 a6 9 ke3 Wc7 10
Wa4+ 2id7 11 0-0-0 cxd4 12 &xd4
Ad6 13 £id3 b5 14 Wc2 e5 15 ДеЗ
lb7 16 f3 Sc8 17 2>f2 Дс5 18 Wd2
АхвЗ 19 Wxe3 Wc5 20 Wd2 ®b6 21
ftd3 Wd5 22 ^xe5 Wxa2 23 Wd6
ld5

did not get out of this exercise in style,
so we wiU leave it at that.

More interesting was Jesper HaU’s at-
tempt to take the money and run. After
24 Wxb6?! I am sure that Black has com-
pensation for the piece in several ways.

This exercise and its beautiful solution
was pointed out to me by Jesper Nforch
Lauridsen, who spotted it reading a
newspaper column on the internet. The
actual game continued in very much the
same way as Sten Vesterli’s game did
with 24 £d3? Wal + 25 £b1 -£a2 26
ic2? £b3+! 27 Фс1 Hxc3+! 28
£d2 Wxb2+ 29 Фе1 He3+ and White
resigned. I know this is probably not a
nice thing to say, but this time, quite lit-
erally, White did play like a beginner. Or
rather, played like a very strong player on
an off-day. AU this should be compared
to Peter Heine Nielsen’s failure to see
the same tactic, even though he was
forewarned with prior knowledge of the
game. Both he and I were deeply puzzled
as to how this could ever happen.

After 24 JLd3, the best White can
possibly get is actually the way Peter
played above.

Tom Skovgaard lost quickly with 24
Eel?, and there is not really anything else
to say about this. Also Ivo Timmermans

I played the most obvious move
against this (24...Wal+), but also interest-
ing is 24...0-0 completing development
before crowding on the white king.
White looks better in that line after 25
Wd4 i.b.3 (25...Sfd8l?) 26 Ad3 a5l? 27
Shel (also good is 27 JLbl Wal 28 £k!7
b4 29 £>xf8 Sxc3+ 30 &d2 Wxb2+ 31
&el Axdl 32 £xh7+ ^>h8 33 Ad3 Wcl
34 Wh4+ Wh6 35 Wxh6+ gxh6 36 &d2
and White is better) 27...Wal+ 28 ^.bl
b4 29 c4 JLxdl 30 Exdl a4
and now simplest is 31 ^3d7! Sfd8 32
Ф02 with the threat of JLxh7+, deciding
the game in White’s favour. Still, there is
a lot of fighting to be done yet.

It should be noted that also after
24..,JLb3 White is better: 25 JLxb5+ axb5
26 Wxb5+ &f8 27 Wb4+ Фё8 28 £)c6!
g6 (28...h6 29 $k7+ ФЪ7 30 We4+ g6 31
£3xc8 Axdl 32 flxdl Sxc8 33 Wd5 and
White is better) 29 ^3e7+	30 £)xc8

Wal+ 31 ^>d2 Wxb2+ 32 ФеЗ Дхс8 33
Wd4+ and White should win.

So 24..>al+ is the move, leading to a
slight advantage for White, as can be
seen by Jesper’s attempt.

One move that did get mentioned a
lot, but never played, was 24 JLxb5+?.
The idea is that after 24...axb5 25
She1 Black should be faced with certain
death. This is, however, not the case.
Black plays 25...Wa1 + 26 Фс2 £b3+
(too familiar by now to deserve exclama-
tion marks!) 27 ФдЗ

and now simply 27...Wxd1 +! 28
Sxd1 Sd8 and Black leads decisively in
material. The JLb3 still protects f7.

The correct solution to this exercise
was actually only found by Yusupov.

did manage to gain a winning,
though muddy, position with 24 423c6!?.
There is not much more to say about
this move.

However, there are some additional
variations to:

24 Фс4!!

This was the move discovered by Jes-
per Morch Lauridsen. On the phone we
worked out the following sequence
within a few minutes.

24...	Wa1 +

This is the only move. Other varia-
tions do not work as the following lines
demonstrate.

a)	24...bxc4 25 Hhel jLe6 26 ^3xf7
Wal+ 27 Фс2 Wa4+ 28 ФЫ and White
wins.

b)	24...^3xc4 25 ^3xc4! (though 25
Wd7+ Ф18 26 Wxc8+ Фе7 27 Wd7+
ФТ6 28 £)g4+ Фё6 29 Hxd5 Wxb2+ 30
Фdl also wins) 25...JLe6 26 £3b6 and
White wins.

25 Фс2 Wa4+ 26 ФЫ Sd8

26...bxc4 27 Shel JLe6 28 *53x07 ФхП
29 Wxe6+ Ф18 30 We7+ Фй8 31 Sd8+
Exd8 32 Wxd8+ $f7 33 Se7+ Фё6 34
Wd6+ ФЬ5 35 Se5+ g5 36 g4+ Ф114 37
Wh6 mate.
fxe6 30 Wxe6+ He7 31 Sd7 32
Де1+ $d8 (32...&f8 33 Wc&+-) 33
Wxb6+ Фс8 34 JLe6 and White wins.

28 fxe4 3xd7 29 i.xf7+!

The alternative 29 Wb8+ Фе7 30
Hxd7+ ^3xd7 31 Wxh8+- Wxc4 32 Wa8
is, of course, better for White, but 29
JLxf7+ is decisive.

29...£xf7 30 Hhf1+ &e8 31 We6+
He7 32 Wc6+ Sd7 33 Sd4!

27 2id7!!

The strongest, though also strong is
27 Wxb6 bxc4 28 <5Tc17 (28 Wxd8+ &xd8
is less clear, while 28 Hxd5? Sxd5 29
Wb8+ Sd8 would win for Black)
28...£e6! (28...Wxd7 29 Bhel+ &f8 30
Wc5+ ^g8 31 Sxd5 Wc8 32 Sedl and
White wins) 29 g4 with a strong position
for White.

27...JLe4+

27...Sxd7 28 JIhel+ -&е6 29 Sxe6+

and White is winning.
CHAPTER FIVE

Test Position 3

Test Position 3

White to play. Take 7 minutes to find
the strongest continuation, talking into a
microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

on the a2-pawn, and in that connection
remove the c4-bishop. Even though it is
unprotected, it is very central, which has
got to be an irritation.’

‘Of course it loses the a-pawn, but in
return White gets the c-pawn. And gets a
more active bishop thereby.’ (long pause)

‘1 £kl4 could also be an idea. The
knight would be more centrally placed,
(long pause). I am thinking about 1 £lcl
in order to play b3 to chase the bishop
away, but it looks slow and clumsy. The
knight might even get trapped.’

T g4 could also be fun. Threatening to
implement the knight fork anyway with 2
g5. It is not possible to take it. Time up.’
1 <5id4 without thinking about 1 ...Sd8.

Sidsel Hoeg

There is a fork on d7. Maybe it is possi-
ble to implement it somehow. The pawn
on c6 looks weak. The black bishop is
hanging lose in the wind.’

‘I do not have a lot of ideas to start
with. 1 4ia5 looks like a good start, in
order to put pressure on the pawn on c6.
It would also be nice to move the b3-
knight, in order to relieve the pressure
Sten Vesterli

‘First thoughts on material. Black has a
far advanced pawn on b4. The c-pawn is
blocked. White is sensitive on the back
rank by absence of the white rook. Black
is slightly vulnerable as well. There is a
fork on d7, though protected.’

The сб-pawn looks not so strong
though it is protected by the knight. The
bishop on c4 is unprotected. And so is
Black’s rook. Same coloured bishops.
The knight on b3 can be taken, but this
docs not free the c-pawn immediately
due to the control of the rook.’

‘His pieces are safe from White’s
bishop. And his king is on a dark square.
White also has no weaknesses on the
light squares. He would like a knight on
d5. Should be the f-knight.’

Taking on e7 loses an exchange in re-
turn for the c-pawn. Pawns on both
flanks, which must mean that Black will
not give up his bishop with taking on b3.
a3 gives White a passed pawn, if he
takes. But this also gives Black a passed
c-pawn. But if he does not take he will
get the rook attacking the b-pawn.’

Time up!

His final choice was 1 ^a5 assuming
the following line: 1...JLxa2 2 £ixc6
‘йхсб 3 JLxc6.

Tom Skovgaard

‘Checking the position ... It looks equal.
Even material. Ok, so it is White to
move.’

‘White’s rook is a little bit more active
in the centre of the board, keeping
Black’s king out of the centre. That
knight on c5 looks strong, protected by
the other knight. Black’s pawns are a
little advanced on the queenside; how-
ever, in an endgame White might create a
passed pawn on the а-file, though this is
probably not that relevant here.’

‘So what can we do here? The white
king cannot improve. The black bishop
is quite strong. What can the black
knights do? ...£)g4? Is that a move? The
other knight can go to d5. Black might
be alright in this position.’

“Maybe there is not that much to look
for here. Maybe a tactical plot? Maybe a
knight fork of some kind. Not on d7 at
least.’

‘I £t us look for some tactics. 1 JLxc6?
No, nothing there. What else? Can the
knights move somewhere. Maybe 1 £)d4
increasing the pressure on c6. It is a
move. l...JLxa2 2 £3хс6 £3xc6 3 A.xc6,
oops losing a knight to, no, 3...Sc8.’

This does not look dangerous any-
way. What about 1 Дхе7 Фхе7 2 JLxc6,
is there anything there? No. It is not in-
teresting, it is just a pawn for an ex-
change. But with the knight on d4 we are
threatening Дхе7, so after 1 £3d4, then
l...jLxa2 is not possible. 2 Дхе7 Фхе7
and he loses his rook.’

‘So what is the best answer to 1 £3d4?
It is threatening b3 or even a3.’

‘1 ?3d4, what can Black play? Moving
his rook? Where? Hmm.’

"To d8, no. Oops. There is a mate on
the first rank. I do not think White has a
very good position here. Could we only
get rid of the bishop.’

‘Oh yes, 1 £ia5, we have the same
threat of fixe7. What can he do?
1 ..JLd5. What then?’

‘1 ^3a5.’

‘It looks good, as it gets the bishop
out of the diagonal. Okay, he could play

l...^.b5.’

This is not an easy position.’

‘1 2)d4 or 1 ^3a5. I prefer 1 £)a5 as it
threatens the bishop. Black moves his
bishop, protecting the c-pawn. Maybe
then we can threaten his... No.’

‘Are there other options. 1 £3a5 JLb5
or ,.JLd5.’

‘Can we get rid of £if6 instead maybe?
No. Maybe 1 JLh3 threatening to ex-
change knights? No. It is not good.
Maybe we can do that afterwards. 1 £ia5
B-somewhere 2 ^h3 and 3 £id7 putting 1
pressure on the pawn. He will have to
protect the pawn with the rook, 2...ДЬ6.
We need to get the king out. Maybe just
f4. I like that pressure on the c6-pawn,
and I need to move now.’

1 £»5.

Peter Skovgaard

‘First let us look for tactical possibilities
—some checks with ^3d7 or something -
his pieces are placed a bit awkward,
maybe it is possible to exploit this. The
сб-pawn looks badly placed as well. And
he would like to have placed his rook
better, so maybe l...Sd8 with the idea of
Sdl+.’

‘So I probably have to put him under
pressure. Maybe threaten some of his
pieces to maintain pressure.’

‘Maybe 1 £3a5 or something like this.
Or maybe 1 g4 to put pressure on the f6
knight, but then he has l...Hd8 and it is
not so convincing.’

‘Maybe 1 £3d2, but then l..JLxa2
might be possible. Let me look for
something tactical.’

‘Maybe 1 Пхе7 and 2 JLxc6, nah, then
2...Sc8 and it does not look good.’

‘Maybe 1 ^3a5 and then 2 Sxe7. If he
plays l...Ab5 then maybe it is possible to
play...’

“Maybe then 2 Дхе7 and 3 Axc6, but
not really. 2 a4 maybe.’

‘I think 1 £la5 is good.’

‘Or 1 £k!4 Ab5 2 &xb5 ДхЬ5 3 Afi
and it does not look super good for him,
though he can of course play 3...Ha5.’

‘1 ^)a5 Ab5, what then?’

‘Or maybe 1 £k!4 first looks better. If
l...Axa2 then it is definitely possible to
take on e7, so he should not do this, but
if he plays l...Ad5, what then? 1 can play
2 Axd5 £ifxd5 3 £3d7+, so this he
should not play. And l...Ab5 then I can
play... What can I play then?’

“Maybe then 2 Exe7 Фхе7 3 Ахсб.’

“3...fic8. But what then? I have a pawn
for the exchange. It does not look super
clever. There has to be something better
than this.’

‘Maybe it is just 1 Дхе7 Фхе7 2 Ахсб.
No then he has 2...Axb3 and it is not at
all pretty.’

‘1 £)d4 Ab5 and then 2 a4 bxa3 3
ЬхаЗ to create a passed pawn on the
queenside. And if he then plays 3...Sd8 I
can simply play 4 £kb3 to protect my
knight.’

1 £ia5 is executed.

Ivo Timmermans

‘A late middlegame. White’s pieces are a
bit more active. Especially the bishop on
g2 is quite strong. The rook on e5 as
well. A strong knight on c5. There is
pressure against the сб-pawn, which is
defended by ^3e7. I see some tactical
ideas coming up. I think White should
play vigorously, some ideas like 1 ^3a5,
attacking c6 and also indicating Sxe7,
and there is a potential fork on c6. First
let me look at candidate moves. But first
let me check that 1 Sxe7 Фхе7 2 £3a5 is
not very strong. Then I will check all
other options.’

‘Is there a positional way that White
can play? Well, I do not see any so I will
first try to prove the tactical ideas.’

‘Okay 1 ^3a5, 1 Sxe7 is a candidate, 1
^3d2 is maybe a candidate, but it seems
to be a move without an idea.’

‘1 Sxe7 looks like an interesting
move. 1...Фхе7. If you play l...JLxb3 you
play 2 2a7. Okay. 1 Sxe7 Фхе7 2 ‘Slab...’

‘2...JLb5 or 2...JLd5, no then simply 3
JLxd5 wins. 2..„&b5 3 JLc6, but 3...Sc8
spoils the fun of it. Black is winning.’

‘So what can we do?’

‘(Ian we play 1 £la5 straight away?’

The idea is Hxe7 and £3xc6. 1 ^3a5 —
the bishop is hanging.’

‘l...JLe6 then you’ve got 2 ‘Slxeti, so I
guess you have to play l...Ab5.’

‘I can play 2 ^3a6, let me just have a
look. 1 £>a5 JLb5 2 JLxc6...’

‘...then comes 2...^3xc6. 1 £3a5 JLb5,
what is also possible is 2 ^хсб, no then
comes 2...“53xc6 and I must play 3 JLxc6...’

‘1 ^3a5 JLb5 2 JLxc6 JLxc6 ah, 3

Hxe7. This is maybe a nice idea.’

‘Ok. Tx:t me try again. 1 “53a5, if
l...JLd5, then 2 Exe7. Ok, 2 minutes to
go, let me just look at the simply lines.’

‘l...JLb5 is one move. 2 JLxc6 JLxc6 3
Exe7, so 2...‘$3xc6. This docs not work.’

‘Maybe 1 should play 1 ^3a5 JLb5 2 a4
ЬхаЗ 3 ЬхаЗ and the threat is a3-a4.’

‘1 ^3a5 JLb5 2 a4 ЬхаЗ 3 ЬхаЗ. You
can play JLfl. That is another idea.’
‘1 4ia5 is a bit... 1 <?3d4 maybe.’

‘Okay, 1 £3a5 ±b5 2 .fi.fl.’

Ok, time up.

'1 £>a5 is my choice.’

Jesper Hall

‘1 had sadly forgotten to mm on the mi-
crophone for Jesper during this exercise,
but luckily I was present and listened to
what he said. Unfortunately such an ex-
periment cannot be reproduced, as the
subject now knows the exercise and has
formed an opinion. So we will have to
live with my recollection of his ideas.’

‘Jesper had some ideas about improv-
ing his king, but mainly he went down
the road most travelled with different
attempts of tactics with 1 41a 5. He did
overlook that after 1. ..fi.d5 2 fi.xd5’

Ъ1аск has 2...cxd5, and thus spent

some time concerned with tricks after
2...43fxd5 3 43xc6, to see if there was
anything there. Like the other test per-
sons, he felt he needed more time.’

Peter Heine Nielsen

“The first move that springs to mind is 1
43a5 in order to exploit some tactical
possibilities, but even l....fi.xa2 2 Hxe7
Фхе7 3 43xc6+ ^d6 is not particularly
clear. Hmm.’ (long pause)

The move 1 am mainly thinking about
is 1 43a5, but I am also thinking about 1
<53d4 and 1 g4, or even 1 .fi.fl and 1
43d2, but mainly I am thinking in general
terms like — what is it 1 want to achieve
in this position?’

‘1 am happy with my activity and all of
my pieces, maybe except for my knight
on b.3, which is also the piece 1 am con-
sidering moving. But it is as if there is a
lack of coordination in the black posi-
tion, but then again, it does not seems to
be possible to exploit it. So that is the
nut I am trying to crack.’

“The most tempting first move is in
many ways 1 <2ia5, but I have great diffi-
culties making it work. 1 £}a5 JLd5 al-
lows 2 JLxd5 and then he needs to play
2...cxd5, which could be playable. It
might even be possible to play
2...£)exd5. So it is far from clear.’

‘I think that the white position is
promising, but it should not be exagger-
ated. It is difficult to find a sensible plan.’

“Black’s play is deeply based on the d5
square. I am considering 1 £k!2, but I
have to look at l...JLxa2, and it is not
easy to find a refutation. 2 b3 Sd8 docs
not look encouraging.’

‘So it is difficult to find a move for
which I have any particular sympathy.’

‘I would like to play against the b4-
pawn, but it is my impression that it will
always be defended well from d5.’

Time up!

‘I have no clear preferences at this
time. If I had to move now I would
probably play 1 ^a5, even though I do
not like it much. I have nothing against
l...JLxa2. I also considered playing 1 Hei

with the idea to play against the c-pawn.’

‘I do not think that the rook is well
placed on c5. Maybe even to try to make
something out of the a-pawn, even
though that seems a bit absurd.’

Artur Yusupov

‘Artur failed to find any decisive tactics
after 1 £la5, just like everyone else. Ac-
tually his thought pattern was very simi-
lar to that of Peter Heine Nielsen, except
that it seemed to go a little faster with
Artur. He never mentioned nor realised
that impact of the white passed pawn,
but was stuck with the tactics.’

1 £>a5.

Fritz 8

‘After 7 min. b'rit^ chooses 1 He1. The
main idea is to protect the a-pawn with
Hei-al and later to push with a2-a4.
When Black then takes bxa3, then
wants to take with the rook, basically
because the knight is attacked on b3.’

Proposed solution

Test Position 3

Portisch-Korchnoi

World Cup, Skelleftea 1989
Bogo-Indian Defence

1 d4 e6 2 c4 £b4+ 3 £d2 a5 4 £>f3
d6 5 g3 £>c6 6 Ag2 e5 7 d5 ^се7 8
Axb4 axb4 9 2>bd2 £>f6 10 0-0 0-0
11 &e1 c6 12 dxc6 bxc6 13 £id3
Zb8 14 c5 £a6 15 cxd6 Wxd6 16
C,b3 Hfd8 17 CidcS Wxd1 18 Sfxdl
Sxd1+ 19 Hxd1 £xe2 20 Se1 Дс4
21 Sxe5 £f8

22 2>a5 as chosen by all the strongest
humans to encounter this position as a
test, is not dangerous for Black at all.
The tactics does not work. The simplest
reply is probably 22...JLd5! (22...JLxa2
also works out fine; after 23 b3 JLbl 24
£)xc6 £3xc6 25 JLxc6 Йс8 26 Jlb5 Kd8
the game is level.) 23 JLxd5 (23 Hxe7?
Фхе7 24 JLxd5 cxd5 25 £)c6+ £?d6 26
4ixb8 Фхс5 is a false combination

which actually gives Black a winning
endgame. The knight is trapped on b8.
So this combination suggested by almost
everyone is actually losing) 23...cxd5!
and at best White is equal. The knights
are badly placed, and so is the rook.

22 Cid4?

22,..Hd8! 23 Sxe7 Hxd4 24 He1
Sd2 gives Black a better endgame.

The right move was found in the
game by Portisch, who realised that the
only asset in White’s position offering
him anything in the direction of an ad-
vantage, is the possibility to create a
passed pawn on the queenside. Yusupov
said that Portisch had always been excep-
tional in such situations.

22 Se1!!

Frit% was the only to find this move,
but still we should not overestimate the
program. It was at no point clear that it
desired to create a passed pawn, rather it
wanted to play a2-a4 and then Sxa3. For
tactical reasons — a hanging knight on b.3
— this was logical, but it would be even
more logical to move the knight and

then push the a-pawn. In the game the a-
pawn assured Portisch of a slight edge,
which he managed to convert to a full
point due to the weak defence of his
opponent.

22...Sa8 23 Sal

23...&ed5 24 a3

24 a4! is principally better, as Black is
forced to take the pawn en passant.

24...ЬхаЗ

24...'^>e7!? 25 £ld4 and White is a little
better. Still, Black should think about
bringing the king into the game.

25 £d2!

25... 4ib6

25...Sa5 26 £lce4 JLd3 27 Sxa3 Sxa3
28 ЬхаЗ also gives White a very slight
advantage with the distant passed pawn.
26 ЬхаЗ Jed 5 27 a4 Ha5?

This allows White to win several
tempi. It was time to include the king in
the defence with 27...Фе7 after which
Black would still have reasonable draw-
ing chances.

28 JlxdS cxd5

28...Hxc5 29 JLf3 Sa5 30 JLxc6 and
Black is probably lost.

29 ftdb3 Sa7 30 a5 £ibd7 31 £>d3

31...^b8 32 2>d4 *?3fd7 33 ПаЗ дб
34 £ib4 2ie5?

Black was probably in time trouble
here. 34...<$3c5 was better, though White
remains with an advantage.

35 a6! ^c4 36 Sa2 £ib6?

36...^3d6! was forced, though Black is
on the verge of losing.

37 2ib5 Sa8 38 a7 £i8d7 39 2ic7
1-0
CHAPTER SIX

Test Position 4

Sten Vesterli
1 Wg5

Test Position 4

White to move. Take 10 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards. This is a pure calcu-
lation exercise. The idea is to find the
strongest continuation and then to write
down your main line afterwards.

I have already used this position once
in a previous book, Excelling at Combina-
tions. I hope that those readers who have
seen it there, will have happily forgotten
the solution. As an exercise it proved
perfect for this experiment.

Sten was sure Black would answer...

1...2)e8

when he wanted to play

2 Af3
to clear the way for the d-pawn.

be able to do in order to prevent mate.’

Sidsel Heeg

1 Sxg7+ ФТв’ог ФЬ8. Taking on g7
fails due to 2 JLh6+ ФхЬб 3 Wxf6.’

Ivo Timmermans

1 Пхд7+ Фхд7 2 ±h6+

‘Oh no, then you can use the bishop
as a defender. I had not considered this.’

‘After 1 Hxg7 &f8 I was thinking
about 2 Wxf6 or 2 .ih6.’

Tom Skovgaard

1 Sxg7+ Фхд7 2 £h6+ ФхЬб 3

#xf6+ Ддб

4 g4 Wa5 5 h4 Wa1+ 6 &f2'and I
think Black is mated.’

Peter Skovgaard

'1 2xg7+ Фхд7 2 JLh6+ ФхИб 3

Ixf6+ ±g6 4 g4 Wa5 5 h4 Wa1 + 6

ФТ2 and T do not see what Black would

2...ФхЬ6

‘2...ФЬ8 and mate in two, or 2..J&g8 3

Wxf6 and mate on g7.’

3 Wxf6+ Фдб 4 g4 Wa5 5 h4

‘And now 5...Wal+ 6 ci>f2 wins. So:’

5...Hc5
6 dxc5 »xc5+ 7 &f1 'with the un-
stoppable line threat of 8 g5 mate.’

Peter Heine Nielsen

1 Дхд7+ Фхд7 2 JLh6+ &xh6 3

Wxf6+ i_g6 4 g4 Wa5 5 d5 #xd5 6
h4

‘and White wins.’

Peter decided not to play 5 h4 because
of 5...Sc5 6 dxc5 Wxc5+ 7 ^fl Wgl+

8 ^xgl stalemate.

Jesper Hall

1 Пхд7+ Фхд7 2 £.h6+ &xh6 3

Wxf6+ Адб 4 д4 Wa5 5 h4 Дс5 6
g5+

‘I tried to find an improvement on
this, but could not really find anything.
Therefore I go for a perhaps slighdy bet-
ter endgame.’

6...Sxg5+ 7 Wxg5+ Wxg5+ 8
hxg5+ &xg5 9 Axc4.

Artur Yusupov

Artur suggested the following line:

1 Дхд7+ Фхд7 2 Ah6+ &xh6 3
Wxf6+ ±g6 4 д4 Wa5 5 h4 Ec5 6
Wh8

With the evaluation that White is win-
ning. After the light-squared bishop
moves, Artur wanted to play 7 Wf8+ and
8 Wxc5 with an extra pawn.

Fritz 8

Mathias: ‘Frit% sticks to the main line
which it found after 2 sec.’ The main line
here is simply 1 Sxg7+ ^xg7 2 Ah6 +
&xh6 3 Wxf6+ ig6 4 g4 Wa5 5 h4
Sc5 6 Wh8 Ae4 7 Wf8+ and Fri%
takes the material, claiming a winning
position.

Proposed solution
Test Position 4

Kushnitzky.

This position is based on the game

Stern-Kushnitzky

Russia 1952

about candidate moves. This one, which
is about visualisation in long lines, and
no.8, which is about decision making in a
confusing tactical position.

Here White has a typical attacking pat-
tern in 1 Sxg7+! &xg7 2 Ah6+!
&xh6 3 Wxf6+ jLg6 4 g4 Wa5 5 h4
and seemingly there is no defence against
the threat of g4-g5 mate. Even to see this
far can prove difficult for 2350-players,
who are not experts on tactics. Weaker
players with a tactical gene can find this
position pretty easily. But I doubt that
many would be able to see the defence
found by Kushnitzky.

5...Sc5!!

There are three hardcore calculation
exercises in this book. No.l, which is

This clever defence looks like a refuta-
tion of the white attack. After 6 dxc5
Wxc5+ 7 <4>fl Wgl+! 8 &xgl Black is
stalemated. This was what actually hap-
pened in the game. Previously to this
Black had removed his pawn from a6 to
make this work. But a closer look at the
position makes it apparent that White in
no way has played all his trumps.

There is an important rule to attacking
chess: If your opponent succeeds in pre-
venting your primary attacking idea, this
often happens on the cost of something
else. So do not abandon the attack,
rather investigate the arising position (in
advance of course), and see if new possi-
bilities have arisen.

Here new possibilities have indeed
arisen, and White can attack the trapped
black king in a new way with:

6 Wh81!

And there is no real defence against
the check on f8. Actually Avni, who in-
cluded this game in his wonderful book
Creative Chess, did not find this move. I
highly recommend this book to anyone
who feels that they can make solid ordi-
nary moves, but lack the ability to see
truly exceptional possibilities. A game

could now continue with:

6...^.e4

6...JLd3 7 JLxd3 cxd3 8 Wf6 mate.

7 Wf8+ Фдб 8 Wxc5

Due to the threats against the black
king, there is no way he can avoid the
exchange of queens.

8..>xc5

8..>al+ 9 &f2 f6 10 h5+ &h6 11
g5+! with a mating attack.

9 dxc5 i.d5 10 &f2 &f6 11 ФеЗ
Феб 12 g5!

And Black is in zugzwang, as all
moves will worsen his position. One of
them is:

12...^.e6 13 сб ФЬб 14 ФВ4 and
Black will inevitably lose.

In the game Black had an extra pawn
on a6 and did not have a stalemate com-
bination. But after executing the combi-
nation White wandered around the play-
ing hall, and did not notice that the pawn
had left the board when he returned.
After which he stalemated his opponent.
After having had his fun Kushnitzky
explained to his choked opponent what
had happened, and resigned the game.
CHAPTER SEVEN

Test Position 5

Test Position 5

Black to move. Take 6 minutes to find
the strongest continuation, talking into a
microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Sidsel Heeg

‘At first it looks very complicated. Maybe
it is possible to use the open c-file for
something. I need to take a stand con-
cerning the possible exchange of queens.
Stay or go now?’

‘It is not possible for White to play 1
Scl , which otherwise would be uncom-
fortable.’

‘It is a bit sad to exchange queens this

early, but it would also be sad to have to
elope.’

‘Here f4 would be a good square for
the knight, but g3 is irritating. This
would of course weaken the king a little
bit, though it is limited how much im-
portance this has, as 1 have no light-
squared bishop. It would expose f3 and
h3. The question is what to do with the
queen. My first idea is just to let it stay
where it is. If he takes I will get my rook
to the second rank, and I will not lose
any time in the process.’

‘My dark-squared bishop is not that
well placed, but right now there are no
better places for it. l...JLxa3 unfortu-
nately does not work.’

‘c5 is a strong square. It can be occu-
pied by the bishop or the knight.’

‘Maybe 1..Лс4 in order to put pressure
on the e4-pawn. But it gives White some
ideas with moving the queen and letting
the X-ray of the bishop come alive.’

Time up.

‘I had decided to play 1...^3h5, but
then I realised a few seconds ago, that he
can take the knight. If I have to commit
to a move now, I will play 1 ...Sc4.’
(this is incidentally a blunder, as 2
Wxc4 picks up the rook.)

Peter Skovgaard

‘It is a not a very pretty pawn structure
Black has managed to get. But on the
other hand he has been able to penetrate
with his queen into the white position.
And this I might be able to exploit by
getting the heavy pieces into action. But
first I want to check if anything is hang-
ing and how the position is generally. At
least it is even material.’

“What does White want to achieve?
He probably wants to get his rooks into
play. So probably he is scheming to reor-
ganise his dark-squared bishop and then
get the rooks onto the c-file. So, let me
see if this is possible.’

‘If l...(?3xe4 2 Wxc2 Sxc2 3 Ad3.’

‘It does not look too cool, but maybe
I have something poisonous. Maybe
3...Sxf2 followed by 4...Ac5.’

‘4 Axe4 Ac5 5 ФЫ he might play,
and I might reply 5...f5 and after he
moves the bishop I can play maybe play
6...e4. His d-pawn might be weak, but on
the other hand it might also become
dangerous. His light-squared bishop
seems to be a little bit trapped. Where is'
it going? I might be able to... No, let me
start all over.’

‘1...^3xe4 2 Wxc2 Sxc2 3 Ad3 Hxf2 4
Axe4 Ac5 5 ФЫ f5.’

‘Now, where will he go with his
bishop? Or to say it differently — where
can he go? He has 6 Ad3 and 6 Af3. If
he plays 6 Ad3 then 6...e4 then 7 Ac4 is
forced, as he will be mated at the bottom
rank or lose the bishop. Well, no he can
play 7 Afi, but then maybe I have 7...e3
and T might be able to trap his bishop in
some mean way. Then he plays 8 Sei,
maybe. I can then play 8...F4 or maybe
8...Se8, which looks even better. Now
where can he go to prevent 9...e2. He
might be able to play 9 Ad3. There has
to be something better than this.’

‘1...^3xe4 2 Wxc3 Sxc2 3 Ad3 Sxf2 4
Axe4 Ac5 5 ФЫ. What then?’

‘Maybe the mean 5...Sxb2 6 Sxb2
&d4, but on the other hand this gains
little. So it is not much fun.’

‘Maybe it is possible to play... Well,
maybe the sacrifice is not that great. It
just looks so tempting.’

‘I...£bce4 2 Wxc2 Sxc2 3 JLd3 what
then?’

“Well ... 3...Sxf2 4 £xe4 £.c5 5 Ф>Ы
f5 6 JLd3 e4 7 JLfl, then maybe 7...Sc8.’

occupied by Black now, and Hcl is not
possible because of Wxb2.’

‘Black’s king is open because of the h-
file. The white queen could quickly come
to h3, if it was not for the bishop on e2.’

‘There is a possible exchange of
queens. It might be an advantage to ex-
change. If he exchanges the bishop on e2
will be hanging. So he needs to do some-
thing. Then 1 would protect my rook
with the other rook. There are not really
any weaknesses in his position.’

‘Ixit me see. I have an unprotected
pawn on b7, but it does not seem to be
in danger. 1 cannot move my bishop.
Well, the only square would be e7, if not
to blunder the queen.’

‘Would I want to initiate an exchange
of queens? No, he recaptures with his
bishop.’

“What about the knight on f6? If I take
on e4? It looks as if it works. If he
threatens me with the bishop, where can
the knight go? It can return to where it
came from.’

‘If I take on e4, then he can exchange
queens, but that does not seem to be
dangerous. No! Then he has JLd3 and I
lose my knight.’

Time up.

1...ДС7.

“This looks all right. The two passed
pawns look quite hostile. What will he be
able to do?’

‘Yes. This will have to be it.’

1...£lxe4 played, with the intention
of 2 Wxc2 Exc2 3 Ad3 Hxf2.

Sten Vesterli

“Equal material. White has two bishops.
White has a passed pawn. Black has two
double pawns. The c-file is open; it is
Tom Skovgaard

‘Checking the position ... Materially it is
equal; however, White has the pair of
bishops. It does not immediately look as
if he has the advantage, as the pawns are
quite fixed. The bishop might not be
very active in this position. We have
dominance on the c-file. How can we
increase the pressure here. White is
probably threatening something like Пс1.
We need to activate both rooks in the c-
file.’

The knight is quite active on f6,
threatening the e-pawn. The bishop can
move to c5, threatening f2, especially if
there will be pressure on the seventh
rank.’

‘Oh. There might even be some tactics
here. What about 1...4Z)g4? No. Exchang-
ing the queens and ...£}g4? No. It does
not look as if it is a good idea to ex-
change queens. The bishops take all the
squares on the c-file and are simply too
strong.’

We need somehow to increase the
pressure here. Maybe by taking control
over b3. And at the same time prevent-
ing White from playing a4. Maybe simply
l...a4.’

e3. But if he does so I can exchange
queens and play ...ПсЗ. He will get a dif-
ficult position after l...a4. Is there any
problem with l...a4.’

‘2 f4 maybe? No, that is a silly move.’

‘Should I consider exchanging queens
first? l...Wxd3 2 JLxd3 a4. Threatening
...£)g4.’

‘He will have the bishop even if he
plays 3 f3 in order to protect e4-pawn.
Maybe I can even play 2...‘$3g4? No, it is
not interesting. The knight is not doing
anything there once I have exchanged
the queens.’

What else? Any tactics possible? No,
not here.’

‘Oh, can we take that pawn on e4?
1...^3xe4. What is the problem here?’

What can he do then? His bishop is a
problem. He needs to move it to cl and

‘Oh. 2 'Йгхс2 JSxc2 3 JLd3. It is a fork.
No, there are no tactics there.’
‘l...£)xc4 2 Wxc2 Пхс2 3 JLd3. Is
there a smart move here. 3...flxf2 maybe
worth a look.’

“No, he just takes the knight. It does
not work.’

‘I...a4, followed by ...Sc7 and the
other rook to c8, and ...Sc4 later. And if
he plays f3, then ...£)h5 and there is a
strong attack. Maybe even l...£3h5. Why
not? He plays 2 g3. No.’

1...^h5 2 g3

‘Nothing there. Then I just need to
play the knight to f6 again. I could also
consider advancing the g-pawn to g5 and
g4, but it is very slow.’

I vote for 1 ...a4.

Fritz 8

In this position Fnt^ changes his main
line all the time, with candidates as
l...Hfd8, 1...a4, l...g5 and so on. Then

l...Hc7.

Mathias: When Frit% does not under-
stand the position, it is because it does
not have all the accessible knowledge.
This means that the evaluation function
can be improved even more. The choice
of Frit? after 6 min. is l...Hc7, but it is
not a steady evaluation. The move .1 am
thinking of myself is 1...^3xe4, but of
course this is sacrificing material.’

We then tried 1 ...£fxe4, and Frit% gave
a similar evaluation, evaluation the move
as 0.33 of a pawn less than l...fic7. Over
time this drops to 0.25 of a pawn.

does have some understanding
of compensation,’ Mathias said,’but the
problem is that you cannot set it too
high. The difficult thing is to balance it.
If it is too high it will be too optimistic
about certain things. This is definitely a
thing we need to look at in the evalua-
tion function. Frit% should know about
this.’

We then looked through the lines after
l...‘53xe4, the evaluation increased to ’/г
of a pawn.This is obviously a position
Frif^ does not understand,’ Mathias
said.’lt is a position even I understand!
Something is wrong here ... a lack of un-
derstanding.’

Frit^ decided on 1 ...Hc7.
Jesper Hall

“The first thing 1 look at is, of course,
1...4ixe4, after which he will have to ex-
change the queens with 2 Wxc2 Дхс2 3
&d3. And now I have an interesting
move: 3...йхЬ2 4 ПхЬ2 ^3c5.’

Then I have one pawn for the ex-
change. I can play ...e4, I can play ...f5. 1
would go for this after one second, for
sure.’

‘I love this kind of exchange sacrifice.
But the question is if it is good. Jacob
wants me to analyse well, and 1 am trying
hard to be a good boy. This is difficult. I
have never been a good boy in my life.’

‘Alright. So, if he just consolidates he
will probably be ok.’

The other possibility might be taking
on d3 and following up with ...^3d7, and
put either the bishop or the knight on c5.

Black should be ok. Not worse at least.
But is he a little better. So maybe this as
well.’

‘But 1...^3xe4 2 Wxc2 Hxc2 3 JLd3.

Hmm. Looking for other moves.
3...Hxf2 4 JLxe4 JLc5 5 ^hl.’

‘Hmm.’

‘1...^3xe4 2 Wxc2 Sxc2 3 JLd3 £1c5.
No 3...Sxb2 4 йхЬ2 £ic5 and then ...f5.
I can play ...e4, the king to f7-f6. It looks
great.’

Take on e4, take, take, take, take ...’
(pause)

‘Yes I like that. Sacrifice!’

‘Another other possibilities? What are
the possibilities?’

‘l...Wa4 2 f3. He can always play the
move 13. 2...Sc2 does not make any
sense.’

‘I...£kl7 of course, but somehow I
does not like this. 2 Sbcl, sorry no, the
bishop.’

‘But still l...?ixe4. It looks most ap-
pealing. 2 Wxc2 2xc2 3 JLd3 Sxb2 4
Sxb2 ^cS. There are no additional pos-
sibilities as far as I can see. 3 JLd3 Sxb2
4 Sxb2 ^3c5. What happens after
4...<?3c5. He plays 5 JLc2, then the rook
on b2 looks a bit misplaced. So maybe 5
Jlfl, then 1 play 5...f5 and put the king
on f6.’
‘He can of course play 6 f3 and follow
with g4 in order to play on the kingside,
but I have moves like ...Eh8. I cannot
really see what White is doing in that
position. Black must be better.’

‘But I have never been very materialis-
tic. Not in my political views, not in my
life.’

‘I seem to lose focus now. Hmm.’
Time up!

1...&xe4.

Peter Heine Nielsen

‘1 think I have seen this position before
as well. This time I have also seen the
solution! (Peter here referred to exercise
2, where seeing the position before did
not help him at all!)’

‘I will evaluate it as if Black strategi-
cally has some problems, though I can-
not say how serious they are. It is not
completely obvious that White has a kil-
ler blow, were he to move.’

“The solution I remember is l...£)xe4
2 Wxc2 Exc2 3 JLd3 Exb2 4 Sxb2 ?ic5,
and it seems to be a satisfying solution to
the problems Black is facing now. He
can hardly be in any problems after this.
My evaluation is that he has good play
for the exchange. But if it is advantage is
a bit hard to say. With a bad light-

squared bishop it could be possible that
the position is actually promising, but
after all there is a double pawn on the b-
file. But I cannot believe that it is prob-
lematic for Black.’

‘An alternative I would consider is to
double the rooks on the c-file with a
move like l...Bc7 or l...Ec5.’

“What would be the problem of play-
ing l...Sc5!?. A tactical point with
l...Sc5 could be 2 Wxc2 Exc2 3 JLd3
Ed2 with counterplay.’

‘His problem is that 2 Eel is never
possible, as the JLb2 is hanging.’

‘Desperate measures as f2-f4 should
be considered, but even ...Ef8-e8 works
against this. So I cannot really see a posi-
tional threat for White here.’

‘1 would like to play the exchange sac-
rifice, mainly because this is what I re-
member, but I am not really certain that
White has an advantage if it is not
played. But on the other hand then the
exchange sacrifice is certainly promising,
and 1 would actually think that Black has
the best practical chances. And after
doubling the rooks on the c-file there is
nothing resembling winning chances, so
l...‘$3xe4 is definitely a try for the full
point.’

1 ...£lxe4 executed.
Ivo Timmermans

Ivo’s answer to this exercise is taken
from the email he sent me in 2002, when
he participated in my positional training
program. This program is illustrated in
the book Excelling at Positional Chess,
where this exercise is also to be found.

‘Structure: Open c-file, pawns on the
queenside fixed and static. White can in
the long run steer for breaking with £2-f4
to activate the JLb2. Black has an excel-
lent outpost on c5 and can possibly at-
tack the centre with ...f7-f5.’

‘Activity: The exchange of queens
seems inevitable and an attempt to avoid
the swap by l...Wa4 2 f3 puts Black’s
queen in an awkward position. Black
would like to move into an endgame if
he can stabilise the pawn structure. Oth-
erwise the white bishops become too
active. Ae2 is the worst piece on the
board.’

“The logical move is 1...4lxe4 hitting
the basis of the pawn chain. This se-
quence is forced: 2 Wxc2 Дхс2 3 JLd.3
ПхЬ2 4 йхЬ2 ^Зс5.’

‘Whether White covers the bishop or
retreats it, Black continues with ...4ld7 to
put the bishop on c5. Maybe Black plays

...f7-f5 prior to putting the bishop on c5.
A position has occurred in which White
has a horrible bishop and two inactive
rooks. It is very difficult to find a plan
for White. He will have to try to obtain
activity on the kingside. In the meantime,
Black plays ...f7-f5 and plays the king to
d6 covering the invading squares and
attacking d5. Black has active light pieces
and dominates the centre. Additional fact
is that the pawns on the queenside are
difficult to defend for White. Black has
all the fun.’

1...^xe4

(20 minutes).

Artur Yusupov

‘Artur was uncertain about the evalua-
tion of the position, but thought that
Black at worst was very slighdy worse.
He decided on 1...^3xe4, aiming at the
exchange sacrifice, with the explanation
that it was simply too tempting. He was
not sure that Black was actually better
after this, but the mere attraction of the
playing the position arising from the ex-
change sacrifice was enough for him to
go with it.’

1...^xe4.
Proposed solution
Test Position 5

Miles-Korchnoi
Lugano 1989
Queen's Gambit Declined

1 4}f3 e6 2 c4 2rf6 3 d4 d5 4 £>c3
ie7 5 Wc2 sLc6 6 e3 0-0 7 a3 dxc4
8 Ixc4 id6 9 b4 e5 10 d5 2ie7 11
Ab2 aS 12 b5 £f5 13 e4 Jkg6 14
fth4 <53c8 15 £)xg6 hxg6 16 £ia4
2>b6 17 -!xb6 cxb6 18 Ec8 19
Wd3 Wc7 20 0-0 Wc2 21 Sfb1

Exb2

Too optimistic is 23...ZLxf2 24 JLxe4
JLc5 25 ФЬ1 f5 26 JLd3 e4 when White
should have the advantage after 27 Jtc4!
He8 (27...f4 28 d6+ ФЬ7 29 JLe5 seems
to be winning for White) 28 a4 e3 29
JLc3 and the passed pawns cannot fully
compensate for a piece. In this position
compensation is the best Black can ever
hope for, which is contrary to the ex-
change sacrifice where White is trying to
equalise.

24 Sxb2 5ic5

In this position Black has many good
moves, and most have been mentioned
above by the players. 21...Дс7 is proba-
bly the best non-committal move. How-
ever, this exercise is, in my point of view,
quite simple. The JLe2 is not very strong
and has little potential, while the JLb2 is
White’s best minor piece. Therefore the
exchange sacrifice in return for a big cen-
tre is quite logical. An important point
here is that opposite-coloured bishops is
a big plus when we are talking about ex-
change sacrifices. Probably something
that could help improve Fritzs evalua-
tion of the position.

21...&xe4! 22 Wxc2 Sxc2 23 £d3

Black already has compensation and is
perhaps even a little better. Either way,
the position is harder to play for White
in practice. Neither his bishops nor his
rooks have any good squares. The game
now continued:

25 £c2 Sc8

The alternative try 25...f5!? is possible,
but this might give White a sense of pur-
pose, as the pawn chain can be attacked
with £3 and g4, and in this way revitalis-
ing the JLc2. So Black is doing the logical
thing: First improve your strongest piece!
This is the endgame and these things
count!!

26 Se1 ?3d7 27 a4 <£f8 28 g3 f5 29
f3 &f7
30 Фд2

30 g4!? was more optimistic, but
White still seems to have too little poten-
tial activity.

ЗО...Пс4 31 Ha2 2>f6 32 Hd1 Фе7
33 Hd3 ФЬ7 34 Hd1 2c5 35 £b3
Zc3 36 £c2 жс5 37 Sd3 Sc4

45 Zcc2 *?ie3+ 46 ФЬЗ 2>xc2 47
Zxc2 Eb4 48 Sa2 id4 49 Фд2 ФЬ2
50 h5 ФЬ4 51 Ф42 ФсЗ 52 ФеЗ
ФЬЗ 53 £f7+ Фс2 54 g4 ФсЗ 55
Фдб Фс1+ 56 Фе2 Фд5 57 if 5
Zd4 58 Фдб ФЬ4 59 Af5 Zd3 60
Фе1

38 d6 е4 39 fxe4 fxe4 40 ФЬЗ Sb4

41 ПсЗ Фxd6 42 Ь4?! Фе5

42...£d4! was stronger.

43 £f7 Zb1 44 £xg6?

Here 44 ФЬЗ! <2kl5 45 Zc4 kept the
disadvantage to a minimum.

44...&d5

Now Black is just much better.

6O...Hd4

Easier was 60...Ha3! 61 йхаЗ ФхаЗ 62
JLxe4 Фха4 63 Ф01 ФЬЗ 64 JLc2+ ФсЗ
65 JLa4 ФЬ4 66 JLc2 а4 winning.

61 Фе2 еЗ 62 ф{3 Zf4+ 63 Фд2
2d4 64 ФТЗ ФЬЗ 65 Ха1 Zf4+ 66
ФдЗ Hf2 67 Фв6+ ФсЗ 68 Пс1 +
ФВ4 69 ФИЗ е2 70 ФдЗ Zf1 0-1
CHAPTER EIGHT

Test Position 6

with the king I have 2 Ф?3.’

Test Position 6

White to move. Take 8 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Sten Vesterli

The problem is obvious. Black has a
pawn more, a passed pawn on the move.
Then he has a doubled pawn.’

‘I also have a passed pawn, but it is
backward.’

‘My first thought is 1 Sb8. Then he
will protect it with the king.’

‘1 Hb8 at least prevents him moving
the pawn immediately. If he protects

‘But he can put his rook on f5 in order
to protect all the pawns. This rules out 1
Hf8 as well. But not 1 ...Hd6 2 s£?£3.’

‘He wants to put his rook behind the
b-pawn and I want to put my rook in
front of the pawn, but can I make it all
the way around?’

‘1 am further behind with my h-pawn.’

‘1 Hb8 (pause) Фс4 2 ФЬЗ Hd4.
(pause) 3 g.3.’

The question is if I should try to get
around with the rook, but it will take a
lot of time. There seem to be no tempi
to be won. 1 Sc8 does not stop the b-
pawn.’

‘It will have to be 1 Sb8 in order to
stop the pawn. My king cannot make it.’

‘I also have 1 g3. He cannot play

If he takes and I take with the king, he
has 2...Hg5+. Hmm.’

‘An alternative to 1 Hb8: 1 Sh4. Then
he can make it with the king. No 1 have
to use to the rook to stop the b-pawn. If
I can stop his pawn, then my own pawn
will be on the move.’

‘I cannot fear the f-pawns. It will have
to be 1 JIb8.’

‘1 g3 fxg3 2 <i’xg3 gives him an extra
passed pawn.’

It will have to be 1 Sb8.

Sidsel Heeg

This should be easy. I know from a
smart guy down my chess club that rook
endings are always drawn (Tarrasch’s old
statement). So it cannot be too difficult,

but...’

‘At first it seems like a good idea to
activate the rook. Black’s rook seems
more active, and he also has a passed b-
pawn. It is ready to run.’

‘Black’s king is more centralised. His
rook is more centralised. Maybe Black
can cut of the white king from reaching
the black pawn, (long pause)’

‘It looks rational to get behind the
black b-pawn with the rook before Black
puts his rook behind the pawn. Maybe
then there is a chance to get over there
with the king.’

To run with the h-pawn does not
look right The black pawn is further
advanced.’

‘Another idea is 1 Hc8 in order to pre-
vent the black king from assisting the
pawn.’ (long pause)

‘It seems like a good idea to play 1 h4
with the idea to prevent ...Sg5, so as to
free the white king from the defence of
the g-pawn. As long as the white rook is
where it is it protects the h-pawn.’ (long
pause)

‘Probably 1 h4 is not so stupid. It
cannot matter much if the h-pawn be-
comes weak. If it is possible to exchange
it for the b-pawn, everything would be
fine. Black’s extra pawn is after all a
doubled f-pawn.’

‘If it was possible to arrange this ex-
change and block the doubled pawn...’

Time up.

‘I would probably start with 1 Hb8,
but I also considered 1 Sc8 and 1 h4.’

‘I choose 1 Hb8 because it looks like
it is the move that pays most attention to
the b-pawn.’

Jesper Hall

‘Oh no, not a rook ending. I hate
these rook endings, just so you know.’

‘Okay, he has a passed pawn. He will
most certainly have a plan involving pro-
moting this pawn. I have problems as my
king is a bit too far from the pawn. It
looks as if I will have to sacrifice my
rook for the pawn and try to get com-
pensation with my own h-pawn, and in
that way make a draw. But the question

is how.’

‘Л normal move seems to be 1 Фй to
me, to get the king to grab the pawns, in
order to get counterplay on the kingside.
I think that after 1 ^£3 he will play.
Hmm. Maybe he can start by just helping
the b-pawn with the king, but there are
also 1...Фе5, which looks a bit odd. What
position would he like to have. I don’t
know.’

‘He has a very nice rook on d5,1 must
admit. 1 <&>f3 then 1 ...b4, just pushing the
pawn, (pause)’

T Ф13 Sf5 2 <i’g4 Hg5+. It is not so
easy actually.’

“Which other possibilities do I have
besides 1 Ф13. There is always 1 h4 to
just run with the pawn, but it looks too
slow. He might just play l...b4, threaten-
ing to play ...Sb5. It looks wrong.’

‘What else. 1 Hf8. Maybe. That might
be possible actually. Is 1 Ef8 a good
move. It might be. But l...Ztd6 looks
good. Aha, maybe he can play 1 Hf8
Фе4 2 Exf6 Sd2+ 3 ФН, maybe then
3...b4.’

“That looks dangerous to me.’

‘1...Фе4 2 Se8+ Фй 3 Sb8. Maybe 1
Sf8 is the best move after all. If he pro-
tects with 1...2d6 1 can play 2 Ф13.
Maybe that is the best move, 1 2f8.’
‘It is hard for him to make progress.’
‘1 Ш8 b4 2 Hxf6 b3 3 Hxf4+ ФсЗ.’

“That might be dangerous too. Maybe
1 Hb8 and then later Hb6.’

‘1 Hb8 is of course another option.’

Time up.

1 Sf8,’but 1 am not sure that it is the
best move.’

Peter Skovgaard

Well, the task here is to stop the b-pawn
and to promote one’s own h-pawn. The
problem is only how.’

‘Maybe it is possible to play 1 Eb8 to
get behind the pawn. But maybe it is
more important to take his f-pawns.
Maybe 1 Sh4 Ь4 2 2xf4+ ФсЗ 3 Sxf6
ЬЗ’

‘4 Sc6+ Ф^2 5 Sb6 ФсЗ 6 g4 Ь2.
Probably 5...Фс2 was preferable.’

‘Yes, it was. 6 g4 b2 7 h4 bl'tf 8 Sxbl
ФхЫ 9 h5 Фс2 10 ФеЗ ФсЗ И Ф£4
ФЬ4 12 g5 Фс5 13 h6 and he will not be
able to lose.’

‘But maybe there is something better?’

‘After 1 Hh4 he might be able to play

1...Фе4 to protect the pawn, but what
then against 2 g3.’

“Then he can play 2...Sf5.’
‘So maybe 1 Ф£3 first, then l...b4 2
&xf4 ЬЗ 3 ДЬ8 ФсЗ 4 g4’

‘and 4...Фс2 5 Ь4 b2 6 h5 blW 7
йхЫ ФхЫ 8 h6 Фс2 9 h7 Hd8 10 ФВ
Фаз И Фх£6 Фе4 12 g5 ФГ4 13 g6 - it
looks like it is even winning.’

“But maybe he has other options.’

‘1 ФВ. 1...ДВ maybe. Maybe then 2
i)g4, no 2...Hg5+.’

‘1 ФВ Hf5 2 h4 b4 3 Фg4. It looks
pretty ok.’

‘1 ФВ Фе5 then 2 h4, and my rook
will easily stop the b-pawn.’

‘1 ФВ forces l...b4 then. So 2 Фх£4
then maybe 2...Фс4 3 g4 I will play.
Then after 3...b3 4 Eb8 he might play
4...Hb5 5 Sc8+ ФЬ4 6 Scl b2 7 Hbl
ФЬЗ 8 h4 Фс2 9 Hxb2 ФхЬ2 10 h5 Фс2
11 h6 ФОЗ 12 h7 Hb8 and then I can
play...’

‘1 ФВ b4 2 Фх£4 Фс4 3 g4 ЬЗ 4 Hb8
Hb5 5 Sc8+ ФЬ4 6 Пс1 Ь2 7 Hbl ФЬЗ
8 h4 Фс2 9 НхЬ2 5хЬ2 10 Ь5 Ф03 И
Ь6 Фd4 12 h7 Hb8’

‘13 ФВ Ф05 14 Фх£6. Yeah.’

1 ФТЗ.

Ivo Timmermans

“This is a rook ending where White is a
pawn down, which is not that bad, as it is
a double f-pawn. The real worry is the fa-
pawn, the passed pawn Black has, which
is supported by his king. This means that
White will have to either go with his king
to the queenside, which is not likely, or
that he will have to seek counterplay on
the kingside and then later sacrifice his
rook for the b-pawn.’

‘1 /it me just start by looking at what
Black is threatening. The obvious threat
is ...b4 and ...Hb5. 1 want to keep my
rook active as White, so I should not
allow that. Another threat is possibly
...Hc5 and ...ФсЗ, trying to support the
pawn. It takes four moves for the fa-
pawn to queen. It takes 1-2-3 moves to
support it (Ivo here talks about getting
the king to the first rank, 1 suppose -
J.Aa.). So it is more likely that he plays
...Фс4, ...b4 and ...Hc5, if possible.’

‘Now what is my plan? With my king I
could go for the f-pawn. 1 could for in-
stance play 1 Ф£3. Another plan for
Black, which I think I should mention, is
...Фе4 and then ...Sd4 and ...b4, playing
on both wings. So my plan is to seek
counterplay on the kingside. I think that
if I move my king to the queenside I will
have problems.’

“There are some candidate moves.
First of all a king move could be interest-
ing. 1 Фе2 to go to the queenside. 1 Ф13
to pick up the f-pawn, and try with g4
and h4 to create a passed pawn. Then
there are also rook moves. There is 1
Hh4, but looks a bit silly. 1 will look at
that in a minute. 1 Ec8 is possible to cut
off the king. 1 Eb8 is also a possibility to
be considered.’

“Now let us start with the rook moves,
as they appear to be more interesting.’

‘Now first, 1 Ec8. What can Black do?
Either l...b4 or 1...Пс5. Let me look first
at the pawn ending — should I exchange
rooks. With the pawn on b5 it takes 4
moves to queen. The h-pawn is relatively
unthreatened. And also the black king
has problems getting to h8. So I can play
1 Ec8 forcing... Hmm. But then of
course Black does not play l...Hc5, but
l...b4.’

‘Passive defence is not very attractive

then. Though I could play Ф13 and Eel.
If he plays ...Eb5 then I can always give a
check later on and take the pawn. A
check on dl or el and win the f4-pawn,
which immediately gives me some op-
portunities with the passed pawn on the
kingside. So 1 Ec8 is a serious move. Let
me just check 1 ...Ec5 2 Exc5 Фхс5 3 h4
ah, 3..^d6 is winning.’

‘4 Фе2 Фd7 5 Фd2 Феб 6 Фс2 ФВ is
winning for Black. So I cannot exchange
rooks. 1 Ec8 Ec5 and then ...ФсЗ and
Black is close to winning.’

T Eh4 aiming to take on f4 with
check is another idea. 1 ...Фе4 2 g3 Ed2+,
no, this is not a good line.’

‘Also l...b4 2 Hxf4+ ФсЗ 3 Exf6. Aha,
this is actually two pawns. I should be
able to hold this if I can sac the rook. So
what do you do? I...b4 2 Exf4+ Фе5 3
Exb4, so 1...Фе5, then maybe I have a
check on h5, 2 Eh5+, but it is a lot of
rook moves just to get the king back.
1...Фе5 2 Eh8 and Black has to start
playing more slowly with 2...b4 and
3...Ed4’ (presumably after the move 3
Eb8-J.Aa.).

‘So after 1 Hh4 the critical move is
probably 1...Фе4. I then play 2 g3 then
he has 2...Ed2+. I will play 3 Фе1 then
З...ФеЗ and 4 Exf4.’
“That should be a draw as well. So 1
Sh4 should be an attractive move. There
are silly moves like l...Hf5. Hmm.’

“Then I can play 2 Фе2 or 2 Ф13. This
is a bit silly. So let me look at the king
moves. They arc probably a bit more
useful.’

‘1 <&>£3 is interesting, simply trying to
play 2 Фх£4. Can you defend the f4-
pawn. No, not really. 1...Фе5 2 Де8+, I
think, no, 2 Hh5+ £5 3 Sh8 and then
Black has a problem.’

‘1 Ф£3 Фе5. It is a bit...’

‘So l...b4 is the move, of course. 2
Hb8 Фс4 followed by ...ДЬ5. 3 h4 Sb5,
that’s got to be a mess.’

‘1 Ф13. He cannot defend the f-pawn,
so I should go with the b-pawn, which is
met with 2 Hb8 ФсЗ and then if 3 Фх£4’

‘then he has 3...Hd4+ and ...b.3 and

...Hb4, winning a valuable tempo. So 1
Ф13 is probably not good.’

“What I can do is probably 1 Фе2, but
then 1...Фс4 is strong.’

Time up!

‘I have not looked at 1 Hb8 so far,
which might be interesting. I have
looked at the candidates 1 Hh4, 1 Hc8, 1
ФВ and 1 Фе2. I like 1 Hh4 best, but it
looks like a silly move.’

1 Hh4 executed.

Tom Skovgaard

‘So White is one pawn down in a rook
ending. However Black has a doubled
pawn, but still a remote passed pawn on
the b-file. Л very annoying pawn. Black’s
position looks strong. Our only hope is
the h-pawn, 1 think. The king is close to
one of the f-pawns. So if we could win
the b-pawn, we would have an easy
draw, but of course he can protect the fa-
pawn with the king. We probably need
to play actively here, probably with the
h-pawn, if we are not just to lose here.
So, is there anything we need to prevent
here? Or should we just move the pawn
to h4? h4-h5-h6-h7. One-two-three-four.
Black goes down to queen. He can move
his king to c4, so when I put my rook on
b8, he can put his rook at b5. And then
he will queen easily.’

‘Can we bring the king to the b-pawn?
No, he will just play 1...ФсЗ. That looks
bad. The king will just be cut off.’

‘Maybe we need some initiative. 1 Eb8
is obvious, but it docs not threaten any-
thing. 1...Фс4 and Black wins, probably.
Maybe 1 Sh4 threatening to capture the
f4-pawn with check? What can Black
do?’

‘1...Фе4 or l...Sf5?’
“The rook blocks our pawn. It does not
look right. We can play 1 Ф13 and take
the f-pawn, but he wins the race. 1 Sb8
looks right. Maybe we can move the rook
round to the a-file? 1 Sa8-al-bl. No.’

‘Ok. T>et us take the line. 1 h4 b4 2
Sb8 Фс4 3 Sc8+ Ф-somewhere 4 Scl’

‘4...b4. No, that’s already played. 4..ФЬ2

5 Shi ЬЗ 6 h5 Фс2 7 h6 b2 8 h7 Sd8.’

“This is complicated.’

‘Once again. 1 h4 b4 2 Sb8 Фс4 3
Sc8+ &d3, of course, 4 Scl ЬЗ. This
looks bad. This is a bad line. Now he is
winning. 1 h4 b4 2 Bb8 Фс4 3 Sc8+
&d3 4 Scl ЬЗ.’

‘Nothing.’

‘So maybe we need to move the king
anyway to prevent ...Ф^З. No, it cannot
be true. This looks hopeless.’

T h4 b4 2 Sb8 Фс4 3 Ec8+ &d3. Is
there anything here. Oh yes. З...ФМЗ 4
Sb8. He needs to return to the c-file
with his king. 4...ФсЗ. And then. 5 Sc8+.
Okay. So he needs to go to the b-file.
5...ФЬ2. No. We cannot advance the h-
pawn. Let us take the other line.’

T h4 b4 2 h5 ЬЗ 3 h6 b2 4 Sb8 ФсЗ 5
h7.’

‘Now maybe we will make a draw, tak-
ing each other’s pawns. So Black needs
to improve somewhere. 1 h4 b4 2 h5 b.3
3 h6 Sh5 4 ДЬ8. No. 4 h7 and he cannot
find shelter from the check. This is great,
we have a draw. I think simply advancing
the pawn down the h-ftle is right. Yes.’

Tom went for 1 h4.

When we played through the line af-
terwards, Tom at first went for l...b4 2
h5 b3 3 h6 2h5 4 h7 b2 5 Sd8+ ФсЗ

6 h8W?? but immediately understood
his mistake.

Peter Heine Nielsen

“White is in obvious problems. My task
will be to try to find a way to make a
draw. The trump you’ve got is the h-
pawn. (pause)’

‘My first idea would be 1 Ф{3,’

‘as I think it would be a good idea to

take the f-pawn, as the drawing resources
would increase once White has an extra
pawn on the kingside. Of course it could
be said that it is in no hurry to go for the
f-pawn, but it could also be hard to find
another good move.’

‘It could be possible to play 1 Sb8’

‘where I presume that 1...ФсЗ or
maybe even 1...Фс4 is not something
you wish for. But then of course 2 ФЕЗ
is possible.’

‘On 1 Ф13 then l...Sg5 should also be
considered, with the intention of playing
2...Sg3+. Then maybe I can attack the
other f-pawn, so maybe that is less rele-
vant. But that is just brain storming.’

“The most logical move should be 1
Sb8, as I see it, though 1 am not com-
pletely confident playing it. But let us at
least calculate it.’

‘1 ДЬ8 Фс4 2 ФfЗ, maybe, and now I
would think that 2...b4 3 ФхЕ4 ДЬ5 4
Дс8+ ФdЗ would work for White. It
looks like you arc in time with your
counterplay, but of course the lines are
very sharp. So it should be evaluated
accurately.’

‘But again, playing 1 Sb8 directly is
maybe not that important. But 1 Ф£3 b4
(pause) then I would probably have 2
ФхЕ4 as I have 3 Sd8+ and 4 Hdl (on
2...Hb5 -J.Aa.).’

‘Another move which you could typi-
cally consider is 1 Sc8 to cut off the
king, but l...Hc5’

‘So if 1 h4 works tactically...’ (pause)

‘On 1 h4 1 begin to fear a move like
1...Фе4, because I cannot see a problem
for Black. So 1...Фе4’ (long pause)

‘and it seems as it only helps Black.’

Then there is also the possibility of
advancing the h-pawn immediately with
1 h4. Then l...b4 looks like the logical
choice. You have to continue what you
have started with 2 h5 b3 3 h6 b2 4 Sb8
ФсЗ. This seems to work. 5 h7 Sh5’

‘I am leaning towards playing 1 h4
currendy. Due to reasons of principle it
is a move I do not feel comfortable with.
But I am uncertain about the other posi-
tions, with the rook on b8.’

‘My point is that if I have a pawn on
h7 and he has his rook on h5, then even
if he gets his b-pawn close to the promo-
tion, I will continue to be able to check
him and harass his king, and if he ever
departs from the b-pawn, I will be able
to exchange my h-pawn for his b-pawn,
and this will be a draw. So after 1 h4 I
cannot see any other way for him to play
for a win. For example 1...Фе4 2 h5
Sd2+ 3 ФН f3 4 gxf3+ ФxfЗ 5 Фе Г

‘and then it should be possible, as far
as I can see, to give a check, and then it
is a draw. 6 Hc8+ seems to be rather
much a draw, because it is always possi-
ble to threaten the b-pawn. So this could
of course be a tough try at saving the
position, so let us calculate it. (pause)’

‘1 h4 b4 2 h5 b3 3 h6 b2 4 Sb8 ФсЗ 5
h7 Eh5 6 Sc8+. This position is a draw.’
‘and though the position could be
won, I still have the resource of exchang-
ing one of the pawns to get a rook end-
game which is drawn, though I do not
feel completely confident about it.’

“Typically I would use more time to
calculate 1 Sb8, but with short time at
my disposal I would probably go for 1
h4.’

Fritz 8

When looking at this position Mathias
explained me the difference between
moves to mate and moves to conversion
into another winning position in the ta-
blebases. Because of the 50-move-rulc
moves to conversion is sometimes more
important than moves to mate.’But the
customers prefer moves to mate, so that
is what we go for.’

This is a typical position where Frit^
manoeuvres around avoiding pushing its
advantages (for Black) here, in order to
avoid a forced draw.

After 5 minutes Frit^ is stable on the
line with 1 h4 b4 2 h5 ЬЗ 3 h6 after
which Black invents all kind of strange
things in order to avoid a draw. For the
first 1 min. 13 seconds it prefers 1 ДЬ8,
but eventually comes around to a stable
support for 1 h4.

Artur Yusupov

Artur had two main candidates, 1 Hb8
and 1 h4. He started calculating 1 h4 and
quickly ended up the line given above a
few places: 1 h4 b4 2 h5 ЬЗ 3 h6 b2 4
ПЬ8 ФсЗ 5 h7 Hh5 6 Sc8+.

Without finding flaws in this line he
was convinced that it was right and that
the position was drawn in this way.

1 h4

Proposed solution
Test Position 6

Salov-Gligoric
Belgrade 1987
Nim^o-Indian Defence

1 d4 £)f6 2 c4 еб 3 ^сЗ ДЬ4 4 e3
c5 5 Ad3 <^c6 6 2>ge2 d5 7 cxd5
exd5 8 0-0 0-0 9 a3 cxd4 10 axb4
dxc3 11 b5 <?3e5 12 2ixc3 Wc7 13
Фе2 Zd8 14 Za4 b6 15 Zd4 ФЬ7 16
f3 Паев 17 Wa4 2ied7 18 Zfd1 £c5
19 Wa3 h6 20 £f1 Ze8 21 £ie2 Ze5
22 Hh4 We7 23 b4 ^cd7 24 Wxa7
^e8 25 Hh3 ^d6 26 Wa1 Sa8 27
Wb1 2ixb5 28 Wb3 Zc8 29 Hg3 Hc4
30 £d2 ^d6 31 2id4 Hc8 32 e4
Zh5 33 £f4 4he5 34 exd5 Wf6 35
ФеЗ &ec4 36 £f2 Axd5 37 Wb1
Ze8 38 Wc1 Zc8 39 Ze1 Ze5 40
Zxe5 <?fxe5 41 Wd2 JLc4 42 Фхс4
£>exc4 43 Wc1 (he5 44 Wd2 2>d3 45
Wxd3 Zc1+ 46 Фе1 Zxe1 + 47 &f2
Ze5 48 £>c6 ^e4+ 49 Фд1 Wxc6 50
fxe4 Zxe4 51 Wd8+ ФИ7 52 Wd2
Wc4 53 Zf3 f6 54 Wd7 Ze1 + 55
&f2 We2+ 56 ФдЗ We5+ 57 &f2
Ze4 58 Wd3 f5 59 h3 Фдб 60 Hg3+
ФИ7 61 Zf3 h5 62 Wd7 Фдб 63
Wc6+ Wf6 64 ПдЗ+ ФИ6 65 Wxf6+
gxf6 66 Sf3 Фдб 67 Sg3+ Ф17 68
Sf3 Феб 69 Ь5 Sb4 70 ФдЗ h4+ 71
&f2 f4 72 Sc3 Sxb5 73 Hc8 2d5 74
Sh8 b5 75 Sxh4 Феб 76 ДИ8 Фс!4

go deeper into that here. As we shall see
later Salov’s mistaken belief that this was
a way to get a draw is easily forgiven.

Another serious attempt to make a
draw is the less than obvious move 77
Hh4!?. This move proved difficult to
analyse correctly and though I have a
good feeling about the following analysis,
I would not want to deceive anyone and
call it conclusive. I believe that Black
wins, and in only one way, but I am only
95% convinced. Anyway, here are the
lines:

a)	77...Hf5 78 g4! Sc5 79 <&f3 b4

It is not difficult to find White’s objec-
tive. Being a pawn down in a rook end-
game hardly ever leaves you wishing for
anything else than a draw. And especially
here, where Black has such a beautiful
passed pawn. However defending the
position to a draw is difficult, and good
tries have shown to come short.

In the game Salov tried to equalise the
material with 77 Ф13?

but soon got into trouble after

77...b4 78 *xf4 b3 79 Hb8 ФсЗ 80

Sc8+ ФЬ4 81 Пс1. The game is con-
tinued in Test Position 9, so we will not

80 Sh6l! (80 Sh8 b3 81 Sb8 ФсЗ 82
h4 b2 and wins) 8O...b3 81 Sxf6 2b5 82
Sd6+ Фе5 83 Sdl b2 84 Sel+! (84 Sbl
Sb3+ 85 Фй2 Фd4 86 h4 Hg3+ 87 Ф£2
ФсЗ) 84..Ф^4 85 Hbl ФсЗ 86 Фxf4
Фс2 87 йхЬ2+ ФхЬ2 88 h4 ФсЗ 89 h5
Фd4 90 g5 Фd5 91 Фf5 with a draw.

b)	77...b4 78 Sxf4+ ФсЗ 79 flxf6 (79
fif3+ Hd3 80 Sxf6 b3 81 Sc6+ Фd2 82
Hb6 Фс2 83 h4 b2 84 Sxb2+ ФхЬ2 and
Black wins) 79...Sc5! (79...b.3 80 Ec6+!
ФЬ4 81 Йс1 Ь2 82 Sbl ФсЗ 83 Ф13
Фс2 84 йхЬ2+ ФхЬ2 85 Фе4 Sh5 86 g4
Sxh3 87 g5 Hg.3 88 Ф15 ФсЗ 89 g6 Фd4
90 Фйб) 80 Hb6! (80 g4 b3 81 Sb6 b2 82
ФgЗ Sc4 83 fixb2 ФхЬ2 84 Фк4 ФсЗ
85	Ф04 86 Ф£6 Фе4 and Black

wins) 8O...b3 81 Ф£3 b2 82 h4 Sc4 83
ДхЬ2 ФхЬ2 84 g4 ФсЗ 85 h5

and Black cannot make progress, as
85..?&d4 86 Ф£4! secures the draw and
85..ФЬ4 86 h6! is actually starting to get
a little dangerous for him!

с)	77...Фс5 78 fih8 2d2+ 79 Ф£3
Hd3+ 80 Ф£2 b4 81 ЙЬ8 b3 82 Hb4 and
I cannot see how Black should be able to
win this.

d)	The right move is 77...Фе4! 78
g3 Sf5 (78...Sd2+ 79 Фе1 ФеЗ 80 Sxf4
Hg2 81 h4 2xg3 82 2x£6! and White
draws) 79 Фе2 b4 80 &d2 b3
(80..ФВ 81 gxf4 Фё3 82 Hh6 Hx£4 83
h4 and White makes a draw) 81 ФсЗ
ФеЗ 82 gxf4 Sb5 83 ФЬ2 f5!

Black has lost his extra pawn, but for
activity. And the pawn is soon regained.

84 2h8 &xf4 85 h4 Фд4 86 h5 Фд5

87 h6 (87 Sh7 f4 88 Hh8 f3 and Black
wins) 87...Фд6 88 Фс1 Ь2+ 89 ФЬ1
Фд5 90 h7 Фдб

91 Sf8 ФхЬ7 92 Sf6 Фд7 93 Нсб
ДЬЗ 94 Sd6 f4 95 Hd4 f3 and Black
wins.

77 Sf8? does not work on account of
77...b4 78 Hxf6 b3 79 Hxf4+ ФсЗ 80
Hf8 b2 81 Sb8 Sd4 82 Sxb2 ФхЬ2 and
Black wins.

I jkewise with 77 Eb8?.

After 77...ФсЗ it is not possible for
White to run with his h-pawn anymore,
so his only choice seems to be 78 Ф£3
b4 79 &xf4 b3 80 Sxc8+ ФЬ4 81 Eel,
transposing to the main game and Test
Position 9.

77 Ec8? is well met by both 77...b4,
and the more devious 77...йс5! simply
improving the black position without
wasting any time at all.

‘Passed pawns should be pushed!’ 1
often felt like shouting to the chess-test-
dummies (though there is nothing dumb
about any of them; this expression cov-
ers what they were doing). The right so-
lution is to gain counterplay with the h-
pawn quickly, before the rook goes
astray in combat. The right line is there-
fore:

77 h4! b4 78 h5 b3 79 h6 b2 80

Eb8 ФсЗ 81 h7 Hh5

And now White can continue to give
checks, as Black cannot hide his king on
bl due to h8W winning. Therefore the
position is an immediate draw after 82
Ec8+.
CHAPTER NINE

Test Position 7

Test Position 7

White to move. Take 5 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Sten Vesterli

‘Materially there is balance. Pair of bish-
ops against knight and bishop. More
space on the queenside. 1 have a good
pawn chain. His knight is stuck. It needs
to retreat to get into the game, via d7.
Then he would threaten my b-pawn.’

‘His rooks are connected, mine are
not. My king is exposed on d2.’

‘If he takes on cl, then the king recap-

tures, then check. Then I lose a tempo.’

‘1 am interested in getting my rooks
connected and getting my bishop into
play. It must be on the queenside I have
to attack.’

‘If I capture his rook first then I lose
the open file. I can then play the rook to
cl to exchange the rooks. 1 would then
still have the pair of bishops. Maybe a
pawn move, he would not be able to do
much about that.’

‘If I played 1 b4?!. He is not really
threatening anything. I do not feel myself
under attack.’

‘1 could put my bishop on c4 in order
to prevent the exchange of rooks. He has
no reason to give up the exchange in
order to get rid of that bishop. 1 JLc4.
What then? l...£kI7 for example. Then
he is hitting on my pawn.’

‘If I take first.’ (long pause)

‘It must pay off to take on c8.’

1 Sxc8 executed and replied with
1 ...Sxc8 then 2 JLxa7 Sa8.

Sten said he had not calculated this
far, only seen that he could take the
pawn. Now he realised he would lose the
a2-pawn as well, and it was merrily an
exchange of pawns he had engaged in.

‘I am not that happy with this posi-
tion. 1 have two bishops, but the Ле2
cannot really get anywhere right now. And
e5 is a really good square for the knight.’

Peter Skovgaard

‘Black’s knight is not so well placed, but
it might go to d7 and e5, and this is pos-
sibly something he can prevent with 1
JLb5, which both connects the rooks and
prevents l...£k!7, but then maybe he has
1...a6 2£a4 b5.’

Sidsel Heeg

‘White needs to finish his development.
He has a weak pawn on b2. At the same
time no contact between the rooks, so it
would be nice to move the light-squared
bishop.’

Taking on b2 is worth consideration.’

‘Black’s dark-squared bishop could be-
come strong. Black has good squares for
his knight in the centre to compensate for
the two white bishops.’ (long pause)

‘It worries me that there is no contact
between the rooks. Black’s pieces are
well placed. I would like to get active to
compensate for this. Maybe finish the
development, or attack on the kingside.
(pause)’

Time up.

1 Ae2

‘It is possibly not so comfortable. And
after 3 JLb3 he has 3...^3d7, and it does
not look encouraging.’

‘So what else do I have of opportuni-
ties. Ixit me see if I have something after
1 &Ь5 a6.’

‘Or maybe I can play 1 JLd4.’

‘No, it does not look good. 1 JLb5 a6.’
(pause)

‘T cannot really find anything after 1
lb5 a6, so this is probably not it.’
(pause)

‘But ...£k:5 is not so dangerous. I will
be able to play f4 when it comes. But
maybe he will then have ...£3g4.’

‘So maybe 1 should play 1 $Le2 and on
1 ...£3d7 then 2 b4 protecting the pawn.’

‘Preventing ...£3c5, and if he plays
2...^3e5 I have 3 f4. And if he just wasted
his time 1 can advance my b- and a-
pawns. So 1 JLe2. I cannot see anything
else. And he does not have that many
super moves. So it looks fairly well.’

1 JLe2 executed.

Tom Skovgaard

‘Checking the position ... Equal material;
however, White has a pair of bishops.
Black has bishop and knight. Two rooks
and seven pawns. Symmetrical pawns.
Both players have a rook on the c-file.
However, we need to move the bishop if
we are not to lose the c-file.’

This is principally a bad bishop, but
the pawns can move, so maybe not that
bad after all. And Black has a strong
bishop on g7. The move 1 JLd4 springs
to mind to resist the pressure from this
bishop.’

‘However, it does not work because of
l...£3xe4+, a combinatorial refutation.’

The white bishop on fl, where can it
go? 1 JLd3? No.’

“What can we do here?’

“What happens if l...Hxcl 2 Фхс!
Bc8+ 3 <&d2 and we have no problems
apart from the b2-pawn, which is weak.
We can also move the king.’

‘1 Sc2 Hxc2 2 Фхс2 Hc8+ 3 ФЬЗ.
No, it does not look good.’

‘But if Black moves his rook maybe
his pawns will be weak. Maybe that is a
good plan. Maybe 1 Sxc8 Sxc8 2 JLxa7.
No he will play 2...2a8 and capture our
pawn. It is not good.’

‘What about his knight. Can we do
something on the kingside. 1 g4-g5 or 1
h4-h5. No. The knight goes to d7 where
there are several good squares to go
from. Let us not assist him with that.
What about 1 JLxa7 now. No. 1...Excl.’

What can we do. Move the rook per-
haps?’

‘Maybe 1 Йс2 Дхс2 2 Фхс2. Maybe it
is good. We are even threatening 3 JLd4.
2...Дс8+3 ФЬЗ. No. З...Дс1.’

“That is terrible.’

We need to move the fl-bishop
somehow. Oh. Maybe 1 g3. We can
move the bishop to h3. Why not. I>et us
have a look.’

‘1 g3 Дхс1 2 Фхс1 Дс8+ 3 ^d2 £k!7
4 ^.h3.’

“This is great. This looks great. This is
the right place for the bishop, I think.’

‘1 g3 ttxcl 2 Фхс! Дс8+ 3 &d2 &d7
4 JLh3 and next we can protect the fa-
pawn. This looks right.’

1 g3

Jesper Hall

‘My first thought is to take on c8 and
play g3, to put the bishop on that diago-
nal. That is my first thought. 1 Дхс8
Дхс8 2 g3...’

‘...then he can play 2...£kl7 3 JLh3.
There is of course a pawn on a7.’

‘1 Дхс8 Дхс8 2 JLxa7 Да8. 1 just
don’t like. No, 1 like to take on c8 and
play g3. It looks normal. The black
knight wants to go to d7 and to c5, that
is standard.’

‘1 2xc8 Дхс8 2 g3. Of course I want
to fight for the c-file, but what is the al-
ternatives. Hmm.’

‘1 JLe2 £k!7. Pu-hu. 2 b3. Something
like that.’

‘2...^b2.’

‘1 Дхс8 Дхс8 2 g3. if he plays 2...b6
here I will play 3 JLb5.’
‘It looks very normal to me.’

Take, take, g3.’

‘I seem to get stuck. But...’ (pause)

Well, I cannot see anything else. 1
would go for this for sure. 1 Bxc8 Sxc8
2 g3 to make the black knight bad. 1
would have liked to fight for the c-file.’

1 Sxc8.’I think White is clearly better
at least. The knight will be out of play. If
...e6, then he will have bad pawns.’

Ivo Timmermans

1 think I know the solution. The trick is
that White has the bishop pair and
queenside pressure, e.g. against a7 which
is hanging and which Black will have to
do something about. The only open file
is the c-file, which he would like to con-
trol. Now you control almost all squares
of it, up to c7, and the idea is that we do
not want to allow Black to play ...Excl,
so you will have to either develop the
bishop from fl or take on c8.’

“Now another issue is that Black wants
to develop his knight to d7 and c5 or e5,
and the most logical way to stop this is 1
Sxc8+ Hxc8 and then you play 2 g3,
preventing 2...£kl7, because this is met
with 3 JLh3. And if you then play 3...Hc7
then 4 JLxd7 Exd7 5 Eel with control
over the c-file.’

‘And the other thing is that after 1
Exc8+ Exc8 2 g3 you will have to waste
a tempo on defending a7, probably
2...a6. Just checking. 1 Exc8+ Exc8 2 g3
and after 3 JLh3 you have no sensible
squares to go to. If 2...a6 then you have
3...Bc7 when 4 JLb6 is coming,’

‘which is pretty annoying. And ...Ec4
is always met with b3, so you really have
to leave the c-file. If you do it voluntarily
after 2 g3 and 3 JLh3, then Eel is com-
ing, controlling the position.’

‘So this is the logical solution.’ 1
Exc8+ Zxc8 2 g3.T think that this
must be a winning position for White, as
you have pressure on the queenside and
you control the open file. You probably
have to open the position on the queen-
side with a4-a5 and b4-b5, keep your
king in the centre. You chase away the
black rook from the c-file, you put your
own rook on the c-file, but the bishop
back on fl and start to put pressure on
the queenside, creating entry points. So it
should be won.’

‘Conclusion: It is close to winning.’

Artur Yusupov

Artur exclaimed: This is nice! Two bish-
ops. I like this!’ Artur quickly deduced
that the position had arisen from the
Maroczy variation of the Sicilian. He also
immediately settled on 1 Sxc8 Sxc8 2
g3 as the right solution, seeing the same
line as Ivo Timmermans, 2...£kl7 3 JLh3
Hc7 4 i.xd7 Hxd7 5 Hcl. His thought
pattern was similar to that of Jesper Hall,
only it was clear that it was an experi-
enced teacher expressing his thoughts.

His evaluation of the position was that
White was clearly better and should have
good chances to win the endgame.

Fritz 8

Fri/% almost immediately decides on 1
Sxc8+ Hxc8 2 g3 Hc7 3 JLh3. This does
not change. Frit% is wondering whether
or not to play 3...a6 or 3...b6 (and even
shortly 3...a5). Eventually it settles on
3...a6, after which it thinks that the posi-
tion is circling around +1.00.

After executing 3...a6 Fritz continues
to believe that White is about a pawn
better in purely position advantage.

1 2xc8 +

Peter Heine Nielsen

I believe that this is a game 1 remember
from one of Mcdnis’ books, and his
point is 1 Дхс8+ Йхс8 2 g3 and 3 JLh3
to threaten Sc8, and then he takes over
the c-file, creates some weaknesses, ad-
vances the king and creates some weak-
nesses. This is how I remember his de-
scription. So this is what I want to do.

1 Sxc8+.

Proposed solution
Test Position 7

The position for this puzzle is known to
theory and arises after the following se-
quence.

1 e4 c5 2 7+3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 2>xd4
£>f6 5 f3 73c6 6 c4 &xd4 7 Wxd4 g6
8 7+:3 Jcg7 9 i.e3 0-0 10 Wd2 Деб
11 Sc1 Wa5 12 73d5 Wxd2+ 13
&xd2 &xd5 14 cxd5 Zfc8

This is probably the easiest exercise of
the ten at first glance, as finding the right
moves proved easy for all the players
with an Elo solidly placed over 2000.
The aim of the position is of course to
develop the kingside in the most smooth
manner. This means to find the best
square for the bishop and the best way
to place it there. As the bishop is not
controlling any important squares from
its present diagonal, the right square for
it is h3, from where it controls not only
c8, but also d7, as well as makes Black’s
future development difficult. Therefore
the right move is:
15Sxc8+!

Less precise is 15 g3 as after 15...3xcl
16 Фхс1 Black is not forced to give the
check on c8. Instead he has time to play
something like 16...e6!? 17 dxe6 fxc6 18
ФЬ1 ФГ7 19 ±h3 Фе7 20 Bel &d7
where he is only very slighdy worse.
Now after 21 Bdl Фе7 22 Scl &d7 23
Bdl Фе7 24 Scl the players simply
agreed a draw in Graf-Jergler, Bayern
2000. But it should be noted that this in
not GM Graf with White.

15...Bxc8

16 g3!

Now the bishop can quickly go to h3
and pin the rook, as Black only has one
good move right now. 16 JLxa7 Sa8 is
obviously not good for White, as the
black rook gets activity on the second

rank, and White has nothing to show for
this.

16...^d7!

Л terrible move was 16...b6?, weaken-
ing c6. Now White can change plans.
The following game is a good example
of the dangers Black is facing now. 17
.&b5 Sc7 18 b4 <5Td7 19 ^.xd7 Sxd7 20
Bel f5 21 Bc8+ ФП 22 &d3 Eb7 23 a4
e6 24 Фс4 fxe4 25 fxe4 exd5+ 26 exd5
Se7 27 Af4 Be4+ 28 ФЬ5 аб+ 29 Фхаб
Sxb4 30 JLxd6 Пха4+ 31 ФхЬб JLd4+
32 Феб Ва2 33 Ь4 Ь5 34 if4 Ваб+- 35
ФВ7 Ва7+ 36 Пс7 Ваб 37 Фс8+ Фf6 38
d6 Феб 39 Ве7+ 1-0 Gheorghiu-
Sibarevic, Bern 1990.

17 ФИЗ Вс7

The second part of the exercise was
evaluating the position. This proved to
be much more difficult for everyone,
including Prit% and even the author.
Originally when T found this exercise in
Dunnington’s excellent book, Can you be
a Positional Chess Genius (Everyman 2002)
it was my impression that White would
be a lot better in this position. Funnily
Dunnington does not even evaluate the
position, but simply gives the exchange
of rooks followed by 16 g3 as the solu-
tion. Anyway, looking through the games
has later convinced me that White is at
best slighdy better, and that Black should
be able to draw with correct play. Here
are some examples:

a) 18 Лс1!

It is my feeling that this line offers the
best chances.

18...	Sxc1 19 Фхс1 2>c5 20 Фс2

ECO has this position as clearly better
for White.

2O...a5 21 b3

White cannot prove a real advantage
as far as I can see.

21 Ad2 b6 22 ФсЗ e6 23 Фхё7 Фхё7
24 ФсЗ exd5 25 exd5 ^3a4+ 26 ФЬЗ b5
27 ФН 21c5+ 28 ФсЗ ^a4+ 29 Фс2 b4
30 ФЬ5 <53с5 with a fortress and a draw.

21 Фй e6 22 Фс4 Ф£8 23 аЗ a4 24
dxe6 fxe6 25 Фхс5 dxc5 26 Фхеб Ф04
27 id7 Фё1 28 h3 ФЬ2 29 g4 g5 30
Фха4 Фе5 and Black will make a draw.

21...Ф18 22 £.d2 b6 23 ФеЗ еб 24
dxe6 fxe6

25 аЗ?!

The best attempt was 25 Фхс5! dxc5
26 Фхеб ^.d4! 27 ФdЗ £gl 28 Фе2! (28
h3 ФЬ2 29 Фс4 Фе7 30 Ф05 ±xg3 31
ФЬ5 Фс7 32 Феб Ф08 33 f4 £xf4 34
ФхЬб JLd2 35 Фхс5 g5 36 аЗ h5 37 Ь4
axb4 38 axb4 g4 39 hxg4 hxg4 40 е5
with a draw) 28...g5 29 ФА ФеЗ 30 Фс4
and White actually has real chances here.
This is the best I have been able to find.

25...Фе7 26 b4 axb4 27 axb4 ^a6
28 ФЬЗ b5 29 f4 $)c7 30 Фн &d7
31 g4 Феб 32 h4 £te8 33 g5 d5 34
exd5+ exd5 35 Фс5 <53d6 36 ^.xd6
&xd6 37 ФхЬ5 Ф04 38 Jld3 Феб
39 h5 ФеЗ 40 hxg6 hxg6 41 Фхдб
’A-16, Bosch-Tischbierek, Germany 1997.

b) 18 £xd7 Hxd7 19 ЬЗ a6 20 Hc1
f5! 21 exf5 gxf5 22 g4 fxg4 23 fxg4
ФТ7 24 ФdЗ e6!

This shows that though Black is
worse, his position will never become
critical.
25 Hf 1 + Фе8 26 dxe6 3e7 27 Sf5
Sxe6 28 Sh5 h6 29 a4 Hg6 30 h3
&f7 31 5f5+ Феб 32 b4 £f6 33 b5
Фд5 34 Ьхаб bxa6 35 Sa5 ФхеЗ 36
ФхеЗ IIg5 37 Нхаб Дс5 38 Да8
Sc3+ 39 Ф14 Sxh3 40 2h8 У2-У2

Borgo-Vaulin, Paks 1999.

At the offices of ChessBase in Ham-
burg we got into a discussion about the
position after 19...a6 20 Пс1 in the latter
of the two tries.

It went something like this:

‘How can you explain that there is no
significant advantage?’ Mathias asked.

‘Because there is no goal,’ GM Rainer
Knaak explained.

‘1 understand that there are no weak-
nesses,’ Mathias said,’but how do I trans-
late this into an evaluation function?
White’s advantage is that b7 is a slight
weakness and he has control of the open
file. I understand very well that a weak-
ness is only a weakness if it can be at-
tacked, but you cannot put this into the
evaluation function. It is a matter of
search. You have to include things like
weaknesses and open files, things that
are generally true. This also includes
penetrating into the opponent’s position
with a heavy piece. Also there is a strong
square on b6. These things need to be in
the evaluation. To exploit them the pro-
gram has to search.’

‘If there was another piece on the
board, like a knight each, White would
be seriously better,’ Rainer said.’Now
there are simply not enough pieces, and
it is difficult to prove the advantage.’

‘This is a very difficult thing to include
in the evaluation,’ Mathias said.We are
focusing on these things all the time,
trying to make improvements.’
CHAPTER TEN

Test Position 8

Test Position 8

Black to move. Take 12 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Sten Vesterli

“We are still in the opening. I am a pawn
up. Let us take a look.’

‘He has a knight on h4. He is attacking
f7 with the bishop. My knight is hanging,
his knight is hanging.’

T can take his knight. He can then ei-
ther recapture with the b-pawn. This will
give him two isolated pawns, which is
not in his interest. But he can take on f6,

and then I will recapture with the queen.
Then I am also threatening his knight on
h4. It is not in White’s interest.’

‘If take on c3, then he will exchange
queens with check and 1 will lose the
possibility of castling. He will take my
knight. Then I will have two isolated
pawns. It is not terribly ingenious. I will
lose the right to castle without material
gains. It cannot be right.’

‘If I move the knight he will play e6,
bishop takes e6, bishop takes e6, pawn
takes e6, queen takes the knight (g4).’

‘1...^3g4 2 e6’

‘2...fxe6.’ (long pause)

‘I have to do something about the
£lf6. Either I have to move it or I need
some material in return.’

‘Taking on c3 does not work (repeats
previous lines). So I will have to move
my knight. And g4 did not work out.’

‘No, let me have a look. I...£)g4.’
(long pause)

‘l...£k!5 2 <53xd5 cxd5. It gives me a
doubled pawn. I will lose the front-
runner first, then the one behind.’

‘1 ...£)e4 2 <53xe4 Wxh4 3 £}g5. Then I
am in trouble. It is a threat against f7.’

(long pause)

Time up!

‘I cannot find any sense to this, but I
have to make a decision.’ 1...£ie4.

Jesper Hall

‘I am Black, I am proud and I am beauti-
ful.’ (Jacob: Well, at least you are beauti-
ful).’Thank you.’

‘Very- tactical position. White has
more pieces in play, but on the other
hand, the knight on h4 looks a bit odd. It
should have been on g5 to put pressure
on me.’

Tbe knight on c3 is threatened. The
knight on f6 is threatened. What kind of
difficulties is this after all? One possibil-
ity is to take on c3 with the pawn. Then
2 JLxf7+ might be possible. Maybe I can
play 2...ФхГ7 3 Wxd8 JLb4, but there is a

problem, he can always play 4 Wc7+ and
then castle. Well, maybe the queen is
trapped, but... No, not really, he can al-
ways play e5-e6 with check.’

‘I...dxc3 2 JLxf7+ Фе7, maybe. 3
exf6+. It does not look good. I do not
like that. I...dxc3 2 JLxf7+ Фх!7 3 Wxd8
cxb2, maybe. 4 Wc7+ £3fd7 5 e6+ Фхеб.’

What do I have. Two pieces and the
king are in danger. It cannot be enough.’

What else. I...^g4. It looks very dan-
gerous to play l...‘?3g4. He can maybe
play 2 Wf3, it does not seem right to play
2...Wxh4 3 Wxf7+.’

“That is a mess.’

‘On l...£)g4 he can also just play 2
£lf3 and it seems that I have problems.’

‘1 ...dxc3 2 Jtxf7+ ФхГ7 3 Wxd8. That

is the position.’

T...dxc3 2 £xf7+ ФхГ7 3 Wxd8 i.b4
4Wc7+^bd7

‘I...dxc3 2 JLxf7+ Фх£7 3 Wxd8 cxb2
4 Wc7+ ^bd7 5 JLxb2 i.b4+ 6 ФИ
£И5 7 e6+.’

What else is there. Hmm.’

What else? l...JLg4 perhaps, no he
always has 2 Wb3, that does not look
right somehow. 2,..We7 and now just
castling or something terrible.’

“Maybe l...JLb4. If he plays 2 exf6
maybe 2...0-0. So l...^.b4 2 exf6. No,
that does not look right either.’

“I...dxc3 2 jLxf7+ ФхГ7 3 Wxd8 no, it
does not look good enough. What else?’

“I...£3d5 maybe. Then 2 Wxd4 JLe6,
maybe. What is that position like? Maybe
that is ok. Yes.’

“I...£kl5 2 JLxd5 cxd5 3 Wxd4 <53c6,
that is ok.’

‘Maybe 1...^3d5 is at least playable. 2

<?3xd5 cxd5 3 JLb5+ £ic6. It seems pos-
sible at least.’

‘Just a last check l...dxc.3 2 JLxf7+
ФхГ7 3 Wxd8. (pause)’

‘Yeah well, I just cannot get this to
work. So what is left?’

‘1...^3d5. My intuition is not com-
pletely happy.’

‘Knight, phew.’ (pause)

Time up.

‘I would have played 1 ...‘Sid 5 as I feel
right now. Maybe White is a little bit bet-
ter then. Maybe there is something even
better, I just could not get it to work.’

Tom Skovgaard

‘So we have a fairly sharp position early
in the opening. White has developed
three pieces, and Black has only devel-
oped one, and it is threatened. However,
Black has a pawn.’

‘Let us take the obvious, sharp line.’

‘I...dxc3 2 exf6. Oh my God, this goes
on and on. I...dxc3 2 Wxd8+ ФхВ8 3
exf6 cxb2’

‘4 JLxb2 (Not 4 fxg7 of course). So if
White exchanges the queens, I cannot
recapture, as it will lose the rook. But I
can keep the pawn there if I wish. No.
Maybe. 4...g5, I might play that. Letting
the white pawn be.’
‘I^et us look for alternatives. Maybe
l...Wa5. Maybe moving my knight,
threatening the <?3h4. To g4? To d5? No,
not to d5, it will simply help him to get
rid of the threat. Maybe l...£ig4.’

‘I can also play 1 ...Ji.b4 now. It is also
an interesting idea. So we have 1...^3g4
and l...Ab4. I think the first line I con-
sidered with l...g5 is not that interesting.’

‘I...^.b4 2 exf6 dxc3 3 Wxd8+ &xd8 4
0-0. Hmm.’

‘Certainly a candidate move.’

‘Maybe I have a problem with 2
lxf7+. 2...&xf7 3 Wf3+. Oh. It looks a
little bit dangerous. But maybe not that
much. 3...^?g8 or З—Фев. What then.
3...&g8 4 e6.’

‘No.’

‘If White does not sacrifice the
bishop, what then. He can protect c5
with 2 £3f3. No, I am still threatening
...dxc3.’

‘He could play 2 <$3e4.’

‘I like this move. I...£lg4. 2 ^3e4
£)xe5 and Black has a good position. 1
can even give a check on b4 if I wish.’

‘4...0-0.’ (Jacob: Here it is really not
clear if Tom is talking about 3 0-0 0-0,
which makes sense, or if he is really
thinking what he says he is thinking. I
would guess 3 0-0 0-0, but I will leave it
to the reader to decide.)’Yes. Of course it
is messing up my king’s position, but I
am at least one pawn up. And maybe I
will also win the f6-pawn. But I am way
behind in development.’

What about l...Wa5. 2 exf6 dxc3 3
0-0. No. I will not get my king into
safety. l...JLb4 looks better, as I can cas-
de. But he can exchange the queens then,
when I take the knight on c3.’

What was the problem with the
l...£3g4 line. It was the reply 2 JLxf7+
Фх07 3 Wf3+ <^’g8, and White has no
attack.’

‘But l...£3g4 is only threatening the
e5-pawn. He can protect that with 2 JLf4
or 2 f4, and my knight will get into trou-
ble later. But I can capture his knight
then, and I will win a piece. He needs to
move the knight. 1 ,..^3g4 2 £)e4 <53xe5’
‘3 JLxf7+ ФхГ7 4 ^g5+. Oh we have
a problem here, 5 Wb3+. I might be
mated here. 4...Фе7 5 We2. It looks very
dangerous. Maybe l...JLb4 is better. Fie
cannot move his knight. He probably
will have to capture my knight then, or
play 2 JLd2. No, then 2...dxc3. l..JLb4’

‘2 exf6 dxc3 3 Wxd8+ &xd8 4 0-0.
Hmm.’

‘No - a better line... l..JLb4 2 exf6
0-0. 3 0-0 Wxf6, threatening the other
knight. I am at least a pawn up. I can
play 3...dxc3. No, he has 4 JLxf7+, break-
ing up my king’s position.’

‘Maybe l...Jtb4 2 exf6 0-0. No, that
was not it.’

‘2 exf6 Wxf6. Yes. This looks very
good. 1 am two pawns up. He cannot
save his knight. But he can casde.’

‘I...^.b4 2 0-0. Can I move the knight

then? Oh, there is another option here.
Can I play l...£ie4 2 <53xe4 Wxh4. No.
That is bad. 3 JLxf7+.’

‘l...JLb4 2 0-0. That was the problem.

2...0-0, of course.’

‘And if White moves his knight, I will
move my knight somewhere — g4.
Threatening his knight. This looks fine. I
am a pawn up.’

1...i.b4, with 1 min. and 54 sec. re-
maining on the clock.

Peter Heine Nielsen

‘Л well-known position from the Slav.
Or known is maybe too much. I cannot
remember everything accurately, but I do
recollect something with a queen sacri-
fice here, or could it be another position.
No, what 1 remember is l...dxc3 2
JLxf7+ ФхП 3 Wxd8 and then’
‘3...JLb4 seems to be a typical desper-
ado. But of course it does need a fair bit
of calculation. 4 Wxh8 cxb2+ 5 Фе2
bxalW 6 Wxg7+’

‘which could immediately be consid-
ered as relatively uncomfortable.’

‘A good question is: What alternatives
are there here?’

‘Another obvious move is l...‘?3g4,
which might not threaten 2...dxc3, which
can be considered later, but at least
threatens 2...Wxh4. So let us say l...“?3g4
2 £3f3 and we have similar problems as
before.’

‘Are there other candidate moves?’

‘Let me calculate the sharp lines.’

‘I...dxc3 2 JLxf7+. I have to take it.
2...ФхП 3 Wxd8. Now 1 am calculating
3...JLb4, but also to be considered is
3...cxb2.’

‘I>et us take the simplest lines first.
3...cxb2 4 JLxb2 ±b4+ 5 Wd2 £xd2+ 6
<&xd2 ^3e4+. There I have a piece more,
which is to be considered as satisfactory.’

‘So let us try to continue. Once again,
the queen sacrifice and 3...cxb2.’

‘His obvious move is 4 Wc7+, and it
seems to come to me as something
which someone has played once.’

‘4 Wc7+. 1 would typically consider to
put something in between, but it all ends
rather unfortunately. I would like to play
4...‘?3bd7 5 JLxb2 £3d5, trapping the
queen.’

‘However, as far as I can see, he then
has 6 e6+ at his disposal, after which the
queen escapes. Hmm.’

‘Now T am calculating psychopathic
moves such as 3...cxb2 4 Wc7+ and then
4...Феб, but what 1 fear than is 5 Jlxb2.
Now my problem is that after 5...JLb4+ 6
Фе2 £kl5 then the g7-pawn is hanging.
But 4...Феб 5 JLxb2 1 seem to have
5...£)a6. I cannot see any problems then.
5...£3a6 seems to trap the queen.’

‘Okay. 1 will try to go through the
lines again.’

‘I...dxc3 2 JLxf7+ ФхГ7 3 Wxd8 cxb2
4 Wc7+ (seems like only move) 4...Феб.’

“With how many pieces am I trailing?
Now I have two pieces for the queen. So
if he castles and 1 take a queen, he is
missing just about every piece there is.’

‘On 5 0-0 I would play 5...<5)a6 before
I take my queen.’ (pause)

‘I find it difficult to see any problems
with this line, but then of course 1 have
preconceptions because it is this line that
I think I remember, (long pause)’

‘I have arrived at a place where I can-
not see any reasons to depart from my
main line, which goes l...dxc3 2 JLxf7+
Фх(7 3 Wxd8 cxb2. And now the only
move that seems to make sense is 4
Wc7+, and then you play 4..Феб to
block the e-pawn’s march forward. Now
5 Wxc8+ £lbd7 and 5 JLxb2 <£}a6 makes
no sense for White, so we are talking
about a really special move if White is to
be saved. It could be 5 f4 bxalW 6 f5+
Фd5, but it does not seem to be realistic.’

‘5 exf6, then I either play 5...bxalW or
5...JLb4+ and then 6...bxalW. Again, it is
hard to believe that White has enough
attack to compensate the material losses,
but still it is possible that this is the road
by which he should travel.’

‘1 am pretty sure that this is what I
would have played, as I did not really see
any alternatives. Well, that is, I did not
really finish concluding on l...£lg4 actu-
ally. I would believe that after 1...^3g4 2
Wf3 then 2...^3xe5 or even 2...Wxh4.
I...‘$3g4 2 “53 f3 then 2...dxc3 is not so
fortunate, as 3 JLxf7+ now wins. And
after 2..Jte7 he probably has 3 £3e4 and
then it looks as if it is not so clear. But of
course it could be questioned.’

‘But 1 saw no problems with the theo-
retical line 1...dxc3, so this is my final
choice.’
Artur Yusupov

Artur was shaking his head when I pre-
sented him with this position: What are
you doing to me, Jacob?’ he exclaimed,
then sank into thought. He calculated
several moves and liked many of them,
before finally settling for lines similar to
those given above by Peter Heine Niel-
sen, with

1...dxc3.

Ivo Timmermans

The last moves must have been ...d4 and
e5, so let me see. White is one pawn
down. He has three minor pieces in play.
Black has just one, the knight on f6.’

What does Black want?’

There are some problems in the posi-
tion. For instance: If the d-file opens,
then JLxf7+ could be a problem at some
point. If the knight on f6 moves, then
£lh4 is hanging.’

White is close to castling, while Black
needs one more move. So it should
probably be one of Black’s objectives: to
get the king into safety. But let me first
check the candidate moves. Obviously
both knights are hanging.’

‘I...dxc3 is one move. Another candi-
date is l...JLb4. One more is 1...Wa5, but
I am not sure if this is any good. l...We7

seema a bit odd after 2 0-0. Then
2...dxc3 3 exf6 leaves White fully devel-
oped.’

‘Let us start by looking at l...dxc3.
There might be other candidates like
L..Wb6, but let us first look at the nor-
mal moves.’

‘I...dxc3 2 JLxf7+ ФхГ7 3 Wxd8 cxb2,
threatening ...JLb4+. Okay...’

‘I...dxc3 2 .S.xf7+ Фе7 3 exf6+ and
something nasty, I suppose. Okay.’

‘I...dxc3 2 JLxf7+ ФхГ7 3 Wxd8 cxb2
— oh 3...Jlb4 straight away. No, I think I
will take on b2. Take, take, take. If
...JLb4+ then Wd2 and ...Axd2+ and it is
ok. This is probably not what you want
to do. White will take on f6 and Black
has a horrible pawn structure, so it is
probably not good. (It is not clear to me
exactly what line Ivo was looking at here.
Maybe 2 Wxd8+ — see the following.)’

‘So White has the advantage in both 2
JLxf7+ and the 2 Wxd8+ line. So do you
want to play l...JLb4? This is interesting.
At least there is no more threat of JLxf7+
if I take on c3. So Black cannot escape
the pin. Now he can take on f6, he can
castle, he can play Wb3. If 2 Wb3 then
even 2...£3d5 3 Axd5 JLxc3+ and then
both d5 and h4 are hanging, and I can
castle. So 2 *ъз is not so dangerous.
What you probably do is 2 0-0 dxc3 3
exf6 0-0 and then you cannot... Well, you
can play 4 fxg7, well, it is a bad position.’

1...4ig4? You can save the knight on h4,
not by playing in to f5. You can play 2
Wf3, threatening... Because then

2...Wxh4 is not possible — 3 Wxf7+.’

‘2...1йгхЬ4 3 ЧИГхГ7Н- <^?d8. Okay, try
again.’

‘1...^3g4. Okay, if he plays 2 £if3 or
something, I will play 2...JLb4 and 1 cas-
de, without problems. Or maybe I will
play 2...^.c5.’

‘2 ^3e4 JLb4+, and you got a pretty
normal position. Black is still a pawn up,
so...’

‘I...£lg4. The critical line is maybe 2
Wf3Wxh4 3 Wxf7+&d8.’

‘l...JLb4. Okay, let us say that you play
2 0-0 and I play 2...0-0 3 exf6. Okay not
very...’

‘l..JLb4 2 0-0 dxc3 threatening to ex-
change queens. 3 Wxd8+ &xd8 4 exf6.
And then I can play... Hmm. 1 will just
go back again.’

‘I..lb4 2 0-0 dxc.3 3 Wxd8+ &xd8 4
exf6.’

‘1 might play 4...gxf6 in this line. Or
4...Ae6, but White is still better in this
line.’

‘So what I would like to do here is to
play something more active like l...£3g4,
possibly. Okay, now the knight is hang-
ing on h4. So what do you do after

‘and maybe 4 h3, or 4 e6 or 4 l$3e4.
Black should be able to hold this posi-
tion. If the knight goes away from c3 you
got a check on b4. And ...Hf8 is coming
up.’

‘So 1...^3g4.’

‘Okay, so l...dxc3 is not working.
I...±b4 gives a bad position. 1...^3g4
seems ok, very sharp, but you can
probably survive the attack. As White
cannot castle directly, you can always
sacrifice a piece back with ...Wxf24~ if you
do not like it. Black can probably survive
this position. Are there other candidates
that I have missed.’

‘l...JLe7 is interesting. Missed that.’
‘l...JLe7 with the idea 2 exf6 JLxf6 and
both knights are hanging.’

‘If you play 3 £>£3 then 3,..dxc3. If 3
We2+ then З...Фй you can always es-
cape via g8 and h7.’

‘I...£e7 2 £k-4 £lxe4. If 2 0-0 then
2...0-0 as well without ruining your pawn
chain. Yes, I like that move. Let me just
check if it does not fail tactically. 2 exf6
JLxf6 3 ^3e4 JLxh4 then 4 JLf4 is com-
ing, maybe with £ld6+, but you simply
play 4...0-0 and you are out of harm’s
way. Let me just check.’

‘l..JLe7 2 exf6 JLxf6. Another idea is
to play 3 Wf3 because f7 is hanging, but
you play 3...0-0. Okay, 4 £3e4 JLxh4 5
Wh5. It is possible that it gives some
initiative. But I can always play...’

Okay — time up.

1...Де7'is my first choice and my
second choice is 1...^3g4.’

Sidsel Heeg

“That it is a mess is easy to state. First
thought is if I should take the knight or
not. If I take then he can exchange the
queens with check. It ruins Black’s right
to castle. Maybe I can move my knight
with a threat on h4. That might sustain it
- I don’t know if it is a precise term —
pressure. Maybe it would also be possible

to do something wise and pull myself
together and get closer to castling,
(pause)’

ТЯаск is perhaps behind in develop-
ment. The question is if there is a way to
get the initiative.’ (pause)

‘Does White have enough initiative
for the pawn?’ (pause)

‘Where can I play the knight? If 1 play
it to g4, then 1 am threatening the i?3h4.
But it is also advancing a piece that has
already been developed. If White played
2 <?3f3, then the black knight will be
hanging loose on g4. But then maybe
then it will be prudent to take the knight
on c3?’ (pause)

‘2 £3 Wxh4+ 3 g3. It also looks as if it
is going to be very messy, but White will
have a loose position on the kingside, so
maybe it pays off.’

‘Taking on c3 does not look good, as
he can exchange queens and take on f6.
Then I will have a doubled f-pawn. It is
of course not necessarily so always, but
f5 looks as if it will be good for the
knight. Or the bishop after exchanges.’

‘l..Jtg4 does not look right on ac-
count of 2 f3 — right in the face.’

The knight might also be able to go
to d5. 2 £ixd5 cxd5 and the knight on h4
will be hanging.’ (pause)
Time up.

‘Ok 1 ...£lg4 and now possibly 2 £lf3
as the best move. Then I considered tak-
ing on 2...dxc3 or 2...JLb4, which I am
more likely to go for.’ Sidsel did not like
2...dxc3 3 Wxd8 + , not realising that
she would be a piece up in the endgame.
She did not see the ideas with JLxf7+ at
all at any point.

Still she managed to solve this posi-
tion which so few others could do!

Peter Skovgaard

“Two knights are hanging, and of course
it seems most obvious to take the white
knight, as the black knight does not have
that many good squares. But if l...dxc3,
then probably 2 Wxd8+ <ii?xd8 3 exf6.’

“What can you play then? I could play
3...£b4 for example. If 4 fxg7 then
4...cxb2+ and 5...bxalW which protects
the Hh8. But if instead of 4 fxg7 he plays
4 0-0, for example, then I can plan...
Hmm, yes what can you play then?’

‘Right, 1 ...dxc3 2 Wxd8+ ФхЬ8 3 exf6
JLb4 4 0-0. Then I can just recapture
with 4...gxf6, but then his rooks enter at
el and dl. It is probably not so good.’

‘Maybe the first move is l...<§3g4. What
good possibilities does he have? Maybe he
can play 2 Wf3, threatening f7.’

What can 1 do then? Then I have
2...£3xe5, which defends f7, threatening
both the queen and the bishop. And af-
ter 3 We4 I can play 3...We7, which
looks really good — for me. So he cannot
play 2 Wf3 on 1...43g4, so what else?’

‘1...^3g4 then comes...’ (pause)

‘I am threatening two knights. Maybe
he can play 2 JLxf7+ or maybe it is just a
senseless sacrifice. 2 JLxf7+ Фх17 3
Wf3+ Фе8...’

‘then it seems to be over.’

What else will he be able to play on
l...<?3g4. How can he protect the knights?’

‘He might be able to play.’ (pause)

‘I cannot see how he can protect both
knights.’

‘Maybe 2 £le4 and if 2...Wxh4 then 3
.&g5 and the queen is not so well placed.
In the case of 3...Wh5 then 4 Wxd4.
What should Black do then? He seems
to be forced to play 4...JLe7, and the
question is if White has some tempting
possibilities. He can maybe play 5 JLxe7
Фхе7 6 Wd6+ Фе8 and then maybe 7
Wc7, threatening the bishop on c8 and
?3d6+. Black is probably in trouble.’

‘I...£)g4 2 ^е4 Wxh4 3 -&g5, then
Black might have some other moves.
Something like 3...^3xf2’

Tut White can just play 4 £)xf2, and
Black has gained nothing. But 3...Wh5
and then 4 Wxd4. Then maybe 4...£}d7,
but then 5 £3d6+ JLxd6 6 cxd6, no, then
the bishop is hanging on g5. So he can-
not play 5 £)d6+.’

‘Or maybe 1...^3g4 2 ?3e4 Wxh4 3
Jtg5, then maybe 3...JLb4+. It looks
pretty ok. Then 4 ФТ1 and 4...Wh5.
Then maybe 5 Wxd4 0-0.’

‘It looks ok for Black.’

1.. .‘51g4. On 2 £if3, which Peter had
not considered, he fell into thought.

Fritz 8

In this position the program used more
time to get to a serious depth, as there
were a lot of tactics and a lot of pieces
on the board. The evaluation got stable
after about 5 min., and did not change,
could not change, as it needed to control
all the silly moves (after 7 min. 1... M
which only appeared for a very brief
moment; Fnhj uses more time on’better’
moves) before it can start over with the
primary candidates. After 8 min. we
stopped the program.

1...2)g4.

Proposed solution
Test Position 8

The posiiton for this puzzle is known
to theory and arises after the following
sequence.

1 2if3 d5 2 d4 3 c4 c6 4 2)c3
dxc4 5 a4 JLf5 6 £lh4 JLc8 7 e4 e5
8 Фхс4 exd4 9 e5

This position is of course highly
confusing. Many moves are ok, but only
two give Black a certain edge, and 'ffliy
one of them is clearly strong. But let us
of them is clearly strong. But let us take
them all in ascending order.

a) 9...^d5?!	10 Wxd4 Деб

(10...^.e7 11 &f3 4^b6 12 Wxd8+ ±xd8
13 JLb3 ?)a6 14 JLe3 JLe6 15 JLxe6 fxe6
16 <§3d4 ^d7 17 Hdl gave White a slight
edge in Mititelu — Pfeiffer, Leipzig 1960)
11 2>f3

After 10 Wb3 We7 11 h3 dxc3 12
hxg4 £lxg4 13 e6 £le5 the position is a
mess.

с)	9,..ДЬ4?! also only leads to a
mess. 10 exf6 Wxf6 11 0-0 dxc3
(ll..>xh4 12 Hel+ Ae7 13 Se4 Wf6 14
Sf4 with a strong attack for White is not
recommendable) 12 Wb3 a5 13 £>f3
0-0 14&g5 Wg6 15 bxc3

11...£.e7 (ll..JLb4!? 12 £xd5
£xc3+ 13 Wxc3 ±xd5 14 Jlg5 Wd7 15
Wa.3 h6 16 Ah4 g5 17 £g3 We7 18 0-0
with an unclear game) 12 0-0 0-0 13
2ie4 vlf4 14 51d6 ixd6 15 ±xf4
l_e7 16 Wc3 &xc4 17 Wxc4 and
White is a little better here, where Forin-
tos and Sokolov agreed a draw at Wijk
aan Zee 1970.

Ы 9...Дд4?! is not that clear.

and the position docs not seem clear
to me.

d)	9...dxc3?!

It is of course very tempting to sacri-
fice the queen. And in Avni’s Creative
Chess (yes, again!) this move is given an’!’.
Actually, despite the deeply fascinating
and original tactics, this move hardly
leads to an advantage, and is therefore a
lot of energy spent on virtually nothing.
10 £xf7+ (10 Wxd8+ &xd8 11 exf6
&b4 leaves Black with slighdy better
chances) 1O...£xf7 11 Wxd8 cxb2
(1 l...ib4? 12 ®c7+ and White wins) 12
Wc7+ Феб! 13 Wxc8+ vlbd7

14 Wxb7?l (White realises that he has
gone wrong and tries to create a mess.
But stronger was 14 Wxd7+ £lxd7 15
JLxb2 JLb4+ 16 Фе2 £lxe5 which gives
Black a better game, but only just. 17 f4
“51c4 18 -&-xg7 regains the pawn, though
White is lacking in development and will
be under attack) 14...bxalW 15
Wxc64- &f7 16 e6+ Фд8 17 0-0
We5 18 Wxa8 Wxe6 19 Wxa7 Wd5
20 Wc7 £f7 21 £)f3 £d6 22 Wc2 h6
23 £lh4 We4 24 Wa2+ Фе7 25 2>f3
2>e5 26 2>xe5 Wxe5 27 g3 Wd5 28
Wc2 *f7 29 Sd1 Hc8 30 We2 We6
31 Wf3 Hc2 32 Ae3 Ha2 33 Wb7+
i.e7 34 Ac5 He2 35 a5 Wc4 36
жеЗ Wa4 37 Hd4 Wxa5 38 Wb3+
Фе8 39 Wb8+ *f7 40 *ЬЗ+ Фе8
41 Wb8+ &f7 42 Wb3+ and a draw
was agreed in Larsen-Teschner, Wagen-
ingen 1957. It is not without reason that
a book on Bent I.arsen was called Bent
Larsen — the Lighter!. Still, Black is of
course winning even here...

e)	9...Де7!? This is interesting and
probably one of the only two moves to
guarantee an advantage. 10 exf6 JLxf6
11 &e4? Now White is just much
worse. 11 We2+! We7 12 &e4 -ixh4 13
JLf4 JLe6 also looks good for Black, but
it was a better try. 11...JLxh4 12 0-0
0-0 13 Wh5 &e7. So far Inkiov - Ve-
likov, Plovdiv 1982. Black went on to
win, though not in the safest way.

f)	9...2>g4! is strongest.

10 £rf3 (Forced. If 10 £le4 “SlxeS and
that dream is over. The same goes for 10
Wf3 <?lxe5 11 Wc4 We7 and wins)
10...^.b4! Now White will come out of
the opening a pawn down for absolutely
nothing. 11 Wb3 We 7 12 v)xd4 ftxe5

and Black is probably just winning.
CHAPTER ELEVEN

Test Position 9

Test Position 9

Black to move. Take 10 minutes to
find the strongest continuation, talking
into a microphone or writing down your
thoughts afterwards.

Peter Skovgaard

‘It is the same position as 1 had before,
almost, where I was White instead of
Black. But, with the black pawn racing
down to promote, it is all a matter of
calculation now.’

“The advance l...b2 looks pretty obvi-
ous, then play ca continue with the se-
quence 2 Ebi ФЬЗ 3 g4 Фс2 4 Zxb2
ФхЬ2 5 h4 ФсЗ’

‘6 h5 Фк14 7 h6 S.d8. It does not look
good. So that is probably not it.’

‘It might be possible to play l...JSd2 2
g4 Hb2’

‘3 h4 ФаЗ, no then he has 4 ДсЗ.’
(pause)
‘l...Sd2 2 g4 Sb2 3 h4 ФаЗ 4 Sc3
Фа2 5 Sxb3 ФхЬЗ’

‘6 h5. Maybe 6 Ф£5 instead. 6...Sf2+ 7
Фё6 Фс4 8 h5 Фа5 9 h6 Фе5 10 h7
Hh2 11 &g7 Ф£4 12 h8W— this wins for
me at least. So, does he have other op-
portunities?’

‘l...Sd2 2 g4 Sb2 3 h4 ФаЗ 4 h5 Фа2
5 h6, no, then I have 5...Sh2 after which
1 can take the pawn.’

‘l...Sd2 2 g4 Sb2 3 h4 ФаЗ 4 h5 Фа2.
It looks pretty good for me. Maybe 5
Sc8 then comes 5...Sf2+ 6 ФgЗ.’

‘l...Hd2 2 g4 Sb2 3 h4 ФаЗ 4 h5 Фа2
5 Ec8. Hmm.’

‘Maybe l...Sd2 2 g4 Ec2 3 Sbl b2 4
h4 ФЬЗ 5 Ф£5 Bf2+ 6 Фё6 Фа2 7
Exb2+ ФхЬ2 8 h5 ФсЗ 9 Ь6 Фd4 10 h7
Hh2 И Фй7 Фе5’

Фxg4 15 Фх£6.’

“This looks pretty drawish.’

‘1...3d2 2 g4 Sc2 3 Sbl b2 4 h4 ФЬЗ 5
Ф£5 Sf2+ 6 Фg6 Фа2 7 Sxb2+ ФхЬ2.
This is just the same variation as before.’

1 ...Sd2 executed with I’/z minute left
on the clock, and the conclusion that it
leads to a draw.

Sten Vesterli

‘At first glance it looks obvious. I...b2.
Of course his b-pawn has now become
passed. He cannot simply place the rook
in front of the pawn, I will then advance
with my king and threaten his rook, so it
will have to go away.’

‘His king cannot cross the d-file.’

‘I...b2 2 Sbl ФЬЗ 3 h4 Фа2 4 Sei
blW 5 Sxbl ФхЫ 6 h5, then it should
be won for Black.’

‘12 h8W Sxh8 13 ФхЬ8 Ф{4 14 Фй7

‘My king would be on bl. I would in
reality have rook and pawn against king
and two pawns.’

‘If he sacrifices his rook for my pawn,
then maybe he has counterplay on the
kingside. My alternative is to play on the
kingside. But l...Sg5 2 g4 does not really
improve anything.’

‘Maybe l...Sd2 2 g3 (pause) 2..Sh2 3
h4. All I have achieved is to advance the
white pawns. Anyway, my rook is fine
where it is.’

‘l...Bb5!?/

“No it seems to achieve nothing.’ (Ob-
viously calculating).

‘I...b2 2 Bc6, threatening my pawn on
f6. No, I will queen, so that is no good.’

‘I...b2, rook away. Then 2...Bc5 and
3...Bcl queening the pawn.’

fiIf 1...Ec5 then he can move to the
side. I might as well just play l...b2 im-
mediately.’

‘I...b2 2 Bbl ФЬЗ 3 h4 Sc5 4 g3 Eel
— it has to win.’

‘I...b2 2 Ebi ФЬЗ 3 h4 Ec5 with the
threat of ...Bel. It looks pretty good.
What can he do with his pawns. If I get a
queen, no, he will have to give up his
rook. But my king cannot make it to the
kingside in time. (Calculating).’

“The question is if he can make it on

the kingside. His h-pawn is passed after
all.’

Time up.

1...b2

Sidsel Ниед

Ъ1аск has a centralised rook, which is
keeping the white king away from the f-
pawn. The white king might go to e4 to
chase the rook away, but not really im-
prove his position. But the white rook
might be able to get hold of the pawn.’

‘It looks natural for Black to try to ad-
vance his passed pawn. It reminds me of
some kind of theoretical position.’

"The black pawn is so far advanced
that my first thoughts would circle
around getting it across the finish line.’

The question is, what is the most dan-
gerous thing White can do? If I push my
pawn, then what can White do? The
question is if White’s best chance is to
advance his own passed pawn, or to give
checks to the black king in order to pre-
vent the pawn from queening.’

‘It would be great if I could arrange
for an exchange of rooks.’

White should be careful not to give
too many checks, as Black will be able to
put the rook in between.’

‘I am considering if the best thing is to
advance the pawn or to advance the king
first. My first reflex is to play ...ФаЗ, but
at the same time there is something that
tells me that the pawn needs to be ad-
vanced.’

Time up.

1...b2.

Tom Skovgaard

‘Equal position. Two pawns each. How-
ever, Black’s pawn is quite close to
promotion. I^et us see.’
motion. l>et us see.’

“The obvious move is l...b2.’

‘I...b2 2 Sbl ФсЗ 3 h4 Фс2 4 Sxb2

ФхЬ2 5 h5, no, 5 g4 ФсЗ 6 h5. Hmm.

What then. 6...Bg5 maybe?’

‘And on 7 h6 just 7...Sg6 8 h7 Bh6
and Black wins.’

‘I...b2, what can he do? Maybe 2 Uhl.’

‘2...Hc5 is a possible move, threaten-
ing ...Scl, then he needs to play 3 Bbl
ФсЗ. So now the rook is on c5 instead of

d5. That makes no difference.’

‘Why does this not just simply win
right away. Oh, he can play g4-g5 with
support from the h-pawn instead. T.et us
calculate it.’

‘I...b2 2 Shi Sc5 3 Sbl ФсЗ 4 g4
Фс2 5 Sxb2 ФхЬ2 6 h4 ФсЗ 7 g5 fxg5 8
hxg5. No, that is no win.’

‘8...ФЬ4 9 g6. What then? The king is

cut off. Maybe 8.^d4 was wrong.’

‘Do we have a problem with that
pawn. We need to stop that pawn. T^et us
take it from the beginning again.’

‘1...b2 (not 2 Sc8 because of 3...Sb5).

So 5 Sxb2 ФхЬ2. How was it.’

‘I...b2 2 Ehl Sc5 3 Bbl ФсЗ 4 g4
Фс2 5 Sxb2 ФхЬ2 6 h4. ahem.’

‘6..ФсЗ 7 g5 fxg5 8 hxg5 Фd4. Oh,
the rook is on c5 if he goes to hl first.
Maybe it will be on d5.’

‘After 7 hxg5, what can we play.’

“We can play 7...Sdl maybe.’

‘8 g6 Фd4 9 Фg5. Oh, this is simply
winning.’

‘Can he do something else?’

‘I...b2 2 Sbl ФсЗ 3 Фе4 maybe. No,
it is a waste of time.’

‘3 g4 Фс2 4 Sxb2 ФхЬ2 5 h4 ФсЗ 6
g5 (6 h5 Sg5 did not work] 6...&g5 7
hxg5 2dl, this must be the move. He
will probably play 8 Фе5 Фс4 9 g6 2el+,
no, this is not good.’

‘He makes it with his king here. 7...Sdl
is not good enough. 7...Фс4 maybe.’

‘It was 5...ФсЗ 6 g5 fxg5 7 hxg5. No.
This is not easy. 7...Фк14, still. 8 g6 2e5 9
g7 2e8 10 Ф15 Фd5 И <4>f6 Фd6 and
the position is drawn. It is not easy to
stop that g-pawn.’

‘Maybe we just need to go down the
g-file. Yes, that’s it! 5...ФсЗ 6 g5 fxg5 7
hxg5 2dl 8 g6 Sgl 9 Ф15 Фd4.’

‘He needs to stay with the pawn. My
king will come to the d-file. 10 ФГ6 Фd5
11 g7 Фd6 12 &f7 2fl+. 1 do not make
it. Is there anything else I can do? I am
out of time, I need to play l...b2.’

1...b2.

Tom afterwards said that it was only
in the end, with 10 seconds left on the
clock, that the idea of looking for alter-
natives struck him. Then, of course, it
was too late, and he had to play the
move he had calculated.

Peter Heine Nielsen

‘Well, the obvious idea is of course to
play l...b2, approach with the king and
take a race. This line is probably what
should be calculated first.’

‘I...b2 2 2bl ФсЗ 3 g4 Фс2 4 2xb2+
ФхЬ2 5 h4 ФсЗ 6 g5 fxg5 7 hxg5 but
this doesn’t look promising. 7...2dl 8 g6
Hgl 9 Ф£5 Фd4 10 Фf6 Фd5 11 ФП.’

‘Njet.’ (pause)

‘I am starting to calculate l...Sd2 now.
My idea is that after 2 g4 I want to play
2...2f2+ in order to bring his king out of
balance. Even though it seems as a rather
artificial idea, it is still an idea.’

‘1...2d2 2 g4 (looks like only move)
then 2...2f2+ was my idea, but ok, let us
say he plays 3 ФgЗ then I wanted to play
3...2c2. Then I expected 4 2bl, then I
have 4...2c3+ and there it looks as if

White is in trouble. I .et us try again.’

‘1...2d2 and if 2 h4 then 2...2xg2 3 h5
2h2, so it is obvious he needs to hang
on to his pawns.’

‘So 1...2d2 then it seems to be very
logical to play 2 g4. Tt is possible to imag-
ine other moves, but l...Hd2 2 g4 Hf2+,
on 3 ФсЗ the idea is 3...Hh2 and I will
take the h3-pawn, which I will presume
wins, but the problem is... On 3 ^?g3
then 3...Hc2 4 Hbl Hc3+ seems to be
very sensible. It wins as far as I can see.
So 5 <&g2 seems to be forced, and then
the king is cut of. So let me try to see if
there is anything else on l...Hd2.’

‘On l...Hd2 it should also be consid-
ered if the rook can come behind the b-
pawn. Let us see. l...Hd2 2 g4 Hf2+ 3
^^3 Hc2 and now I have the check, so it
should be 2 Hc8, but then I will simply
play 2...Hxg2 so this is not relevant.’

‘l...Hd2 2 g4 Hf2+, well, this was what
we were talking about before. And it
seems to be difficult to exploit the re-
sources with 2 Hc8.’

‘Okay, L..Hd2 2 g4 Hf2+ 3 Фе4 then
the question is if I have really achieved
anything with the manoeuvre. The idea
would then be that his king is somewhat
cut off. So let us say 3...b2 in this posi-
tion. But it is possible that I have failed
to cut it off like I want it. 4 Hbl ФсЗ 5
h4 Фс2 6 Hxb2+ ФхЬ2.’

‘Hmm.’ (pause)

‘It is not completely clear to me.’

‘I think that L..Hd2 seems to be

promising, but I am not completely con-
vinced. So it makes sense to look at al-
ternatives. And then l...b2 is more or
less the only alternative I can see.’

‘L..b22Hbl ФсЗЗё4.’

‘But we can also say l...b2 2 Hbl ФЬЗ
3 g4 Hc5 3 h4 Hcl 4 Hxb2+ ФхЬ2 5 g5
fxg5 6 hxg5 ФсЗ 7 g6 Hgl ’

‘8 Ф15 Фd4 9 Ф16 Фd5 10 g7 and it
seems as the same bad race as before.’

‘L..b2 2 Hbl ФЬЗ 3 g4 Hc5 4 h4 Hcl
5 Hxb2+ ФхЬ2 6 g5 it could be possible
to play 6...Hfl+, with the idea to retain
the f-pawn. It is possible that this does
make a difference. Let me see.’

‘6...Hfl+ and he will have to go some-
where.’

‘Maybe he should not play 6 g5, but 6
Ф5 Hfl+ 7 Фй6. I^t me see 7...ФсЗ 8
h5 Фd4 9 h6 Фе5. It does not seem to
work for me.’

“But here, at the end of the rope, the
conclusion will have to be that I play
1..В2 2 Bbl ФЬЗ 3 g4 Hc5 4 h4 Scl.’

‘Da.’

1 ...b2 executed.

Ivo Timmermans

‘Okay. A familiar rook ending. Black has
advanced his b-pawn to b3. His rook and
king are active and support the pawn.’

‘It now looks as if White will be
forced to sacrifice the rook at b1, and he
should do so as late as possible, so that
his pawns get time to move.’

‘What does Black threaten? He could
play l...b2 forcing 2 Sbl or he could
even play something nasty, keeping
White busy. Okay, what should we do.
The rook on d5 looks okay as it prevents
<&f4-f5xf6. I think it would be normal to
go as fast as possible, so l...b2 seems like
the premier move. Then 2 Sbl, for in-
stance, 3 g4 ФЬЗ 4 h4 Фс2 5 Sxb2+
ФхЬ2 6 g5 fxg5 7 hxg5.’

‘Unfortunately it is one square too far
away, so 6 g5 is probably a draw. So 1
might... Okay, what should we do as
Black. T^et us start again.’

‘I...b2 and the rook must move. Well,
it can even go to 2 Bc8, but no, the rook

can come in between on b5 if there is a
check on the b-file, so we should stay on
the first rank.’

‘If then 2 Sbl 1 can play 2...Sd2 3 g4.’

Then what if I go back with the king.
Then White can advance with h4 and g5,
and I need to defend with the king, while
he goes to the queensidc, picking up the
b-pawn. So I should really get the rook
for the pawn.’

‘I...b2 2 Sbl, let us start again. There
are two ways of getting it. One is
2...ФсЗ. Okay, White follows his plan. 3
g4, even if he wants to go with the h-
pawn, he will have to play g4 to support
h5, so l...b2 2 Sbl ФсЗ 3 g4 Фс2. If the
rooks go away then 4...blW 5 Sxbl
ФхЫ 6 h4 (repeats line quickly). Then
what do you do? Maybe 7 g5 fxg5 8 hxg5
Фс2 9 g6 ФdЗ 10 g7 Sd8.’
“The black king is shouldered off, so it
is only a draw. You should be able to
stop... Aha, some ideas.’

You should win a tempo maybe. You
could stop White from playing g4 and
h4. Because l...b2 immediately does not
win. So maybe we should play 1...2g5,
there follows 2 g4 and h4, but maybe
l...Sh5 is a silly move, with the idea of
stopping the pawns.’

Time up.

1...Hh5.

Jesper Hall

‘Oh, I think it is so depressing.’ (rook
endings that is — J.Ла.).’But I am Black
and I am still proud. Okay.’

T...b2 2 Sbl ФЬЗ 3 g4 Фс2 4 Sxb2
ФхЬ2 5 h4 ФсЗ 6 g5 fxg5 7 hxg5 Фd4 8
g6-’

‘Okay.’

T...b2 2 Sbl ФсЗ 3 g4 Фс2 4 Sxb2
ФхЬ2 5 h4 ФсЗ 6 g5 fxg5 7 hxg5.
Somehow I want to come across the line
with the king. 7..^d4, it is really the key
position. White to move.’ (pause)

Yeah, l...b2 2 Sbl ФсЗ 3 g4 Фс2 4
Bxb2 ФхЬ2 5 h4 ФсЗ 6 g5 fxg5 7 hxg5
... 7...Ed6 8 Фй. Yeah, that is a draw.’

‘Another good move might be l...Eh5
in this position. It is a good move actu-

ally. Can I stop the pawns?’

T...Sh5 to stop the passed pawns. 2
Фй4 Sg5+ 3 ФВ b2 4 Sbl ФсЗ.’

‘So what will he do after l...Sh5? I get
some extra tempi in this position.’

'So, 1...Sh5. What is my idea after 2
Фё4 Sg5+ 3 ФВ b2 4 Sbl ФсЗ 5 g4,
that is the position.’

“This might be winning. (Repeats the
line.) 5...Фс2 6 Sxb2 ФхЬ2 7 h4 and
then maybe 7...Se5 8 ФЕ4, maybe the
rook could be in a better place. 7...Sa5 8
Фf4 ФсЗ 9 g5 fxg5 10 hxg5 Фd4 11 g6
Фd5. Not winning. Phew.’

T...Sh5 2 Фй4 Sg5+ 3 ФВ b2 4 Sbl
ФсЗ 5 g4 Sa5 6 h4 Фс2 7 Sxb2 ФхЬ2 8
Фf4 ФсЗ 9 g5 fxg5 10 hxg5 ФdЗ’

‘I cannot find anything in the position
after 11 g6.’

‘l...Bh5 2 Фg4 Sg5+ 3 ФВ Sc5.
Maybe 3...Hc5 is a good move. 4 ДЫ
ФсЗ, maybe I am able to win a tempo
somehow.’

Time up.

1...Sh5.

Artur Yusupov

Artur calculated l...b2 first, second and
third. He was unable to find a convinc-
ing line, and he started to think that
maybe there was something more to the
position. When he started looking for
candidates, he soon came up with
l...Sh5, a move he immediately liked,
and with which he stayed loyally until it
was time to make up his mind.

1...Sh5.

Fritz 8

F’nhj opens with l...b2, giving it a very
high evaluation. After about 20 seconds
it changes to l...Eh5. After 1 min. 24
seconds it changes back to l...b2, but
does not change the optimistic evalua-
tion of the position. Obviously this is a
position where tablebases would help the
program. After 2Vi minutes the evalua-
tion starts to drop. Then it switches back
to 1...Sh5, first with an evaluation similar
to l...b2, then rising.

‘It returns to the same positions,’
Mathias explained,’changing the evalua-
tions. It looks like the position might be
a draw, and the program tries to push the
draw out of the horizon by manoeuvring
around. It tries to hold on to the advan-
tage as long as possible!’ (Obviously a
weakness of the program, but clearly the
programmers choose between several
unpleasant side effects, and this is not a
serious one to them, as it makes little real
influence on the actual decision making

of the program.)

The pawns are not that advanced, so
the position must be winning somehow,’
Mathias said.’But let us see what Fni?
says, it is of course the stronger player!’

After 10 min. it chooses 1...Hh5 giv-
ing Black an advantage of 3.5 pawns.

Proposed solution

Test Position 9

Salov-Gligoric

Belgrade 1987
(continued from Test Position 6)

This exercise is of course a matter of
endgame technique, but then again, end-
game technique is not just knowledge of
manoeuvres and theoretical positions. It
is also a matter of accuracy, calculation
and, most of all, prophylaxis. This exer-
cise can be solved in several ways. One is
simply calculation: the two main moves,
81...b2 and 81...flh5 can be calculated,
and it will show that only one of them
wins. Another is that of comparison: in
the lines with 81...b2 the king is one
move closer to the eighth rank than in
the lines after 81...Sh5. So a choice be-
tween the two can be made on this sim-
ple basis. Finally, there is the technique
of do not hurry’, which basically means
that you should always pay attention to
preventing your opponent’s counterplay
in the endgame. All three methods in-
validate 81...b2 and encourage 81...Hh5
as played by Gligoric in the game.

The variations for 81...b2? go as fol-
lows. 82 ДЫ ФсЗ 83 g4 Фс2 84
Hxb2+ ФхЬ2 85 h4 3d2 (85...ФсЗ 86
g5 fxg5+ 87 hxg5 with a theoretical draw;
the point here is that the white king is
shouldering the black king, so that the
pawn eventually will claim the rook) 86
&f5! (86 g5? Sf2+ 87 &g4 ФсЗ! and
Black wins was pointed out to me by
Mark Dvoretsky. Thanks.) 86...Hf2+
87 Фдб ФсЗ 88 h5 ФВ4 89 h6 Фе5
90 h7 Eh2

ФЬЗ 84 h4 are similar: 84...Ш2+ 85 Фе4
Фа2 86 fihl blW+ 87 Hxbl ФхЬ1 88
g5 f5+ 89 ФеЗ Hfl 90 g6 f4+ 91 Фе2
Hhl 92 g7 Hgl 93 ФВ Hxg7 94 Фх£4
and the position is drawn; but not 84
ФВ? Hf2+ 85 Фйб Sf4 86 g5 f5
[86...fxg5 87 Фxg5 would be a draw] 87
h4 Фс2 88 Hxb2+ ФхЬ2 89 Ф£6 Hfl
and Black wins) 83 Фе4! (83 ФеЗ Sh2
84 Hc6 b2 85 Hxf6 Hxh3+ 86 Ф£4 Hb3
and it is all over) 83...b2 (83...Sh2 84
Ф15 and White draws) 84 Sb1 ФЬЗ 85
h4 Фс2 86 Sxb2+ ФхЬ2 87 д5 f5+
88 ФеЗ 2f1 89 дб

once again with a draw.

The solution is

81 ...Sh5!l

Here it looks as if White will lose, but
the position is actually still drawn. 91
Фд7! Ф14 92 ФхТб! Hxh7 93 д5 and
White escapes with a draw.

A much better attempt, but presuma-
bly a failed one, is 81...Sd2!?. Now my
analysis again should not be considered
conclusive, as I am limited by the reach
of my abilities. This is my opinion after
hours of analysis, but 1 would not like to
think of it as the truth at all: 82 g4
Hf2+!? (the lines after 82...b2 83 Hbl
I am completely in love with this
move. It is simple and deep at the same
time as it is surprising. The reasons for it
are given above so I shall not repeat
them. Instead, let us see how the game
concluded.

82 Sb1

What else? 82 &g4 Sg5+ 83 Ф£3
forces the white king backwards, and
Black can now win the race: 83...b2 84
Sbl ФсЗ 85 g4 Sa5 86 h4 Sal 87
Sxb2+ ФхЬ2 88 &f4 ФсЗ 89 Ф£5 (89
g5 fxg5+ 90 hxg5 Фd4 91 Ф(5 ФЬ5 92
g6 Sf1+ and Black wins) 89...Sfl+ 90
Феб Ф04 91 h5 (91 g5 f5! and Black will
queen his pawn) 91...Фе4 92 h6

92...Shi! and Black wins the game.

82...ФсЗ 83 Sh1

White still has no way to improve his
position.

83...b2 84 g4 Ea5!

85 Sb1 Sa1 86 Sxb2 ФхЬ2 87 Ф15
Sf 1 + 88 Фдб

88 Феб ФсЗ 89 h4 Фd4 transposes to
the lines with 82 Фg4 above.

88...ФсЗ 89 h4 Ф<14 90 h5 Фе5 91
h6 Зд 1 0-1
CHAPTER TWELVE

Test Position 10

Test Position 10

1 ...gxh4 2 jce3+ &h5 3 £e2+

White to move. Find the strongest con-
tinuation. Do this talking to a micro-
phone or taking notes on a piece of pa-
per at timely intervals. Take the time you
find necessary, and write it down too.

Sidsel Heeg

‘My first thoughts are if there are any-
thing tactical here, a chance to mate the
black king. It could be with 1 Hh4+.’

Tut now I have sacrificed a queen so
I need to take care, but... I cannot really
see anything wrong with it at all. No,
nothing.’

1 Sh4+ (executed after 2‘/2 min.)

3...*g6.’Oh yes, unfortunately, I had
not seen that.’

Jesper Hall

‘I am White and no less proud!’
‘My first move will be 1 Hh4+ gxh4 2

JLe3+ ФЬ5 and probably I would try 3

ng7.’

‘And that threatens to play 4 JLe2
mate. How will he protect against this? If
he plays 3...h3 I will still give him a check
with 4 JLe2+ and then 4...ФЬ4 5 g3 is
checkmate.’

‘1 Sh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3 ФЬ5 3 Sg7.
Now what can he do? He might play the
incredible 3...Wf3 or even another crazy
move.’

‘4 gxf3. Phew.’

‘So 1 Sh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3 ФЬ5 are there
any alternatives to 3 Hg7? No, there are
not. So 3 Sg7 Wf3 4 gxf3. Now maybe
4...d5. (Repeats the line twice.) Maybe 5
f4 then he can play 5...JLg4!’ (repeats the
line once again, trying to find alterna-
tives).

“Taking on h7 forces him to take. 5
JLxh7 wins the exchange. Maybe it is not
winning, but at least it is good.’

‘1 Hh4+ gxh4 2 £c3 ФЬ5 3 Hg7 Wf3
4 gxf3 d5 — where is the mate. 5 JLxh7’

‘5...Hxh7 6 Exh7+ ^g6’ (repeats the
line once again)

‘5 f4 maybe. No, then he can play
5...ФЬ6. 6 Sg3 h3.’

‘1 Hh4+ gxh4 2 £сЗ ФЬ5 3 Sg7 Wf3
4 gxf3 d5 5 JLxh7 Hxh7 6 Sxh7+ ^gti 7
Hh8 b6.’

‘Okay. 1 give the check on h4.’

1 Hh4+.’It should give a winning po-
sition.’

Artur Yusupov

If Artur was getting tired by now is hard
to say. He did not show the same level
concentration as in the previous exer-
cises, indicated first and foremost by his
only analysing one move, 1 Hh4+. He
simply could not believe that there was
any alternative to pushing his advantages
immediately. Afterwards he explained
that he simply did not have the imagina-
tion to believe that White could play with
more restraint, and that the compensa-
tion for the queen was so large, that
White could delay confrontation a move
or two.

His line was 1 Sh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+
&h5 3 Sg7 Wf3 4 gxf3 d5 5 £xh7
Hxh7 6 Sxh7+ Фдб 7 Sh8 b6, just
like Jesper Hall, but his conclusion was
only that White had a slight advantage.

1 Hh4+.

Sten Vesterli

‘Materially 1 am way behind, with only a
bishop for the queen. 1 have two bish-
ops. The e-file is open and dominated by
my rooks. His king is exposed on h6. I
am vulnerable to a back rank mate. For
now the bishops are in charge of that.’

“The black king is a bit in trouble.
There could be something interesting
there. Ixit’s see.’

‘1 Hh4+ looks interesting. I...gxh4 is
forced. 2 JLe3+, now there are two pos-
sibilities. No, there is only one. 2...Ф115

(2 min pause)’

“There might be a combination with 1
Hh4+ gxh4 2 АеЯ- ФЬ5. If I give a
check with the light-squared bishop he
gets the g6 square. 3 g4+!?’

‘then 3...hxg3 is forced.’

“Then his king is at h5. He can always
go to h4. I cannot give him a check on
f6, as the queen will capture it.’

‘Let’s sec how I can force a win out of
this! It needs to be something really
quick, as I am behind materially. It is my
move and I have the initiative. f6 does
not look weak, but if I could put a rook
on f6, then it would be alright.’

‘Possible is 1 Д17 planning 2 Sxf6.’

‘How will he protect this? He has no
dark-squared bishop. Actually I have a
material advantage right now, as he has
two pieces which are not contributing
with anything. Sh8 has some impor-
tance, as it protects h7, but it docs not
protect a lot.’

‘If I take on f6 immediately he will re-
capture with the queen. There is still a
pawn on d7 which takes the e6 square
away from me.’

‘If I play 1 JSh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+ 1 will
of course attack h7 twice, but it is not
really decisive.’

‘I need to create a hole in the pawn
chain somehow. What if I start with 1
h4. Yes, what about 1 h4. then 2 hxg5
fxg5. Hmm.’ (pause)

‘1 f4 then l...g4, and I have 2 f5.’

‘It is hard for him to move the d-pawn.
If he plays l...d6 he opens for his bishop,
but then I am allowed to put a rook on
e6. Oh no, it does not work once he has
opened for the bishop. It would be in his
interest to do so. Preventing me in ex-
ploiting that the king and queen are on
the same rank.’ (long pause)

‘I cannot really see a way to collect
enough firepower to reach him behind
his pawns. Of course I can play 1 Ee3’

‘with the threat of 2 Hh3 mate, but
then he will just answer l...d6 and guard
himself with the bishop.’

‘As far as I can see then 1 h4 might be
a good shot. He cannot really take it, as 1

have 2 Sxh4+.’

T...f5 will attack my rook.’

‘If he plays l...gxh4 then I have 2

JLe3+. Then he will play 2...Ф115.’

(Long pause)This is my best try.’
He executed 1 h4.

Peter Skovgaard

‘You have a bishop for a queen, so it
should be advisable to win in an attack,
as the endgame looks dubious. It could
be possible to try some ideas like 1 h4 in
order to break through to the black king.
Or maybe there is something stronger.’

‘Maybe 1 Sf7 in order to take on f6
with the bishop, but this does not really
threaten anything.’

What can Black do? He would proba-
bly like to play l...d5 and get his pieces
out. This will not do.’
‘So 1 h4 <15 and then 2 hxg5+ and if
2...fxg5 then I have 3 ^.g7+ and on
3...^g6 then 4 S4e6+.’

This looks pretty strong. 4...ФН5 5

JLe2+ФЬ4 6 g3+ФЬЗ.’

Then I can play 5 Д4е5+- 'i'gb 6 JLd3
mate. So he cannot recapture with the
pawn on g5.’

What if he plays 1 h4 d5 2 hxg5+
^xgS. What then? Then maybe 3 JLe3+
then 3...&gS 4 Hh4+ f5’

‘5 fih6 mate. This looks pretty strong
again.’

‘And what else?’

‘Instead of З...Ф^, he might be able
to play З...Ф115, but then I have 4 g3
with the idea of 5 Hh4 mate, which he
cannot prevent.’

‘On 1 h4, then instead of l...d5, then
maybe he has l...Wxe4 2 JLxe4’

‘Or maybe 6 g3+ then 6 ФЬ2
threatening mate with 7 g3+. This looks
goddb4 d5 2 hxg5+ fxg5 3 JLg7+ ФЬ5
then 4 Jle2+ and he must play 4...g4.’

‘and then 2...Д18 does not work be-
cause of 3 Sxh7 mate.’

‘But on 1 h4, what other possibilities
does he have than l...d5. It does not look
good for him. Maybe he can play l...f5,
though it looks pretty wild.’

‘I can then play 2 JLg7+ or maybe 2
hxg5+ ^xgS. Then I have 3 S.e3’

‘with the threat of 4 SgM.’

‘It is also threatening the rook on h8.

This also looks pretty strong for me.’

‘So I think I will play this.’

1 h4, after 8 minutes.

Ivo Timmermans

‘White has sacrificed the queen for a mi-
nor piece, so we should go for the black
king. Ok, let’s go!’

There are a few obvious attacking
motifs. The king is cut off. So I will start
with 1 Sh4+ to see if it leads to a mate.
From other moves 1 JLe3 could be in-
teresting, but it does not look like it.’

‘Ok, I will start with looking at 1
Eh4+, and only if that does not work,

will 1 turn to other candidates. 1 Ш14+
gxh4 2 JLe3 mate, sorry, 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5 3
Jle2+ &g6, so you probably have to play
3flg7to prevent Now, how can
Black prevent JLe2 mate? Can you pre-
vent it? You can always play 3...d5 so you
can but the bishop in between, but then’

‘4 JLe2+ -&g4 5 JLxg4+ ФЬ4 6 g3
mate. So that does not work.’

‘So you probably have to look for
something else. I will just look at the
lines, checking that the beginning is cor-
rect. 1 Hh4+ gxh4, forced. 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5
and then preventing the king walking
away with 3 Sg7, threatening 4 Jle2+.
Ah, sorry, now I see that there is a pawn
on h4, so you can never play ...ФЬ4. I
overlooked that. 3 Sg7 with JLe2+ com-
ing. What to do about it?’

‘1 Eh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5, there is
nothing you can put in between. 3 Eg7.
If 3 Sg7 does not work I might look for
other moves. The threat is JLe2+. So
what would you do to stop it?’

‘One idea is maybe 3...Wf3, a desper-
ado, which looks quite interesting. Hmm.
3...Wf3. 4 gxf3 is probably forced. Is
there anything else? 4 gxf3, and then the
next move is 5 f4 and JLe2+ comes
again. But then on 5 f4 you play 5...JLg4
(after 4...d5 — J.Aa.) keeping the bishop
on the g4-dl diagonal. I will look at
something else.’

‘3...Wf3, that is a bit of an odd move.

Maybe even 3...Wxg2+.’

‘I -et me see. 3 Sg7 in this position. Let
me sec if 3...Wxg2+ is a problem. No, let
me first solve the problems with 3...W13.
4 gxf3 and the next move I will play is 5
f4, but 5 f4 allows ...Фкб, which is a bit
inconvenient, as it threatens the rook
again. 3...Wf3 is a nasty move.’

‘Ok, here we go again. 1 Sh4+ gxh4 2
JLe3+ ФЬ5. I do like 3 Hg7, though 3
g4+ is also possible. But let me first look
at 3 Hg7. Still 3...Wf3 is a bit annoying. 4
gxf3. I keep coming back to it. That is a
bit of a problem. What do you do if I try
it differently.’

‘1 Hh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5 and now 3
g4+ <^xg4 4 Sg7+.’

‘No, I do not think that is going to
lead to mate. So the whole idea with 1
ПЬ4+ probably does not lead to a mate.’

‘What if I reverse the move order. If I
play 1 JLe3 first...’

“You can maybe play even l...'iifxe4
and after 2 JLxe4 there is no attack.’

‘1 Hh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5. Now do 1
have anything else? Is there a move like...
Any move? 3 g4+ does not work. 3...^xg4
4 JLe2+. I have not even looked at
3...hxg3, but it might be met with 4 JLe2+.’

‘No, then you go to g6. So 4 Hg7+
Ф£3, which is a nuisance. 1 Hh4+
straight away does not work.’

What could I do next? Should I play 1
2c3 to prepare a simple threat of 2 Sh3
mate. And in the case of 1 ...g4, what do I
do then? It is not so clear. 2 Sh3 does
not work. 2...gxh3 3 ДеЗ+ ФЬ5.’
I go back again.’

T h4. The idea is to open up the posi-
tion. I got one nice line, but let us see if
the rest fits in.’

‘1 h4 Wxe4 2 fxg5+, and I would not
consider 1...Wxe4 if Black has any other
moves. But suppose 1...,Йгхе4 2 hxg5+
fxg5 3 JLxe4, with a double threat of
jLxh8 and Hxh7. So after 1 h4 Wxe4 2
hxg5+, then 2...'^?xg5 is a forced move.’

‘Hmm. Okay, not easy!’

“Let me just start again with candidate
moves. Txit me get back to the beginning.
I think 1 Hh4+ does not work immedi-
ately. So do I have other moves? Do I
have anything else? Are there any other
mating motives I can think of. If the f6-
pawn was gone, then Ag7+ would be
strong. Are the any other mating motifs?
Ixt us have a look. 1 h4. The problem is
that Black always has l...Wxe4, stopping
the first wave of the attack. I.et me see. 1
h4 Wxe4 2 JLxe4 or 2 hxg5+.’

T^et me see. 1 h4 to play hxg5 soften-
ing up the position. I do not have the
feeling that I am on the right track. 1 h4
Wxe4 2 hxg5+ fxg5 3 JLxe4.’

The rook on h8 is hanging. If 3...Hg8,
then what is next. Ah, then h7 is hang-
ing. This is a very nice idea. Very simple.

“Then 3 Axe4, because 3 Hg7+ will be
met with 3...Bg6. So 3 Jtxe4, and now
there is a threat of JLe3+. 3...f5 is not
good, as the Eh 8 is still hanging. So 1 am
looking at 1 h4 Wxe4 2 hxg5+ S&xgS 3
JLxe4. The threat is Eg7+, and in the
case of 3...Sg8 I will probably play 4
JLe3+, the king goes to g4 or the h-file,
and then comes 5 Sxh7 with a continu-
ous attack. So 1 h4.’

“What is actually the idea of 1 h4? It is
probably simply to open up the position.
A general idea is hxg5+. If you take with
the king then comes JLe3+, and the king
cannot go to g6 and f5, so you go to h5,
and then comes Ae2+. So actually this is
threatening the same as before. After
hxg5+ fxg5, the idea is Ag7+, or actually
JLxh8 is even simpler. So 1 h4. Let us
have another look.’

‘1 h4. The king can never go to g6 as
then S4e6+ wins the queen back. So 1
h4. What will Black do. You have several
moves. You got l...g4. I just looked at
l...Wxe4. Ok. I xit us go one more time.’

‘1 h4 gxh4 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5 then follows
3 JLe2+ winning. Well, there should be a
win somewhere. 1 believe it works.
I...gxh4 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5. Well, I can start
with 3 Hg7, then even 3...Wxe4’

‘4Де2+^4 5 Дxg4 mate.’

‘I...gxh4, l...g4. I suppose 1 will play 2
Sxg4, which pins down the king. If you
play 2...ФЬ5 then 3 JLe2 comes, which
threatens a lot. So l...g4 is not a good
option, because of simply 2 Sxg4. Are
there any other moves. I have already
looked at L..Wxe4 2 hxg5+, what do you
do then. You’ve got more options than
simply 2...fxg5. 2...^xg5 is one.’

Then you play 3 JLxe4 with the

threat... No, I think I have already looked
at this one. The threat is Ae3+ driving
the king to the h-file, playing Sg7 with
an attack. Tt should win. Because I’ve got
three pawns in front of my king which
can participate in the attack. So 1 h4
Wxe4 2 hxg5 ^xg5 3 JLxe4, should win,
3...f5 4 £xh8. So next move. 1...Wxe4 2
hxg5+ ^g6 3 Axe4+ and then there is
3...f5, but this allows a pin on the e4-g6
diagonal after 4 JLd3.’

‘You are forced to move the rook,
which allows against a check on g7.’

‘So 1 h4. Let us do something funny.
For instance l...d5 which opens up the
bishop’s diagonal. Or l...d6. Let us have
a look at 1 h4 d6.’

‘But first of all. Let me look at L..d5. 2
hxg5+ fxg5 is not attractive, as I just play
3 Sei and again the rook on h8 is hang-
ing. So White wins at least... Ok. Let me
go back just one more time.’

‘L..d5, because it is probably also just
winning an exchange back, which is not
much. I...d5 2 hxg5+, and now two
moves, 2...^xg5 and I can even play 3
f4+ &g4 4 Jte2+ Ф15 5 g4+ ^g6 6 f5+
king to a dark square 7 JLe3+ with a con-
tinuous attack. This is really something
that 1 believe should work. I must have a
lot of ideas there.’
‘So 1 h4 d5 2 hxg5+ ^?xg5. Probably 3
f4+ is a nice move. 3...<&g6 always meets
4 Й4е6+ where 1 win the queen with a
continuous attack.’

‘3 f4+.’

‘If you go to h6, then maybe just 4
Se3 with £5 and Sh3 coming up. I think
I should have enough attack.’

‘I...d5 2 hxg5+ fxg5. What to do then?
Good point. What I do then is maybe 3
.&xh8 dxe4 4 jlg7+, no, that is not
working. 4 JLxe4 and then forced is
4...Wxe4, exchanging the queen for a
bishop, and probably White should be
slighdy better.’

‘I...d5 2 hxg5+ fxg5. Where can the
rook go?’

‘Maybe 3 Й4е6+ Ji.xe6 4 JLg7+ ФЬ5 5
JLe2+ then 5...g4.’

tion, 1 h4 d5. This is probably a good
defence for Black.’

‘I...g4 failed, l...Wxe4 failed, but l...d5
is keeping it together. So 1 h4 d5 2
hxg5+ fxg5, what to do? What do I
have?’

‘Okay, if I play 3 flh4+ now, then
3...gxh4 4 JLe3+ ФЬ5 5 Sg7’

‘and now you’ve got 5...Ag4 or
5..Wf3 again.’

‘I am not sure about this line. Is there
anyway I can avoid these issues? I have
already looked at 1 JLe3. It is not so at-
tractive, because it removes the pressure
from the d4-h8 diagonal. I will have a
look. Because if I cannot play 1 h4 or 1
ЙЬ4+ at the same time, then my attack is
doomed to fail.’

‘Another look. 1 h4 d5, this is the line
that should work.’

‘Hmm. That is quite an unclear varia-
‘2 hxg5+ fxg5. This is the critical posi-
tion, so far. Ok, the Sh8 is hanging.
Suppose I play 3 JLxh8 dxe4 aha. In the
case of 4 JLxe4 1йгхе4 5 Дхе4 JLf5, then
the JLh8 is hanging. I can play 6 Йе5’

‘6...Hxh8 7 Sxf5. This becomes very
complicated. Maybe White is ok, but I
do not really trust this.’

‘1 h4 d5 2 hxg5+ fxg5. What do I want
to do? Give a check on the h-file. An-
other possibility is 3 йсЗ, again, and now
the Hh8 is hanging once again. 1 h4 d5 2
hxg5+ fxg5. What if I simply play 3 йеЗ
with the idea that all the rooks are on the
dark squares and I attack the ЙЬ8. Ok,
what does Black play?’

‘3..JLd7 seems like a reasonable move.
What do I do then?’

‘Can I play 3 flh4+ in this line — I
think I already looked. 3 ЙЬ4+ gxh4 4

JLe3+ ФЬ5. The problem is always with
this check on h4, that the king goes to
h5.1 cannot prevent this.’

‘Maybe I should have another look at
1 f4.1 think that now I am drifting.’

‘I think I am going for 1 h4 and then I
should find something in the l...d5 line.’

‘2 hxg5+ fxg5 3 Jlxh8 dxe4 4 JLxe4,
now the threat is flxh7 mate. So you will
have to play 4...Wg6 or 4,..Wxe4 5 Йхе4
Af5 6 Йе5 JLxc2.’

‘At least this endgame is not worse for
White. But I do not think I have any
advantage. What else?’

‘1 h4 d5 2 g4, for instance? Any ideas?
2...dxe4 3 hxg5+ lS?xg5 4 Ae3+ <&xg4 5
JLe2+. No it does not work.’

‘So really it should have to come from
1 h4 d5 2 hxg5+ fxg5, and now the
$8,000 move. What is it?’
‘I have achieved everything. The
king’s position is opened up and it can-
not escape. With my bishops I defend h8
and g6. So I should find a move here.
The rook on e4 is hanging.’

‘Maybe 1 h4 d5 2 hxg5+ fxg5 3 Ag7+.
S—'&gb is obviously not good, as then
follows 4 S4e6+ blocking the c8-h3 di-
agonal, so 4...ФЬ5 5 JLe2 is disastrous.’

‘1 h4 d5 2 hxg5+ fxg5 3 Ag7+ Ф115.
Now 4 JLe2+. Ah, the rook is still on e4,
which is nice, so he has to play maybe
4...g4. Then 5 H4e5+ and if 5...^?g6 I’ve
got 6 JLd3+ winning. This looks good.’

‘1 h4 d5 2 hxg5+ fxg5 3 JLg7+ Ф115,
forced.’

‘4 JLe2+ ^g6. Let me just go back.’

‘3 ^-g7+ ФЬ5, but then I might play
some other move. 1 might play... 4 Sc4
maybe, attacking the queen. Or 4 2e3,
still threatening JLe2+ and threatening to
win the rook on h8. I mean this is defi-
nitely the way to go. I cannot see any
other way for White to play than 1 h4.
Let me just check one more time.’

‘1 Sh4+. I could not make it work. So
1 continue to attack with 1 h4. Any other
moves. 1 i.e3, you can always play
l...Wxe4 which seems to hold, as Black
can develop very rapidly after this with
...d5 and ...JLf5. So it is too slow to cre-

ate an attack. There are no other rook
moves to reinforce my position. Dou-
bling on the seventh rank is simply too
slow. There are no pawn moves besides
1 h4 which goes for an attack, so 1 think
I go for 1 h4, this is my move.’

1 M/This is my final verdict.’

Tom Skovgaard

‘So we are certainly some pieces down. A
bishop for a queen, but a lot of devel-
opment and a heavy attack against the
king. It is obvious that we need to look
for a mate here. The rooks are active. We
need to check all moves, like 1 3h4+ and
threats on h7 and things like that. Maybe
even ideas of Se6.’

‘Let us take it from the beginning, 1
h4 also exists, to attack with the pawns.’

‘So the black king cannot move. It has
h5 and maybe g6. Black has no immedi-
ate threats. Let us see if we can compose
a mate here.’

‘1 ПЬ4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5, only
move. Does this imply a mating attack.
Maybe 3 JLf5.’

‘1 Eh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5, yes it is
the only move. We can also play 3 JLe2+,
but then the king escapes.’

‘But we can also play 1 JLe3. No, let
us first finish the other line. 3 JLf5.’
‘Is there any mate here? 3 g4 hxg3 4
hxg3 and mate in next? No, no mate.
The king has h4 now. So no immediate
mate there.’

‘So maybe 1 JLe3 first. That is a clear
threat. So what can Black do. 1,..ФЬ5. Is
that the only move. 1 JLe3 Ф*Ь5, are the
any other moves. 1..T5 is a move. 2
Axf5. No, it is not possible. The rook is
still on e4.’

‘I...f5 and there is no mate. Or? 2
Hh4+ &g6 3 Sg7 mate. It is still mate.’

T...f5 is no good. Oh, wrong. The
bishop is on e3.’

‘Anyway, he cannot move his f-pawn,
obviously.’

‘What about other moves? 1 Д4е6,
does that make any sense? Maybe 1 g4.
No. 1 h4, maybe something like that.’

can move his d-pawn and then he can
capture the rook on h3. So it is not really
that good. But... 1 ПеЗ d5.’

“There must be something here. There
must be something. Maybe that g4
move.’

‘Let us go back to 1 JLe3, I like that
move.’

“This is not easy.’

‘Is there anything else than mate here?’

‘I do not sec anything. 1 He8. 1
Hxh7+. No. No.’

‘Let us check the first one again. 1
Sh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+ ФЬ5 3 JLe2+ ^g6.
No. It does not work.’

‘1 h4. The threat is what. Nothing
maybe. Hmm.’

‘Maybe 1 Se3. That is another option.
1 the bishop stay on the strong square
d4. 1 Ee3 threatening mate in one. He

‘1...ФЬ5 2 g3. No, that is no good.’

‘Are there other mates than with the
rook on the h-file. Maybe the pawns
need to assist.’

‘If we can capture on g5 and he recap-
tures with his pawn we can give a check
on g7. He will need to go to h5, but I do
not see a mate there.’

“We need to get rid of both his
pawns.’ (f6 and g5 — J.Aa.).

‘Maybe just 1 He8. Is there anything
there?’
‘I have no ideas right now. Where is
the mate.’

‘1 JLxf6 is no good either.’

‘Ok. 1 i.e3 &h5. (pause) Or l...f5.’

‘Maybe I can just double the rooks on
the seventh rank and mate him on h7. 1
Hf7.’

“There is something. It is also threat-
ening Exf6. This is interesting. He can
play l...d6 2 Hee7, threatening mate, and
he cannot escape. 2...ФЬ5 3 h3 and we
will mate him.’

‘1 2f7. No way to protect it. I...^g6
must lose to 2 Eee7+. He can play
l...Hf8, but just 2 Sxf8. He can play
l...f5, that is an option, but we will just
double the rooks anyway with 2 See7,
threatening his rook and threatening
mate. This looks good.’

‘I am not sure I can calculate all the
lines.’

What is the likely reply to 1 Sf7. If he
just moves his queen, I will double my
rooks. He needs to play 2...g4 then, 3
£еЗ+ ФЬ5 4 Hxh7+ 2xh7 5 2xh7+
Ф^4. There must be a mate here. Maybe
simply 6 h3. Yes.’

‘I have my move! I am not sure I can
calculate everything in depth, but at least
I am sure that this is the best move.’

1 2f7 after 13‘Л min.

Peter Heine Nielsen

‘1 Hh4+ gxh4 2 ie3+ ФЬ5 3 2g7 Wf3 4
gxf3 d5 and I see no clear white win. I
used a bit of time on these lines.’

‘1 JLe3 f5 also got me nowhere.’

‘1 Sf7 d5 seems problematic. Besides
this 1 do not see any obvious candidates.’

“Time to go I would think.’

‘After 4...d5 in the first line I have 5
JLxh7, but 5...Sxh7 6 Sxh7+ ^g6 seems
to be ok for Black.’

‘1 Hf7 d5 2 2ee7 seems exciting.’

‘At the moment 1 2f7 seems to be
decisive. 1 am calculating 1 Hf7 d5 2
See7 ФЬ5 3 2xh7+ fixh7 4 Sxh7+ ^g4
5 f3+ ФТ4 6 ФЕ2’

and White wins.

I will play 1 2f7.
Fritz 8

The first move, chosen immediately, is 1
Sf7. It starts evaluating the position as
slightly worse. This is a matter of mate-
rial,’ Mathias explained.The program has
to search in order to make the correct
evaluation, but notice that it finds the
correct move quickly, even if the evalua-
tion is not correct. It is something I al-
ways try to explain to computer chess
fanatics.’ The situation quickly became
very stable, so we changed the exercise
into Mathias Feist finding the trap, in-
stead of Drify finding the right move.

Mathias had trouble finding the prob-
lem with 1 Sh4+ gxh4 2 JLe3+ Ф115 3
Sg7, but eventually he did find 3...Wf31,
the trap in the game. But first he investi-
gated 3...Wxg2+ and 3...Wa6.

Also Mathias thought about 1 h4 with
an attack.

But Frit%_ decided on 1 Ш7.

Proposed solution
Test Position 10

P .Murphy-A.T urner

Irish Championships, Dublin 1952
Sicilian Defence

(Гhis game won the brilliancy pripe)

1 e4 c5 2 Clc6 3 d4 cxd4 4

2>xd4 2>f6 5 2ic3 e6 6 xe2 ib4 7

0-0 £xc3 8 bxc3 C)xe4 9 Jlf3 £jf6

9...£lxc3 is probably more accurate.

10i.a3^e5?

This move is a mistake and should
have been punished.

11 Cif5!?

A spectacular sacrifice, but after the
stronger 11 £}b5! d5 12 4tkl6+ (12
&d61?) 12...&d7 13 fiel White has a
very powerful attack.

11...exf5 12 Wd6 &c4! 13 Bfe1 +
Cie4 14 jLxe4!

The only move that makes sense.
14...$ixd6

15^.xf5+??

15 .£xb7+ &f8 16 ^.xd6+ &g8 17
JLxa8 was correct. White has good com-
pensation, but hardly anything more.

15...£*8 16 Axd6+ Фд8 17 ПвЗ g6
18 Ad3*g7 19Sae1

19...Wb6?

This move still gives Black the better
chances, but Black seems to be a queen
up after 19...h5!? and now 20 Ae5+ (20
Se7 Sf8) 2О...ФЬ7 and Black does not
have to weaken his kingside.

20 Ae5+ f6!

20...&f8 21 Axh8 Wd8 22 Se8+
Wxe8 23 Ag7+ ^xg7 24 Sxe8 gives
White good winning chances as Black
cannot free himself easily.

21 Ad4 Wc6?

The only move was 21...We6! which
would have stopped the attack at once.
22 Se7+

22...ФН6

Black is mated after 22...Ф18 23 Se8+
<&g7 24 Sle7+ &h6 25 АеЗ+ ФЬ5
(25...g5 26 Sxh8) 26 Ae2+ ФЬ4 27
Se4+ Wxe4 28 Sxe4 mate.

23 31е4! g5?!

Giving up the queen now with
23...Wxe4 24 Axe4 d5 was a fighting
chance, even though White is clearly
better after 25 Ad3 Ag4 (the only fight-
ing chance is to prevent Ae2+; 25...Hf8
26 Ae3+ &h5 27 Ae2+ and 25...Af5 26
АеЗ+ ФЬ5 27 Ae2+ Ag4 28 f3 both
win for White) 26 h3 Adi 27 Sei Af3
28 gxf3 She8 and Black can at least fight
a little, even though the position is lost.
Now White throws away a winning posi-
tion and is awarded the brilliancy price
for it.

24 Hh4+?? gxh4 25 Ae3+ &h5 26
Sg7 Wxg2+??

Black here misses the only saving
move, and later books on combinations
follow suit. 26...Wf3!! 27 gxf3 d5 28
Axh7 Sxh7 29 Sxh7+ Ф^б 30 Sh6+
and White is only slighdy better, as seen
above in Yusupov’s answer.

27 Sxg2 h3 28 Ae2+ ФИ4 29 Sg4+
ФЬ5 30 Sg5+ and mate next move.

1-0
One way to win the position, and
clearly the simplest, is the idea of dou-
bling rooks on the seventh starting with
24 Sf7! Wxe4 (24...d5 25 Дее7 f5 26
JLxh8 and wins) 25 JLxe4 d5 26
Exf6+ &g7 27 _2_xd5

ДеЗ &xg5 27 Sg3+ Ф>Ь4 28 Seg7 Wd6
29 £e2 Af5 30 fih3+ i.xh3 31 g3+
Wxg3+ 32 fxg3 mate). The following
combination is perhaps the most original
I have ever seen. Seeing the idea of £3
and g4 can probably only be done by a
computer.

27...	He8 28 Hf7+ Фдб 29 g4 l_xg4
30 216+ Фд7 31 Ef4+ and Black is
gone.

It is even possible for White to delay
the direct attack and build up his posi-
tion with 24 h4!?

26 Де21! (26 i-xh8 dxe4 27 ±xe4
Wxe4 28 Hxe4 £f5 29 Де5 &g6 30 &g7
Sg8 31 JLh6 Дс8 is slighdy better for
Black, and 26 £g7+ ФЬ5 27 ДеЗ i.g4
rather unclear) 26...JLd7 (26...Ф115 27 f3
Wd6 28 JLxh8 h6 29 Ad4 and White
wins) 27 f3 Wc7 28 g4 Wg3+ 29 flg2

and now we have:

a)	24...Wxe4 25 JLxc4 d5 26 JLd3 and
Black’s king has not found safety in the
exchange.

b)	24...d5 25 hxg5+ fxg5 (25...ФЬ5 26

and White is winning.

Black only has one saving chance:

24...&h5!?
25 f3!

White has already brought his pieces
into the attack, and now, when more
pieces are needed, the pawns are excel-
lent substitutes. Now we have:

a)	25...b6 26 g4+ ФЬб 27 hxg5+ ^xg5
28 s£?g2

28...Aa6!? (28...Ab7 29 Ae3+ Ф114 30
Sg7! Wc5 31 Axc5 bxc5 32 Sei and
mate follows) 29 Sg7+ &h6 30 See7
We6 31 Sxh7+ &g5 (31...Sxh7 32
Sxh7+ ^gS 33 Ae3+ Wxe3 34 Sh5+
Ф£4 35 Sf5 with mate) 32 Shg7+ Ф£4
33 Ахаб and White wins.

b)	25...d5 26 g4+ ФЬб 27 hxg5+ ^xgS
28 Sg7+ Фкб 29 See7 We6 (the last try)
30 ^?£2! (what is so odd about this posi-
tion, is that White has all the time in the

world) 30...b6 31 Ae3+ Wxe3+ 32 ФхеЗ
and there is no credible defence against
Ф£4 and Sxh7+.

25...Wd6 26 Sf7!

White is preparing for mate one move
at a time.

26...Wg3

26...b6 27 See7 Wxe7 28 g4+ &h6
(28...&xh4 29 Af2+ ФЬЗ 30 Afi mate)
29 Sxe7 Даб!? 30 Axf6 and White wins.

27 Se81!

(dearly the most effective move.

27...gxh4

27...Sxe8 28 Sxh7 mate.

28 Sxh8 We1+ 29 Afi d6 30
Shxh7+ Фдб 31 Sfg7+ &f5 32 Sh6
Феб 33 c4 and Black will have to give
his queen up even though he can no
longer be said to have material superior-
ity.

Actually White has so much time in
the starting position that he can waste a
full tempo, despite being a queen down.
So an alternative solution is:

24 Se3l?

mate, but mainly attacking f6 from £3.

24...d5

24...g4 25 Д3е5!! and White wins. Also
24...d6 25 Sf7 g4 26 Eee7 wins for
White.

25 Hf3 Дд4 26 Hxf6+ Wxf6 27
Axf6 Sae8 28 Ag7+ &h5 29 f3

Of course with the threat of 25 Hh3

29...Sxe7 30 fxg4+ &xg4 31
^.xh8 and White is winning.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN

What can we learn
from the Tests?

As said in the introduction, I never in-
tended this book to be a scientific study.
As an academic I have had it up to here
with science messing with things that are
supposed to be fun. Therefore I concen-
trated on constructing the book in a way
where it could be read in a train, an arm-
chair or on the toilet, with numerous
diagrams and many direct quotes. Also,
this limits the pressure on this writer to
produce a level of intelligence and insight
so far unknown to him.

Still, it does not mean that we cannot
learn a lot from these exercises and the
answers the test persons presented. So in
this chapter I will make some observa-
tions about obvious differences in think-
ing patterns between the players of dif-
ferent strength. Obviously there are
many questions which could be posed to
such tests. They include:

Do stronger players calculate more
than weaker players?

What is the importance of pattern
recognition?

What can weaker players do to im-
prove their game and thereby come
closer to the stronger players?

Questions of a different nature also
spring to mind. In his works (Attack and
Defence, among others) Russian super-
trainer Mark Dvoretsky chooses to dis-
tinguish between intuitive and logical
players, rather than to regard them as
tacticians and positional players. This
way of looking at the players will perhaps
give us some additional understanding of
what is really happening in the tests.

There is also the question of the com-
puter contra the best human players. The
situations in which the computer is
stronger are many, but there are also
situations (some of them surprising)
where the humans have done better.

But let us start by looking at each sin-
gle participant and see how well they did,
and try to come to some conclusions as
to why they did well or less well in cer-
tain exercises. Then we will discuss the
remaining issues afterwards.

Sten Vesterli

Sten is in many ways the most heroic
participant in this test. As far as 1 know
he played his first rated tournament in
February 2004 and did poorly. So for
him to participate in a test as the begin-
ner was something not everybody would
have done.

But Sten actually did pretty well con-
sidering his obvious weaknesses. None
of the exercises were embarrassing to
him in any way, even though he had
some obvious flaws in his analysis. Л
good example of this is exercise 7, where
Sten suggested 15 Sxc8+ 2xc8 16 ^.xa7.

This I would say is a common mistake
among beginners who understand only
just a little bit about chess. Their major
weakness is unawareness or unfamiliarity
with simple tactical twists. Like this one
of capturing a pawn on a7 and then not
seeing 16...Sa8 regaining the pawn with
the initiative. This was also apparent in
exercise 4 when he completely missed
the idea of 1 Sxg7+ <i?xg7 2 JLh6+,
which all the others saw.

All the way through Sten was trying to
understand the positions based on ab-
stract ideas, a method that, even though
useful, can never be enough in itself, as
awareness of tactics is based on pattern
recognition and calculation. And tactics,
minor or major, do decide a large num-
ber of all chess games. Especially
amongst amateurs.

Positionally Sten actually did reasona-
bly well. As with many weaker club play-
ers, it is impossible to say how good they
really are positionally, because their tacti-
cal oversights always overshadow the
position aspect of their game.

Whether Sten is a tactical, positional,
logical or intuitive player is impossible to
say. A beginner has no distinct style, only
a limited knowledge.

Not surprisingly Sten was not able to
solve any of the exercises completely, but
he managed to give a good answer to
many of them, especially no. 10. Here it
was noticeable that he did not see the
quiet move 26 Hg7 after 24 Eh4+ gxh4
25 JLe3+ ФЬ5, which he did see.

Here he simply believed that the at-
tack had failed. It is clear that he did not
see further than direct threats. Things
like quiet moves have yet to reveal them-
selves to him.

Sidsel Heeg

Sidsel has played chess for more years
than Sten, but still her level is not enor-
mously higher on paper, though I am
sure that she would achieve a gigantic
score in a match with him. Sidsel is the
prototype of a standard club player who
never really improves much. And the
explanation is easy to see from her think-
ing patterns. Of all the players participat-
ing in this test Sidsel is the one seeing the
fewest lines. Only in exercise 4 and in
exercise 10 does she actually talk about
variations. And they are very short.

The reason for her to think in the way
she does, I think, has probably very litde
to do with the fact that she is a woman. I
think it is a matter of tactical vision. Tf
we look at the obvious mistakes she
committed, then we can see what the
problem is.

In this position she overlooks that
Black can play 3...JLg6, so she expected
this to be a mate. We see the same pat-
tern arising in exercise 5, where she
drops a rook with ...ttc8-c4, so fixed on
Wxc2 that she overlooks ...Wxc4. In ex-
ercise 8 she does not see that 9...dxc3 is
answered by 10 JLxf7+. In exercise 10
she overlooks that the king can retreat to
g6, a similar mistake to that in the dia-
gram above.

Still, despite mistakes in all of the tac-
tics she presents us with, she manages to
solve exercise 8 and give the right first
move in exercise 4, as well as give the
second best answer to exercise 1, just like

Yusupov and Ivo Timmermans, better
than Jesper Hall. So there is obviously
some genuine talent for chess, and pos-
sibly mainly dynamics. But she will not
be able to get the full benefit of this in
her play before she works hard on, not
just improving, but actually developing a
tactical vision.

Jesper Hall

Now we already know that Jesper Hall
with his Elo steady circling around 2500
for many years is a strong player. He has
won games against such renowned play-
ers as Krasenkow, Van Wely, Agrest and
Sadler — all of them over 2600, and two
of them even over 2700 at some point.
So why did he only get three exercises
right? The answer is to be found in the
way the exercises are structured and in
his thinking pattern. Here comes a
somewhat controversial claim from my
side: even though Jesper does seem to
talk a lot about variations, he simply
cannot calculate very well (J am tempted
to say not at all, but this could be misun-
derstood if taken literally). Two of the
three exercises he solves, he solves in-
standy. The third he backs up with varia-
tions of litde value. In the pure calcula-
tion exercises he does badly.

Exercise 1, which is about candidate
moves, he comes up with possibly the
worst choice (though also the move
played in the game) without really back-
ing it up with strong variations. What is
important to notice in his answer to this
exercise is that he never moves beyond
19 ^g5? to additional candidates. He
does calculate one line, but cannot make
it work. Still he does not look for new
moves.
In exercise 4 he makes it quite far, see-
ing 5...fic5!!, which of course is an
achievement. So though he does not
solve the exercise, he does fairly well.

The third calculation exercise, exercise
8, is a complete disaster for Jesper. His
move 9...£kl5?! is probably among the
worst possible candidates in the position.
And this despite the fact that he sees the
best move 9...£ig4!. So why does he not
decide on this move, winning a pawn
and giving a winning position? The an-
swer is easy — the lines are too confusing
to him. He does spend some time calcu-
lating 9...dxc3, but does not see
12...Феб!, the real point of this move.
Again, this not an easy idea to see. But
with Jesper, who is a truly original and
imaginative person, a true artist, I had
actually expected him to find this
counter-intuitive idea.

Also, in exercise 10, where he is given
as much time as he can ask for, he only
investigates one idea. He does find the
final position after 24 Hh4+

but then makes this strange evalua-
tion, that White is winning and considers
the exercise as solved. This is of course
far from the truth. That Yusupov makes
similar mistakes tells us something about

the truly unconventional nature of this
exercise.

It is not that Jesper does not find the
tactical ideas. He sees both the idea of
trapping the white queen in exercise 8
and the stalemate trap in exercise 4. Also
he instantly sees 24 Sh4+ in exercise 10.
What is striking is that Jesper as a rule
has problems moving away from these
original ideas. The reason for this is not
so difficult to find. I remember in the
summer of 2000 Jesper and I were both
attending a seminar with Mark Dvoret-
sky in Copenhagen, where Mark re-
peated this idea of logical and intuitive
players. Jesper asked what you should do
if you were an intuitive player.There is
no other way than work,’ Mark replied.
Jesper’s quite commonly uttered profan-
ity I will keep out of this book, but it has
something to do with visiting the bath-
room. So Jesper considers himself as an
intuitive player, and certainly he shows
some clear indications of being so. His
calculation is poor, he does not logically
deduce the ideas, but rather opens his
eyes and sees them on the board. That
Jesper, as a Swedish player, never re-
ceived regular training has made him the
man he is today: a very talented and dan-
gerous player with a strong intuition,
who can beat even world class players,
but basically cannot calculate. If Jesper
trained seriously and effectively in calcu-
lation for a longer period of time, I pre-
dict that he would not just become a
grandmaster, but he would also quickly
become a rather strong grandmaster.

Tom Skovgaard

Daddy Skovgaard is standard club cham-
pion material in his small suburban chess
chess club. He is not a great chess talent
and would not claim to be so. Rather he
is a talented jazz pianist and also compe-
tent in his profession, beyond being in
his fourth decade of chess. With a chess-
playing brother and son it is easy to spot
a social angle to his chess activities, but
Tom also simply likes chess in itself.

In the test he shows a number of
weaknesses. First of all nothing comes
for free to him, except a few basic tacti-
cal ideas. His intuition is ripe for the bin,
just to exaggerate a little bit.

In exercise 7 we see how he struggles
to find the right spot for the bishop (h3)
before executing it in a wrong way. I am
certain that if he had had more time, he
would have found the best move order
as well.

That he has no intuition I base on
some of the moves he considers, such as
24 Set? in exercise 2.

This move is truly horrible and does
not correlate with his first considerations
in this exercise. And certainly the calcula-
tion is not impressive either.

Still, despite this, Tom gets three exer-
cises right and finds some of exercise 4,
as well as a perfecdy good idea in exer-
cise 1. His performance is not affected

by the high number of completely awful
ideas and variations he produces through
the exercises or his lack of chess intui-
tion. Actually he equals Jesper Hall in
performance, and is one of the few to
solve exercise 10 (together with Peter
Heine Nielsen and Frify arguably the
two strongest participants in the test).

Before he finds 24 Hf7!l he comes up
with such ideas as 24 JLe3 ФЬ5 25 g3
which, however, is immediately dis-
missed.

This is actually a strong indicator of
Tom’s thinking style. With no help from
divine inspiration or intuition, he simply
tries a lot of ideas that come into his
head; a truly logical player, though not a
very strong one. His lack of knowledge
of some tactical themes (9...dxc3 10
JLxf7+ in exercise 8) is obvious, as well
as the sometimes low level in his calcula-
tion. But just like Frify who calculated 2
million moves per second in the match
against Kramnik, Tom has a good feeling
for throwing all his garbage ideas in the
bin, and focusing on the ideas that actu-
ally makes sense.

So Tom is indeed a logical player. Not
a very strong one, but also not a very
weak one.
Peter Skovgaard

Peter is the only junior player among the
eight tested humans (whether Frit% is a
junior or not is a discussion 1 will not
engage in.,.) and should probably be pre-
dicted to finish in the middle of the field.
It could be argued that he only solves
one exercise, but I think that would be
unfair as he does very well on many ex-
ercises, especially no.2, where he did bet-
ter than Frit^ by a long way, and only
faced problems towards the end when he
was running short of time.

There are some clear symptoms that
Peter is a teenager: most notably his very
long variations. Older players somehow
think differently, more abstractly, even
when they are calculating. Peter is run-
ning wild down every possible variation
without structure nor sense of purpose,
in search of something, anything (see
exercise 6 especially). I think that this is
because of his age. In my work with jun-
iors over the years I have learned that
they do think very concretely indeed.
Even my own games from my junior
days are remembered only as a long
collection of tactics and variations, while
these days, standing on the verge of my
thirties, I calculate more slowly and care-
fully, and use tools such as goals, con-
ceptual thinking and psychology much
more intimately.

Peter did show some clear weak-
nesses, as in exercise 1 when, after his
suggested 19 £ig5?

see following diagram

he completely missed 19...exd6,
which is the only playable move. The
same goes for exercise 8 where he
missed another only move: 10 ^3f3 after

9...£ig4. Still, this is actually the exercise
he solves. Of course he also overlooks
other tactics, but these two shows a clear
deficiency, which 1 would link to being
young.

There are other signs of youthful im-
pulse in his play. In exercise 9 he cannot
find more than a draw after 8'/z min., but
still decides to execute his move. Impa-
tience? Maybe, or maybe just lacking
experience.

Also in exercise 5, where he is trying
desperately to make the piece sacrifice
with 21...£3xe4 22 Wxc2 Дхс2 23 JLd3
Sxf2? work, he shows sign of youth,
first of all he never considers the ex-
change sacrifice. Perhaps because he
does not understand exchange sacrifices?
Certainly an option; but more impor-
tantly, he really puts pressure on himself
to make the piece sacrifice work, and in
the end decides that it does. 1 felt a little
like watching a Hollywood conspiracy
film when 1 was listening to Peter, as it
seemed that he had already formed his
conclusion and only needed to prove it
somehow. This was generally a
characteristic for his calculations. They
seemed to be structured in a way to
prove his assumptions about a position
more than for investigation.
for investigation.

Now I shall stop pointing finger at Pe-
ter, but I do so only because I feel that
these features in his game are very youth-
ful. Another thing that often shows with
young people is talent. And talent Peter
has got plenty of. I was so hoping that
Peter would make it all the way in exer-
cise 2, when he came up with 24 JLc4!!.

But even though he failed to do so, he
did show good promise there.

Generally Peter said a lot of really
good things, but the exercises were
probably just a little too difficult for him,
and he never got close to some of the
solutions. It should be remembered that
though Peter is rated ca. 2000 in FIDE
Elo, he is somewhat lower in national
rating, which is usually the more accurate
indicator.

But he achieved one correctly solved
and a lot of half-solved positions.

Peter Heine Nielsen

‘It is exercises,’ Peter explained, ‘and they
do not suit my personality, so I guess it is
quite normal that I do badly. Especially
since I am most likely having a bad day
(laughs).’

With his 2600+ rating Peter was the

strongest participant in this experiment,
and as such could probably have been
expected to solve more exercises than
anybody else, excluded. Actually
this was not the case and he himself gave
a very good explanation: ‘I am an intui-
tive player,’ he said after the seance.’That
means that I look at the position and
more or less come with my best guess.’
This should of course not be understood
to mean that he does not calculate at all,
but only that his method of finding his
moves are based more on a good feeling
for chess than actual problem solving.
There was one move in a game of Pe-
ter’s, after he had participated in the test,
that really impressed me.

P.H.Nielsen-McShane

Copenhagen 2003
Grunfeld Drfence

1 d4 2 c4 g6 3 £ic3 d5 4 cxd5
&xd5 5 e4 2ixc3 6 bxc3 c5 7 Ac4
Ag7 8 ?3e2 <5ic6 9 ДаЗ cxd4 10
cxd4 Wa5 + 11 £d2 Wd8 12 d5
£e5 13 ДсЗ 0-0 14 ДЬЗ Wb6 15 f4
Cid7 16 Дхд7 Фхд7 17 Hc1 Ed8

18Пс4!1

This reorganisation of the pieces took
Peter 50 minutes to find. The young
Englishman had just played an im-
provement on Peter’s home analysis (the
two of them had an ongoing theoretical
discussion in the Griinfeld over the
summer of 2003 in different tourna-
ments, a battle won by Peter 2’/i-1/?). The
idea behind the move is to put the rook
in front of the queen in order to pene-
trate to the seventh rank.

18...e5 19 Wa1

19...f6?

This fatal weakening of the light
squares costs Black the game. 19...<&g8
was a better move.

20 Wc3 exf4 21 &xf4 £>e5 22 Hc7+
&h8 23 Hf1 ^d7 24 2)e6 Hdc8 25
Zxf6 Пхс7

26Sf8+!

McShane had overlooked this when
he played 19...f6 and failed to see it al-
most all the way to the end.

26...Sxf8 27 Wxe5+ 1-0

Black is mated and therefore resigned.

18 Hc4!! is a very beautiful move
which cannot really be calculated as such,
but needs to be found by a combination
of logic and intuition in the mix that fits
the individual player. Peter, being a very
intuitive player, calculates a lot of lines,
but generally trusts his emotional im-
pression. Therefore moves like these can
be expected to be found by him.

Peter did, in my opinion, do reasona-
bly well in the test. He solved 5 of the 10
exercises, only beaten by Yusupov with 6
and Frit% with 8. In exercise 4, Peter
solved two out of the three steps the
exercise was convemed with. After 1
Exg7+ Фхд7 2 Ah6+ &xh6 3
Wxf6+ JLg6 4 g4 Wa5

Peter decided on the very mysterious
5 d5?. This can be met with 5...Wc5+
and Black has no problems. The interest-
ing factor is that Peter simply ran out of
time after discovering 5 h4 Дс5. Had he
had more time he would probably have
found 6 Wh8! winning. Instead he came
up with the idea 5 d5 Wxd5 6 h4, when
Frite? comes up with the following nice
drawing line for Black:

6...Sc5 7 g5+ Wxg5+ 8 hxg5+
Exg5+ 9*h2 Hg2+!

And we have what the Russians
call’etemal rook’. White cannot escape
the checks on the g-file, so he will have
to play 10 Фхд2 stalemate.

In exercise 9, Peter analysed 81...b2
and 81...Sd2 and actually came up with
some nice ideas in both lines. After we
had turned of the microphone I asked
him for additional ideas, to which he
replied’Oh yeah, 81...Sh5 of course.

Prophylaxis.’

Peter is well known for his opening
preparation and great knowledge of the
opening, but in this test it seems that his
good memory actually worked against
him. Exercise 5 and 7 were both solved
easily because he knew the solutions al-
ready, but in exercise 2 prior knowledge
of the position did not help him at all,
and in exercise 8 it seems that it worked
against him. This is one of the two as-
pects of his play he should think about.

The second he phrased himself after
the test: ‘candidate moves’. He was
probably mainly thinking about exercise
9 there, but I think he is right.

That it was a bad day for the Danish
no.l is clear to me. We had to push the
solving of exercise 10 for a later occasion
(where he did it himself and wrote down
his thoughts) and he was one of only two
humans to solve it.

Ivo Timmermans

The Dutch Doctor gave an inspired per-
formance in the test. Only in exercise 2
did his attempt fail, and as such it fully
failed. His performance in exercises 1, 6
& 10 is typical for his mistakes in this
test. In all three of them he did well, ex-
cept he did not find the right candidate
move.

Though he does not seem to me to be
an intuitive player, he generally has a
problem with tactics. In character I
would put him alongside Tom Skov-
gaard, only on a higher level. Ivo really
needs to solve problems logically. This is
the explanation why his thinking often
makes such nice reading. Contrary to a
lot of the other participants, his logic is
clean, clear and easy to follow. Where all
players with lower Elo than him start on
new variations constantly without con-
cluding on the former lines, you can find
Ivo in a situation like the following:

‘1 Hh4+ gxh4 2 JLc3+ ФЬ5, there is
nothing you can put in between. 3 Sg7.

If 3 Sg7 does not work I might look
for other moves. The threat is JLc2+. So
what would you do to stop it? One idea
is maybe 3...Wf3, a desperado, which
looks quite interesting. Hmm. 3...Wf3. 4
gxf3 is probably forced. Is there anything
else? 4 gxf3, and then the next move is 5
f4 and JLe2+ comes again. But then on 5
f4 you play 5...JLg4 (after 4...d5 — J.Aa.)
keeping the bishop on the g4-dl diago-
nal. I will look at something else. 3...Wf3,
that is a bit of an odd move. Maybe even
3...Wxg2+. Let me see. 3 Sg7 in this po-
sition. Let me see if 3...Wxg2+ is a prob-
lem. No, let me first solve the problems
with 3...Wf3.’

And so on...

Also, his positional exercises give the
impression of having been solved more
than found or seen. The contrary example
to this is Jesper Hall, who seems to be
unable to solve 2+2, if not assisted by his
enormous chess talent, his intuition.

In exercise 7 Ivo starts off with the

following comments:

‘I think I know the solution. The trick
is that White has the bishop pair and
pressure on the queenside, for instance
on a7 which is hanging and which Black
will have to do something about. And
the only open file is the c-file, which he
would like to control. Now you control
almost all squares of it, up to c7, and the
idea is that we do not want to allow
Black to play ...Excl, so you will have to
either develop the bishop from fl or take
on c8.’

Even though he says he thinks he
knows the solution already from the be-
ginning, he still works logically with a
clear assessment of the position. This is
well in line with my personal knowledge
of Ivo’s character. He is a very disci-
plined and intelligent man, who has the
aptitude to acquire countless abilities,
though not clearly talented above aver-
age in them. This guy is a decent piano
player, guitarist, Doctor (obviously), with
an MBA from the highly prestigious
Henley School in London. He is a good
amateur chess player. He has run a mara-
thon in close to 3 hours, he has done
two Ironman triathlons. He speaks the
following languages decendy: Dutch,
English, Swedish, French and German.
Soon he will probably be speaking Span-
ish as well. He just needs to get around
to it...

So his solutions here are the result of
training. And this is the way they should
be read. Not talent (not that he does not
have any, it is just less obvious than with
some of the other participants), but
work.

Artur Yusupov

Neither Artur, nor his trainer of many
years and later collaborator Mark
Dvoretsky, thinks that Artur has’any
special talent’. When they say this, they
compare him with players like Peter
Heine Nielsen, who also does not have
any particular talent. Obviously they are
comparing him with Karpov, Kasparov,
Kramnik, Anand and similar talented peo-
ple. It reminds one of the old story of
Spassky talking about Korchnoi, pub-
lished on the internet by Spraggett.
Spassky apparendy said that Korchnoi
had the best knowledge of the opening;
he knew the endgame better than any-
body else; he had more energy than any-
one, and fought ferociously; he calcu-
lated immaculately and his strategic in-
sight was extreme. There was only one
thing he was lacking in order to become
world champion — talent for chess!

At the other end of the spectrum we
have Botvinnik’s old statement about
Reshevsky: ‘He had the greatest talent in
my generation. But it did not matter. I
worked so much harder!’ Or Kamsky’s
statement that chess is 2% talent and
98% work.

The same goes for Artur (who’does
not have a very strong intuition’ — Mark

Dvoretsky), who worked hard together
with Dvoretsky from around the age of
15 and over the next decade elevated
himself to an impressive third place in
the world.

Artur did not approach the test very
seriously. When he played his immacu-
late solution in exercise 2, he said he had
not been convinced that it was correct,
but had just found it so tempting that he
had to play it. Free from any kind of
pressure to do well, he actually did pretty
good. Exercise 1 is technically not
solved, but he did see the option of 19
JLh6!, but decided to focus on 19 dxe7
Wxe7 20 JLg5, which is the second best
option, when the time ran out.

That he solves exercise 4 is very im-
pressive, no matter who you are. This
clearly shows that he has been training
disciplined calculation at one time, even
if he no longer considers himself a pro-
fessional player, and no longer trains
regularly at chess.

In exercise 8 and 10 we see him at his
weakest. The muddy waters clearly do
not suit him, and I cannot help but think
of some of his games with Kasparov,
where deeply complicated positions were
too difficult to him. When there are too
many options, he actually seems too nar-
row in choice. This is the only clear
weakness it was possibly to find in
Artur’s decision making in the tests.

Exercise 3 was too difficult for every-
one. Though brit% finds the right move,
it never really understood why it was
right. All the humans wanted to attack
c6, even though none of them could
make it work in practice.

So all in all, Artur delivered the
strongest human performance. Not sur-
prisingly, as his absence from the world’s
top 100 is similar to that of Ulf Anders-
son. Both hardly ever lose any games,
but they are so peaceful in nature now
that they hardly ever win any either.

Fritz 8, test version 15

That Frit% would do well in this test was
obvious from the beginning. Besides
being so strong by now that it has drawn
matches with both Kasparov and Kram-
nik, it was also a useful helper to the au-
thor in the collection of the original ex-
ercises.

Exercise 1 was originally found by
Frit%.

Exercise 2 was checked with Frit^.

Exercise 4 was checked with Fritp

Exercise 8 was originally found by

In Exercise 10 I found 26...Wf3! my-
self, ruining the original puzzle from Re-
infeld’s 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate.
Then Frits', with some assistance, found
all the additional solutions. Actually, after
24 h4,1 do not believe any human would
be able to find the details.

So Frits'. has come a long way for sure.

It still has problems with long-term
positional planning, as can be seen in
exercise 3 and exercise 5. But in exercise
3 it finds the right move by a coinci-
dence, as the a-pawn is in danger. These
kind of coincidences often work in
Fritzs favour, so we should not discredit
its solving of this exercise for that rea-
son, as this is a general feature of its de-
cision making: Luck.

Some conclusions - Calculation

As said, there are some questions it is

obvious to ask when performing such a
test. The most common of these is: Do
stronger players calculate more than weaker
players? Actually it is not so much a
commonly-asked question, as it is a sim-
ple assumption among weaker players,
while stronger players simply do not
care. I have always intuitively agreed with
David Norwood, who claimed that
stronger players do not calculate more,
but they calculate the right things. It
turns out that I am both right and
wrong.

If we compare Sidsel Hoeg and Sten
Vesterli with Peter Heine Nielsen, then it
is obvious that Peter does calculate more
than these weaker players. Actually Sidsel
and Sten cannot really calculate at all, as
they lack tactical vision (one important
step in the development of a chess
player), so their thoughts do not include
that many variations. But this is not so
interesting; we should compare Sten and
Sidsel with Tom and Peter Skovgaard,
because this is where the former should
aspire to go with their chess. It seems to
me that the basic aspect of seeing more
possibilties and recognising tactical pat-
terns are central to the difference be-
tween the two groups of players.

But if you compare Peter Heine Niel-
sen or Jesper Hall with Tom and Peter
Skovgaard as well as Ivo Timmermans,
then you will not necessarily find that
more moves were investigated by the
stronger players.

Actually I find it more interesting to
compare grandmasters against non-
grandmasters (so that Jesper Hall is sat
next to Peter, Tom and Ivo). The
grandmasters Nielsen and Yusupov did
not repeat their variations from the be-
ginning all the time. There can be many
reasons for this, but it is obvious to me
that these quickly repeated lines do not
improve the tactical vision nor the calcu-
lation, but rather disturb it. So either they
repeat the lines from habit, which takes
up their time and attention, or they re-
peat the lines because their tactical vision
is so weak that they cannot sustain the
positions for very long in their mind’s
eye.

If that is the case it is something that
can be trained rather easily. Jonathan
Tisdall proposed a method called stepping
stones in his acclaimed book Improve jour
Chess now!. The idea is basically that after
something like (in exercise 4) 1 Sxg7+
&xg7 2 ^.h6+ ФхЬб 3 Wffo- £g6 4 g4
Wa5 5 h4, you are at the end of a forced
line.

Now you have this position in your
mind’s eye, as a new starting point for
calculation. Then we start looking for
candidate moves. I truly believe in this
method. Maybe not as a rigid way to cal-
culate, but in the general idea that it is
necessary to be able to work with the
positions in the mind’s eye, and not
move them around on the board all the
time (even if you only imagine that you

do so) when you calculate. 1 am pretty
sure that control over this technique,
which seems to be more or less natural
to strong grandmasters, would help these
four players in the middle group improve
their game.

Another difference in calculation is
that the strong players (this time we will
include Jesper Hall) do not calculate a lot
of garbage. Their tactical vision is much
stronger than the group of average play-
ers. The four strongest humans realise in
exercise 8, that after 9...dxc3

White has a standard tactic with 10
JLxf7+. Tom and Peter Skovgaard both
miss this, even though we can see from
their own games that they are definitely
of the type we would call tactical players.

In exercise 4, only the three titled
players find the cunning defence 5...Sc5!.
The middle group did not even under-
stand the idea when I showed them the
move on the board. Or at least it took
some time. This kind of imagination fits
well with Avni’s division of tactical chess
development into three phases:

1.	Everything, may be right; every-
thing is possible. There are no principles,
no guiding laws.
2.	Everything that falls inside the
frames is possible; the rest is wrong.

3.	Everything that falls inside the
frames is possible; the boundaries be-
tween the frames and their surroundings
are not rigid. So what is outside the
frames can also be possible.

What we are dealing with here is a
case of the middle group to some extent
belonging to phase two. This also ex-
plains the sometimes rather long varia-
tions they present us with. When the
possibilities are very few, then you
quickly calculate very long variations.
The only problem is that they often turn
out to be false.

The right medicine for the players in
the middle group is probably to solve
harder combinations and to work with
such books as Nunn’s Endgame Challenge
(Gambit 2002). For the weaker players,
solving simpler combination books
would probably be very good.

So no, strong players do not calculate
more than average players. But yes, both
strong and average players calculate
more than beginners and weaker players.

Pattern recognition

Pattern recognition, prior knowledge and
so on... Most very strong players are
strong because they have studied chess
intensively. They have a good knowledge
of the openings, often with new ideas of
their own. They know the endgame
pretty well, even though they most often
cannot match an encyclopaedia. And
then they appear to be calculating the
right moves again and again. Especially
tactically, patterns come instantly to well-
educated players. They instandy see the

rook sacrifice in exercise 4, the bishop
sacrifice on f7 in exercise 8 and similar
ideas. Only the two grandmasters saw
the possibility of 19 JLh6! in exercise 1.

At the same time as a player develops
tactical vision and knowledge of standard
combinational themes, he also develops
a feeling for the pieces’ coordination and
for where they belong. This can be seen
in exercise 7, where the simple fact that
the bishop belongs on h3 was closed
land to the three weakest participants,
while the four strongest found it more or
less instandy. Tom Skovgaard, the mid-
dle guy this time, worked it out, but did
not get his coordination between the
pieces to really work.

Another advantage stronger players
have over weaker player is the feeling for
material and compensation. When I was
under 2000 Elo I never sacrificed mate-
rial for positional compensation or just
for an attack, while these days I have
little respect for material. As Yer-
molinsky and others have said. Material
is just another positional factor.

Computers

It is obvious from the test that Frits; and
similar programs are no longer toys, but
strong chess-playing programs that will
eventually be stronger than humans. The
possibilities for improving the search
depth seem to be limidess, while humans
learn slowly as a species. Still, the time
when the computer dominates the hu-
man is probably far into the future. For
the search depth to increase so much
that it compensates for the computer’s
lack of understanding of certain long-
term factors in chess, the processor and
RAM need to be increased immensely.
This is why the programs that have
played matches recendy have all been
multi-processor programs.

The difference between humans and
cofnputers is more and more becoming
the understanding of compensation (see
exercise 5) and not the basic positional
aspect of chess, though computers still
do badly in closed positions where long-
term planning has to be produced.

Here are two examples of other com-
puter malices.

Kramnik-Deep Fritz

Man v Machine, Bahrain (game 2) 2002
Queen’s Gambit Accepted

1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 3 ^f3 2if6 4 e3
еб 5 j*.xc4 c5 6 0-0 a6 7 dxc5 Wxd1
8 Exd1 i.xc5 9 *f1 b5 10 Дв2 l_b7
11 £>bd2£ibd7 12^>b3

12...Af8?

Fntij has a good feeling for where the
pieces belong, so it naturally assumes
that White will put his bishop on the
most natural square, b2. In order to do
so White will have to play 13 ^3bd2. So
Black can play 12...JLe7 and 12...JLf8
equally well. Only, Kramnik is wiser than
this, and when Fn/^ chooses the horrible

text move, Kramnik exploits his chance.

13 a4 b4 14 2>fd2 &d5 15 f3 ikd6
16 g3 e5 17 e4 &e6 18 2>c4 Дс7
19 £еЗ a5 20 £>c5 &xc5 21 £xc5
2>d7 22 2>d6+ &f8 23 £f2 l_xd6 24
Zxd6 *e7 25 Zad1 Ehc8 26 ДЬ5
?ic5 27 £c6 &c4+ 28 *e1 &d3+
29 Zlxd3 £xd3 30 £c5 Дс4 31
Sd4+ Ф16 32 Sxc4 Exc6 33 Де7+
Фхе7 34 Sxc6 *d7 35 Sc5 f6 36
&d2 &d6 37 Hd5+ £>c6 38 &d3 дб
39 &c4 g5 40 h3 h6 41 h4 gxh4 42
gxh4 Ha7 43 h5 Sa8 44 Hc5+ *b6
45 Sb5+ Феб 46 Hd5 Фс7 47 *b5
ЬЗ 48 Hd3 Да 7 49 Hxb3 Sb7+ 50
Фс4 Да 7 51 ДЬ5 Да8 52 &d5 Даб
53 Sc5+ &d7 54 ЬЗ Zd6+ 55 &c4
Sd4+ 56 ФсЗ 3d1 57 Sd5+ 1-0

More or less the same thing happened
one year later.

Kasparov -Fritz X3D
New York (game 3) 2003
Slav Defence

1 2)f3 2)f6 2 c4 e6 3 £ic3 d5 4 d4
c6 5 еЗ a6 6 c5 2ibd7 7 b4 a5 8 b5
e5 9 Wa4 Wc7 10 £a3 e4 11 2>d2
kel 12 b6 Wd8 13 h3 0-0 14 2ib3
14...£d6??

Frii^ is of course worse, but unable to
find a long-term plan... it tries a trap?
Hardly. But the move is still an indica-
tion that there are positions where com-
puters are not doing very well, (dosed
positions are one of these.

15 ДЫ &e7

What did Frit% achieve. Nothing, of
course.

16 £)xa5 2)b8 17 ib4 Wd7 18 Sb2
We6 19 Wd1 (hfd7 20 a3 Wh6 21
£>b3 JLh4 22 Wd2 2if6 23 *d1 Феб
24 Фс1 Zd8 25 Sc2 ?lbd7 26 ФЬ2
4tf8 27 a4 &g6 28 a5 2ie7 29 a6
bxa6 30 £>a5 Zdb8 31 g3 Фд5 32
Фд2 Wg6 33 Фа1 &h8 34 £>a2 £d7
35 ФсЗ £>e8 36 vlb4 Фд8 37 HM
Фс8 38 Za2 i.h6 39 £f1 We6 40
«di 41 Wa4 ФЬ7 42 2lxb7
Hxb7 43 2>xa6 Wd7 44 Wc2 ФИ8 45
Sb3 1-0

What can we learn from computers? I
think we have already learned a lot about
chess tactics and about defence. Kas-
parov is right when he says that he per-
sonally was the last world champion of
classical chess. And no, it has nothing to
do with advanced chess (how could any-
one ever put this belief into his mouth
and then argue against it?), but about
opening preparation and general under-
standing of the game. Recently top-GM
Barcev lost a game in 34 moves, where
all of it and a few moves more were pre-
pared in advance by his 19-year-old op-
ponent and his computer. We have seen
such games in the past, where Po-
lugaevsky would prepare some stunt
from home, but now it seems like every-
body is doing it.

Chess has changed and we understand
it better because of the computers. But
that does not mean that we can learn
anything from the way computers think.
Whenever someone tells me chess is
only calculation and uses computers as
argument 1 laugh my (censored) off. The
day we can calculate 2 million moves per
second this argument will be correct. But
hardly before then. Still, with a few
moves per second the best humans are
doing well against the computers. And
the reason is that we think differently
from them. Obviously tactics are mainly
concrete and should not be understood
differently. But chess is not only calcula-
tion and intuition. It is also logic, under-
standing of where the pieces belong, and
long-term strategy. Here humans still
have a great advantage over computers.

If we want really fair matches between
humans and computers, we actually need
to play FischerRandom. Because in a
normal game, either the computer gets
out of all the long-term decisions by
immaculate opening preparation (using
its openings book) and thereby avoids its
main problem, long-term strategy, simply
by having all the pieces developed for it
by humans in advance. And without an
opening database the human has prior
theoretical knowledge that would leave
him with an unfair advantage.

But whatever way future matches are
organised, beware of one thing: The
computers are coming!

Before 1 sign off I would use the last
chance to thank all the participants in
this little project, as well as the reader for
spending some time in their company. I
hope the result has been rewarding and
entertaining.