March 26, 2016
Matthew Sadler
1 comment
One of the things that made Alekhine very frightening to play against was his inventiveness in the openings. His particular forte was provoking quick crises in solid-looking 1.d4 openings. Alekhine was a master at forcing the opponent to solve concrete problems an at unexpectedly early moment in the game. Without the buffer of modern opening…
March 22, 2016
Matthew Sadler
2 comments
One of the nicest themes we discuss in “Chess for Life” comes up in the chapter on Sergei Tiviakov. In this chapter we discuss one of Sergei’s most significant contributions to chess theory: the 3…Qd6 Scandinavian (1.e4 d5 2.ed Qd5 3.Nc3 Qd6). While writing the book, I played the opening a few times to get…
February 29, 2016
Matthew Sadler
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One of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in the past couple of years is “Learn from the Legends – Chess Champions at their Best” by Mihail Marin (Quality Chess). Marin takes 9 great champions – Rubinstein, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Fischer, Karpov, Kortchnoi and Carlsen – and examines a particular facet of their play…
February 21, 2016
Matthew Sadler
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One of my favourite chapters in Chess for Life (a new book I co-authored with WIM Natasha Regan – see the books section on this blog for more details) is dedicated to the analysis of the Black opening repertory of Russian Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov, in particular his use of the 3…Qd6 Scandinavian (1.e4 d5 2.exd5…
February 21, 2016
Matthew Sadler
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Apart from analysing kingside attacks, my other favourite chess pastime is accumulating themes from the games of the great players. In my forthcoming book Chess for Life (co-authored with WIM Natasha Regan) I explain how I used the analysis of themes from Capablanca’s games to help me prepare for the games against Kramnik and Svidler…