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 …

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 …