I’m often asked how much I see during a game. It’s a difficult question to answer because the implicit assumption behind the question is that if you see something, you see it precisely and accurately and with a high degree of completeness. In my experience that’s not true for most of the variations you spot…
Month: August 2016
In 1928, Bogolyubow played 2 matches against Euwe in Holland for the title “Champion of FIDE” (see http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fide.html for Edward Winter’s excellent Chess Notes entry on the story behind this title) Bogolyubow won both 10 game matches 5,5-4,5 after very tough fights. In the first match, Bogolyubow only managed to nose ahead after winning the…
After a quick win in the 1st round, the 2nd round at Haarlem was a considerably tougher struggle against the Dutch FM Rene Tiggelman. We join the game after 10 moves. Via a transposition, we have reached a tabiya of the 4.e3 Nimzo-Indian. 10…Bxc3 11.bxc3 Qa5 12.Bd2 Qh5 I’ve played the White…
My last round game at Haarlem against the Dutch GM Erik van den Doel was far and away my best effort of the tournament. It was played on board 1 when Erik, IM Quinten Ducarmon and I were tied in 1st place with 4,5/5. Van den Doel,Erik – Sadler,Matthew D Haarlem Nova College 03.07.2016…
One of my favourite themes is that of the side with too few pieces to cover its (too large) territory. I first came across it in a book I’ve mentioned many times already in this blog: “Best Play: A New Method for Discovering the Strongest Move” by Alexander Shashin. Shashin turns the conventional wisdom of…