A Discarded Chess Opening

Chess opening variations are subject to fashion, or rather periods of intense examination, as players explore sub-systems of popular ways to start a chess game. Naturally certain methods of playing chess openings recede into the theoretical background, perhaps for decades – perhaps never to be seen in Master practice again. In the case of Bird’s Opening with 1.f4 we find one such example in Lasker’s variation of From’s gambit, arising after 1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 d6 3.exd6 Bxd6 4.Nf3 g5, an attacking idea introduced by world chess champion Em. Lasker. Here almost complete attention is focused on 5.d4 and 5.g3 for White, with thousands of chess games available for our perusal. But what about the sneaky little move 5.c3, invented by Henry Bird himself?

A mere handful of chess games exist featuring this continuation – probably because Bird lost horribly when he played 5.c3 against Isidor Gunsberg in their Hastings 1892 game. Several more rapid defeats for White ensued, and the whole line was quickly forgotten. However, a few recent internet blitz games show that Bird’s idea is worth a second look, and several hundred hours of computer assisted analysis confirm that 5.c3 is not only playable but may be as good as other White continuations. So let’s survey this – what to name it? – Bird’s Defense to Lasker’s Attack in the From’s Gambit variation of Bird’s Opening!

We called 5.c3 “sneaky” because it’s based on a trick of sorts. After 5…g4 (natural and best) White plays 6.Qa4+, thinking to make a place for his King when his Knight moves and he has to face the nasty …Qh4+ attack. The main sequence of moves, then, is 5.c3 g4 6.Qa4+ Nc6 7.Nd4 Qh4+ at which point Bird’s original 8.Kd1 gives us the following weird chess position:

Now the fun really starts, as Black tries to prove that his pawn minus was well invested. And unless Black plays one key move right now (the move Gunsberg played here) White has no problems at all, usually going 9.Nb5 next. Furthermore, even if Black plays exactly White has apparently the resources to meet any threat. But what is Black’s best try now, on his eighth move? While you work on that chess puzzle, consider that White can also choose a gambit of his own – instead of 8.Kd1 in the diagram above he can play 8.g3 instead:

This sacrifice is a recent invention never imagined by Henry Bird. Black is forced to go in for 8…Bxg3+ 9.hxg3 Qxh1, and when White continues 10.Nb5 the second player has nothing better than 10…Kf8 11.Nxc7 Rb8 to save his Rook. In the end White has a pawn for the Exchange, the Bishop pair and a compact central pawn structure. It is White’s move, in addition, but is all that enough compensation?

Chess players who like gambit play will want to consider these positions in more detail. Extra suggestions and ideas in this chess opening can be found here at the Free Chess Area, and a free chess download with games and plenty of analysis and commentary is available to ChessCentral Members; it’s easy to join, free to use and full of great chess downloads and articles. Those players who want to know more about Bird’s Opening should click here for the Big Bird PowerBase, the most complete resource on this interesting chess opening.

Until next time!

Chess on Reality TV

The game of chess has seen a number of attempts to make it on television, the best being The Master Game which ran on BBC from 1976 to 1982. Good, solid chess entertainment and instruction. Today we learn of a new TV series called American Chess Star featuring chess bitch Jennifer Shahade among others – a show aiming to compete in the crowded television “reality” genre. Apparently the show’s host will conduct players through several challenges, producing a winner. After watching the trailer below one might think the whole thing a hoax; after all, the atmosphere feels like a cross between Blue’s Clues and Pee Wee’s Playhouse. But the show is produced by the Xtreme Chess Champs, a group which certainly exists on Facebook and Twitter. Make up your own mind, but we rather hope this project confines itself to a series of obscure web episodes, the better to limit the embarrassment of all chess players.

ChessCentral’s Free Chess Area

One of the great things about chess is is the amount of free online chess that’s available to anyone. ChessCentral has always been at the front of free chess for all – see the Chess Exchange  our free online forum and our extensive online Chess KnowledgeBase of tips and helps for chess players. Even the ChessCentral FAQ  pages offers free chess technical support. In other words, if you want to learn how to play a chess game or improve your chess playing skills for free, then ChessCentral is here to help!

By far ChessCentral’s most in-depth free chess source is the Free Chess Area, which not only offers plenty of free chess to the casual visitor but makes available a special Member’s Area – free to join,  naturally. A quick look around reveals a host of free chess software programs, free online chess game collections, chess art and free chess articles. Chess players can download free chess e-books or browse through chess lessons for improving players. Any chess player of whatever strength will find free chess information to help learn more about the game of chess.

In addition to ever expanding free chess content, all Members of the Free Chess Area receive the Weekend Warrior chess newsletter, telling of the latest updates, new chess products, and amazing discounts on everyone’s favorite chess stuff. If you’re not a Member yet why not try the best in free chess? It’s only a matter of clicking here  to join now, and get your login details by email in moments. The internet’s top spot for free chess is the Free Chess Area – and remember, it’s absolutely free!

Wilhelm Steinitz

The first world chess champion is generally seen as the first scientific chess player, and is often called the father of modern chess. Steinitz put down in writing and formulated chess principles that the best players had always employed, even if unconsciously, in their own chess games. The guidelines found in modern chess manuals can all be traced back to Steinitz, who himself said that the modern school of chess was introduced in his published annotations and game commentary.

Gathering all the games of Steinitz, along with his notes on chess games, is the motive behind the Collected Works of Wilhelm Steinitz. This CD also includes the books written by Steinitz along with extended extracts from magazines and newspaper columns which he edited. But this collection can never be truely complete, seeing that Wilhelm Steinitz left behind such a vast body of chess literature.
That’s why Wilhelm Steinitz.com was created, where further research and discoveries about Steinitz can be accessed. Those who own the Collected Works CD can now find 10 new Steinitz games plus newly digitized articles by Steinitz “translated” into ChessBase format. Even casual visitors who may know little about Steinitz will discover much of interest – enjoy!

Click here to go to the Wilhelm Steinitz web site

Fritz 13 ‘s “Let’s Check” Videos

Let’s imagine the realm of chess as a world of its own. How much of this world have we discovered already? Actually, no one can answer this question precisely. Probably less than we believe. We know some elementary endgames quite precisely, and some of them we can only evaluate correctly with the help of the computer. But analyzing with engines also altered the evaluation of certain openings significantly. Maybe we already know some continents – certain openings and variations – in the realm of chess. But maybe these are just islands? Are there still unexplored areas, white spots on the great map of chess openings? Presumably.

Hitherto everyone calculated for himself. Now we can all research together. What will we discover? Things are going to be exciting…with Fritz 13 Chess Playing Software.

See Fritz 13′s Let’s Check Videos here

Everyman E-book App for iPad

Have an iPAD? Now you can read Everyman chess e-books and enjoy the same interactivity as you do on your PC. Featuring a full iPad landscape and portrait support, search with autocomplete, support for zip files and full eBook store with inApp purchasing. When you launch your app you will see your book list, which will include the free chess book samples provided by Everyman. Your Book list is categorized into two sections:

1) Books which show eBooks customized by Everyman specifically for this app (including the samples)

2) PGN files which show any .pgn files you may have downloaded from the web or added from your hard drive

To get this great new app go click here

ChessCentral carries over 100 Everyman Chess E-Books. To browse the full line of e-books click here.

Mike Barton Memorial: A Tribute to a Good Chess Friend

By Gary M. Pylant

On August 20, 2011 38 chess players met at the Greater Memphis Chess Center to honor Mike Barton.  Graham Horobetz won the event on tie breaks over Kenneth Turner.  The format of the tournament was originally two sections: Game in 60 and Game in 30, but the players elected to play only in the G/60, which had four rounds.

The chief tournament director for the event was Michael Salzgeber, who wore a tall black and white checkered, chess hat that look like it came from Doctor Seuss’ “Cat in the Hat.”  Before each round Michael would ring a cow bell to notify that the round was about to begin.  Some of the players found this amusing yet effective to keep everything on schedule.

In the days before chess computers and advanced database programs, Mike Barton was a frequent visitor to a special chess community near East High school in Memphis, Tennessee at Tillman and Waynoka.  Chess legends from the Memphis Chess Club lived in a cove area with white apartments that were made of four living units.  Kenny Thomas, Gary Newsom, John Oman, Sid Pickard, Gary Pylant, Randy Cope, Joy Wellman were a few of the area chess residents that lived in these special apartments.  James Gallagher Jr., Curt Jones, Paul Linxwiler, Jack Smith, Mahlon “Scot” Smith, Charles “Rick” Herbers, Robert Felt and countless others would show up unannounced to play all-night marathons, five-minute parties on the weekends that did not have chess tournaments.  Those were the good old chess days, and Mike made it better.

Mike loved to razz everyone at this chess commune with his sharp wit and sardonic jabs.  He became affectionately known as the “Gill Man” after the monster from the classic horror movie “Creature from the Black Lagoon.”  All of the old-school chess players know what a “fish” is: one that gobbles the bait, especially from an offered gambit pawn, but Mike was not a fish or bad chess player.  He beat the best players in his chess career including Leonid Filatov in 1995.

We all miss Mike, and I am sure that he would be proud of the way the Mike Barton Memorial turned out.  Four players enjoyed winning special chess gift certificates from ChessCentral.com, the web chess store that is owned and operated  by Sid Pickard. Andy Sorensen was surprised to win a chess set and board (both hand carved from Sweden) that was donated by Roy Nilsson.  They ironically played in the last round with Andy coming through with a victory over Roy.

Play Chess Opening Gambits

If we play a chess opening gambit there’s no going back. The permanent loss of a pawn is serious and the deficit has to be made up in other ways – speedy development, open attacking lines, weakness in the enemy camp. The advantages of playing chess gambits are many, and the King’s Gambit, the Evans Gambit, the Benko Gambit or any number of chess opening pawn sacrifices are good ways to play chess. It’s fun to crunch somebody in nineteen moves!

A pair of chess opening gambits are responsible for many such quick wins, two mirror-image pawn sacrifices that are easy to learn and promise fast attacking development. Take a look at these diagrams:

Blackmar-Diemer Chess Opening

The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, 1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3

Smith-Morra Chess Opening

The Smith-Morra Gambit, 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3

It’s easy to see that we have the same type of chess position, the same structure – only in reverse! It should also be clear that both chess gambits can be learned together, since they rely on general principles rather that forced variations and share the same positional features. These two chess opening gambits are pure pawn sacrifices, with no hope of ever getting back our fallen foot soldier. Experience has shown, however, that White gets long term pressure based on rapid development and open central lines for the Rooks; in both “cousin” gambits this initiative can last into the endgame.

These related chess opening gambits, the Blackmar-Diemer and the Smith-Morra, are quite popular at the club level but not so much on the professional chess circuit. That works to our advantage, as much less “theory” exists about either gambit and so it’s easier to become a specialists in these two chess opening systems. Some Blackmar-Diemer chess software is available here and here , while Smith-Morra chess software can be found here and here. We might as well save study time and master two closely connected chess opening gambits at once!

100′s of New Chess Sets

ChessCentral is proud to announce it’s expansion of its chess set, chess pieces, and chess board product line. ChessCentral offers a huge selection in chess sets and chess pieces, from inexpensive plastic chess pieces to complete chess sets of fine wood chessmen with wooden chess boards. You can get plastic chess pieces alone, for example, or a discounted chess set of the 32 pieces (or 34 chess pieces – some chess sets have 2 extra Queens!) plus vinyl roll-up chess board and drawstring chess bag. Depending on your needs there’s even a complete chess tounament chess set combo with heavy plastic chess pieces, vinyl chess board, digital chess clock and canvas chess tote. Fine wood chess pieces feature pitch ebony for the Black chess pieces, or beautiful Rosewood or other select hardwood, with the chess King measuring (generally) from 3.5″ to 4.5″ tall and chessmen in various designs. These can be paired with wooden chess boards of either matching or contrasting woods, depending on preference, and we also have available discounted combinations of wooden chess pieces plus wood chess board. You’ll even find chess set and board articles and extensive free chess information about chess sets and chess boards, while enjoying our in-depth chess KnowledgeBase and resources like the ChessExchange forum and our FreeChessArea for chess articles, free chess downloads and more. ChessCentral’s online chess shop provides everything needed to help you decide which chess pieces, chess set or chess board is right for you.

The Value of Chess Pieces

If you’re going to play a chess game you can hardly avoid trading one piece for another. In fact, as the game progresses you’ll exchange many pawns and pieces until the endgame is reached, when very few chessmen remain on the board. Therefore we have to know when a trade is good for us, and to have some idea of what each chess piece is worth.

The guide given below offers a good serviceable rule of thumb for the value and relative worth of chess pieces – important because the side with more material firepower usually wins the chess game. Bear in mind, however, that everything depends on the position in front of you. It’s easy enough to imagine a chess position in which the Queen is nearly worthless, or where a pawn is more important than a Rook. Bearing that in mind, let’s take a look at the standard value of each man in our chess army.

1) The Pawn
The pawn is the basic “counting” unit in chess, and is assigned a value of 1 point. All other piece valuations are given in multiples of this lowly pawn. And what is a “point” worth? Long experience has shown that a pawn is worth about 3 tempi, which explains why chess opening gambits often feature a pawn sacrifice. One side gets to develop extra pieces while the other side digests the offered pawn.

2) The Knight
A Knight is worth about 3 points. This chess piece, however, gets noticeably stronger in closed blocked positions. And though the Knight and Bishop are valued equally, some chess Masters have shown a preference for one over the other. Maybe the Bishop is a tad better (and maybe not) but for now 3 points each is good enough.

3) The Bishop
The Bishop is also worth 3 points but, unlike the Knight, this piece becomes stronger in open positions with unobstructed diagonals on which to operate. The Bishop pair often cooperate together better than a Bishop and Knight, but again that debate can be saved for another day.

4) The Rook
A Rook is valued at 5 points. Like the Bishop, however, this piece requires wide open spaces to reveal its full power.

5) The Queen
The Queen is worth 9 points, although older chess books sometime give 10 points. Perhaps we simply stand less in awe of royalty these days, but maybe she’s really worth 9.5 points.

6) The King
The King cannot be captured, and so we sometimes hear that its value is “infinite”. But in terms of fighting power 3 points is about right, though Steinitz claimed that a pawn supported by the King was worth a Rook.

Now let’s have some fun. You’ll find it a useful exercise to “mix and match” the values given above, because situations arise in actual games that aren’t so clear cut. For example, what if we could sacrifice a Knight for 2 pawns plus 3 tempi? The math works, and we can see it in action in the Cochrane Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.d4, etc. Again, we can say that a Knight (or Bishop) plus 2 pawns is equal to a Rook, and that a Rook and pawn are equal to a Knight plus Bishop. A Queen might hold her own against two Knights and a Bishop, but I would take the three minor pieces. But three minor pieces versus a Queen and pawn is not an easy call, while a Rook plus Bishop plus pawn against the Queen is complicated too! These “gray areas” lead back to our earlier statement – everything depends on the position in front of you.

Looking for more chess knowledge?  Don’t forget to check out ChessCentral’s extensive Chess KnowledgeBase.