The essence of chess war is struggle between two opposing armies, or two hostile and irreconcilable wills of the generals of the two armies, each trying to impose itself on the other. It is like a pair of wrestlers locked in a hold, each exerting force and counterforce trying to throw the other. Chess war is therefore a process of continuous mutual adaptation, of give and take, move and countermove. The key here is that the opponent is not an inanimate object to be acted upon (there is no conflict without resistance) but an independent defending force with its own objectives and plans. While we try to impose our will on the enemy, they resist us and seek to impose his own will on us. This dynamic interplay between two opposing wills is essential to understanding the fundamental nature of any confrontation or war.

Chess art by Andrey Sklyarenko

Seen as a clash between two opposing wills, chess appears a simple enterprise. In reality, playing the game becomes extremely difficult because of the countless factors that are involved. These factors collectively may be called friction, the force that makes the apparently easy so difficult. Friction is the force that resists all action and consummates energy. It makes the simple difficult and the difficult seemingly impossible. This concept is usually interpreted as a form of “Murphy’s Law”: whatever can go wrong, will, and at the worst possible moment.

The very essence of war as a clash between opposed wills creates friction. In this dynamic environment of interacting forces, friction abounds.

Friction may be mental, say an indecision over a course of action. It may be the current situation on the board, as in effective enemy fire or some obstacles in the way the opponent put up his defenses that we have to overcome. Friction thus may be coming from outside, imposed by enemy action.

Friction may be self-induced, caused by such factors as lack of a clearly defined goal, lack of coordination of pieces, unclear or complicated plans, or lack of confidence and some other psychological factors. Whatever form it takes, because chess war is a human enterprise, friction will always have a psychological as well as an impact arising from the present situation on the chessboard.

While we should be trying to reduce self-induced friction, the key is to fight effectively despite the existence of friction. One effective means to overcome friction is the will — we prevail over friction through persistent strength of mind and spirit. While striving ourselves to overcome the effects of friction, we must attempt at the same time to raise our enemy’s friction to a level that weakens his ability to fight.

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Momir Radovic is a chess instructor at Kennesaw State University. He maintains a chess blog at http://iplayoochess.wordpress.com/

The Opocensky Variation with 6. Be2

The Opocensky Variation of the Sicilian Najdorf with 6. Be2 remains one of the most commonly played lines for white against the Najdorf. In Fischer’s time in the 1950s and 1960s, more aggressive variations such as the Fischer-Sozin Attack, the 6. Bg5 Main Line, and the 6. f4 Amsterdam Variation were favored over the quieter Opocensky Variation with 6. Be2. However sufficient sources of counterplay were identified for black against the sharper continuations, and in the early 1970s Anatoly Karpov began to make his mark with some fantastic long-term positional ideas in the Opocensky Variation revolving around strategic dominance of the critical d5 square. In the 1980s and 1990s, Kasparov demonstrated that black could maintain excellent chances against the Opocensky Variation by achieving rapid activity on the queenside and center. As in many lines of the Sicilian Najdorf, black aims to take the initiative with the thematic …b5 and …d5 breaks. The Opocensky Variation is favored by players who enjoy a quieter positional struggle in place of the double-edged fireworks in more complicated lines in the Sicilian Najdorf (6. Bc4, 6. Bg5, etc..). A few of the most popular grandmasters to have employed the Opocensky Variation are Anatoly Karpov, Vasily Smyslov, Wolfgang Unzicker, Paul Keres, Viswanathan Anand, and the current #1 rated player in the world Magnus Carlsen.

Game 1: GM Unzicker vs GM Fischer, Varna Olympiad 1962

Garry Kasparov vs Bobby Fischer differed in how they handled the 6. Bg5 line (learn more in my 4 hour long DVD)

GM Anand vs GM Kasparov, Linares 2000

Anand vs Kasparov

Kasparov develops normally against 6. Be2, so Anand decides to spice things up with 9. f4 and 10. Nd5!? – rapidly trying to create pressure and gain space on the queenside. 14. …exf4 Kasparov opens up the e-file and clears the way for his knight to come to e5 as well. Kasparov’s targeted and energetic play enables him to create very strong pressure with his rooks on the c and e-files, demonstrating white’s lack of coordination with 22. …Nf3 23. gxf3. Kasparov continues to sacrifice a pawn for activity with 26. …h4 and 27. …Nh5, gaining valuable time to speed up his attack. With 30. …Qxc4! white’s house of cards collapses and black is left with an extremely favorable endgame.

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National Master Will Stewart specializes in Online Chess Classes and maintains a daily updated Chess Blog with Free Chess Videos.

The value of the truth is an enduring trope of the American cinema. In Tom Cruise’s Vanilla Sky, the protagonist is offered a choice to live in a world of his fancy, or to face the sometimes-gritty truth of a world far more real. Ditto the Matrix movie in which the main character can take either the blue pill or red pill. I chose the red one and, apparently, was involved in a chess game shortly thereafter.

Blue Pill or Red Pill?

In this alternate chess galaxy every move I made took me closer to victory. I sacrificed a pawn to gain material on tactical grounds. When it turned out that I didn’t meet that objective I simply justified the result in terms of positional compensation and went about my merry way.

Yes, I made mostly forced moves, nearly all of them defensive in nature, but the gold at the end of the rainbow was always nigh. My winning position was always about to strip all false hope from my opponent. He’s a nice guy and I almost felt sorry for him while playing. He did not know he was irrevocably lost.

Unfortunately, chess is played on the terra firma of logic and reason. The actual game score below is interesting for a handful of reasons. Perhaps you can even use my mistakes here to provide yourself a little future insurance against one-sided thinking.

a) I really did think I was winning from move one. In fact there wasn’t one point in the game where I can be said to have had an advantage. I knew that the Schmidt Benoni structure was playable for black, and assumed that as white it would have to be even better. In fact I conveniently ignored that every imbalance on the board favored black.

b) Notice the nature of my moves. Other than the notion that white is provoking black to overextend, there is no plausible explanation for white thinking he’s better. In fact, at one point I made a series of strong moves, but I was so far behind that it didn’t even matter. There is no aggression at all from white’s side.

c) Which position is easier to play? If you asked one hundred people which they would want how many would choose to play as white here? Do I only favor this position because of my own personal peccadilloes?

d) Do I have any plans to which my opponent must respond? If not then how can he lose?

The game score is truncated. We were low on time and played a weird endgame. Every single one of his pawns was on the same color square as his bishop. I had a knight in a closed position, centralized, that was completely ineffective. He was a pawn up so the result was not surprising, but even so the power of this reality-blurring bishop stunned me.

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Gordon Stockton is a Florida based chess enthusiast, part-time chess coach & martial arts student. He also maintains his own chess blog.

The 2012 World Chess Championship is taking place in Moscow, Russia on May 11-30 and features two of the best players in the game today: Defending World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand (India) and World Chess Championship Challenger Boris Gelfand (Israel). These two seasoned veterans in the chess elite are fighting it out for a prize fund of $2.5 million dollars (the winner will receive $1.5 million and the loser will receive $1 million). While Anand has been a world champ for a few years now, Gelfand qualified for the match by beating a determined Alexander Grischuk in the finals of an extremely difficult 2011 Candidates Tournament. As of today’s round 3 match-up, the score stands equal as the first 3 games have all ended in draws. Round 1 featured an exciting line in the Grunfeld with Anand sacrificing a pawn with the white pieces, however this line has been exhaustively analyzed and for those familiar with the theory – the game unsurprisingly ended in a 24-move draw after some initial fireworks. In game 2, Gelfand opened with d4 and Anand responded with the Semi-Slav Defense. Anand’s preparation was excellent and he rapidly achieved equality, leading to another short draw in just 25 moves.

2012 World Chess Championship: R3 – The Players Loosen Up!

Anand vs Gelfand

Anand opens with d4 and employs the Anti-Grunfeld Variation with 3. f3 – however Gelfand continues with the Grunfeld Defense with 3. …d5 anyways. With 9. d5 and 10. h4 Anand declares his intentions to close the center and commence a kingside attack – forcing Gelfand to play extremely actively in the center to distract white. With 16. …e4! Gelfand breaks open the center and the h8-a1 diagonal for his dark-squared bishop, however Anand reacts calmly with 17. Bd4. With 18. …Qa5 Gelfand sacrifices a pawn to achieve a drastic liquidation of 2 pairs of minor pieces and the queens, leaving black down a pawn but with excellent compensation in the form of energetic coordination. Although Anand emerges from the complications with an extra past pawn on d6, Gelfand is able to draw the game fairly easily due to the constant threats against white’s king due to black’s connected rooks on the 2nd rank.

I enjoyed game 3 much more than games 1 and 2 because both players really came out fighting to win. Hopefully the players will continue to loosen up and we will see more double-edged games in the rest of the 2012 World Chess Championship.

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National Master Will Stewart specializes in Online Chess Tutoring and maintains a daily updated Chess Blog with Free Chess Videos.

Winning is chess is often over-thought and underachieved. Chess players by nature are very interested in psychology, and this often leads to detrimental effects on their quality of play as it easy to “psych yourself out” and over-think simple decisions. For the experienced player, playing chess should be ingrained in your brain similar to seasoned athletes retain muscle memory in sports. The best way to approach a game of chess is with a strong mentality that can not be distracted. Now of course you can only make 50% of the moves and must respond attentively to the threats and goals of your opponent, but your main objective should always be to play as energetically as possible.

The Secret Ingredient to Success = Energetic Play

While it’s great to be aware of your opponent and his/her playing style (strengths and weaknesses), you don’t want to delve too deeply into the details. Focusing more on your game and playing as actively and aggressively as possible will yield a very positive effect, as you will be less distracted by trivial details and more focused on playing your best chess. It is very important to always play the best possible move in any situation against any opponent, as strong players will never “play down” to their opponent’s supposed strength – instead a strong player will eliminate luck as a factor and try to crush their opponent as fast as possible to ensure success. The fundamental key to winning in chess is very simple: play energetically from the first move to the last move. Maintaining a high level of activity will introduce consistent pressure against your opponent, forcing a constant defense that increases the likelihood of unforced errors. While this consistent pressure will also wear down your opponent’s psychology, you should not get distracted and focus only on playing the best move in every single position. While there are certainly other factors that influence the result of a game, playing energetically and creating new threats with every single move will guarantee you best results.

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National Master Will Stewart specializes in Online Chess Classes and maintains a daily updated Chess Blog with Free Chess Videos.

In Lev Alburt’s seminal Test and Improve your Chess he offers an interesting recommendation. The GM, once one of the world’s best players, says we should be willing to invest a few hours into analyzing any given position. This develops the fabled GM memory which is said to hold ten times more patterns than the brain of an average NM.

Putting thirty-two pieces into some semblance of order takes quite a lot of work indeed. This effort also means you’re not solving puzzles or playing guess-the-move with your favorite GM games during these long analysis sessions. I think studying positions in a vacuum is almost useless. It’s far better to solve tactical puzzles. If there’s one grave mistake unlearned chess players make, and I still do it even as this awareness slowly dawns, it’s forsaking adaptability in favor of narrow book knowledge.

It’s as futile to try and refute a GM in terms of chess principles as it is to do over the board. So, in homage to Mr. Alburt I now present a compelling position that comes from a sideline of the Ruy Lopez, Open Variation. I’ll guide you through the features on the board as I see them. I am very interested to hear comments about what you considered first. What you notice off the bat probably says quite a bit about your heuristics, and thus speaks to your chess style.

Pawn Structure: I think I start here because I was told to do so when I began doing De Groot exercises with my coach (speaking into a tape recorder to listen to my own analysis, uncovering reasoning gaps.) It seems to flow naturally into a discussion of the minor pieces. In this case, black’s doubled c-pawns offer the promise of an open game. The c-pawn is not a weakness because there is no e-pawn, which white sometimes uses to create his vaunted king side majority. It’s not very telling by itself. The structure dictates plans in that white will aim to trade dark-square bishops.

Minor pieces: Simply rank them in the descending order of the squares they control. If a piece doesn’t budge, but still impacts the game don’t prejudice yourself again it. Also, do not try to quantify pieces for which you do not have a clear counterpart. To which piece do I compare my light-square bishop? It’s probably better than a knight by default, but by how much? Think also of how fluid this assessment is. In a matter of one or two moves the knight can “touch” eight squares.

Of course we haven’t even begun to consider much more than the most superficial aspects of this position. I look forward to continuing to look at imbalances within the position, and to add my own wrinkle to the assessments. That is, we are going to develop a specific story line for each piece. Like the adventurer in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey conception, all of your pieces must ultimately become subordinate to a plan. First we have to know their ideas before we can attempt to chasten them into accepting teamwork.

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Gordon Stockton is a Florida based chess enthusiast, part-time chess coach & martial arts student. He also maintains his own chess blog.

The 2012 US Chess Championship kicked off with a bang yesterday with 5 out of 6 games reflecting a decisive result in the first round. The clear favorite to win the event is US #1 and World #7 rated Hikaru Nakamura, who began with a clean win over rising star Robert Hess. Although Nakamura is only 24 years old, he is already an experienced veteran at the elite levels of chess. In this exciting round 1 match-up, Nakamura demonstrated just how he broke into the world top 10 with a very targeted piece of preparation against the 20 year old Robert Hess.

US Chess Championship 2012: Nakamura Comes Out Swinging!

Hikaru Nakamura

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National Master Will Stewart specializes in Online Chess Tutoring and maintains a daily updated Chess Blog with Free Chess Videos.