October 13, 2016
Matthew Sadler
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It never ceases to amaze me how many complicated games Alekhine played in his career. While browsing through collections of his games, I’m constantly coming across positions where my first instinct is “That can’t possibly work… can it?” In this post we take a look at a couple of Alekhine tactical tidbits that I analysed…
October 6, 2016
Matthew Sadler
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Watching Mihai’s Marin analysis of Karpov’s middlegame skills on a recent Chessbase DVD has been a wonderful learning experience. Marin identified a facet of Karpov’s play that I had never noticed before: moving the same piece many times in succession. After this manoeuvre, no one knows why, but he’s better! Marin cites many examples. This…
September 29, 2016
Matthew Sadler
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In 1932, Bogoljubov and Spielmann played a 10-game match in Semmering, Austria which Spielmann edged 5,5-4,5. In his biography of Bogoljubov, Soloviov is dismissive of the match, stating “…after [Bogoljubov] won the first two games, he failed to press home a huge advantage in the third game and then he blundered a piece in game 4….
September 16, 2016
Matthew Sadler
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A little while back I analysed the double-edged idea …c5-c4 in Queen’s Gambit Declined structures (https://matthewsadler.me.uk/chess-for-life/c5-c4-dogma/) and explained the conditions necessary to make this a viable plan for Black. At the recent Baku Olympiad, Nigel Short won a fascinating game in this structure against his young 2746-rated Chinese opponent: Li,Chao b – Short,Nigel D…
September 8, 2016
Matthew Sadler
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Most of my chess activities nowadays take place in the train on the way to work. A recent spate of engineering works has lengthened my journey considerably with the happy result that I’ve been studying chess for an extra half hour a day! I’ve spent that time playing through lots of Efim Bogolyubow’s games…