About the St. George

Kevin Sheldrick is an Australian chess expert and chessfriend who wrote us the following interesting mail. It is published here with his consent:

"Did you know of a game where Garry Kasparov lost to the St. George? I came across one yesterday and thought I would send it to you as I had never seen it before.

Garry Kasparov (2812) - Nigel Short (2698), Blitz Match, Leuven, Belgium, 2011

1. Nf3 b5 2. e4 a6 3. d4 e6 4. Bd3 Bb7 5. 0-0 c5 6. c3 Nf6 7. Re1 Qc7 8. a4 c4 9. Bc2 d5 10. e5 Ne4 11. Nbd2 Nxd2 12. Bxd2 h6 13. b4 cxb3 14. Bxb3 Nd7 15. axb5 axb5 16. Qe2 Rb8 17. Reb1 Bc6 18. Bc2 Nb6 19. Ne1 Nc4 20. Bc1 Be7 21. Nd3 Kd7 22. Qg4 g6 23. Qf3 Rh7 24. Nb4 Ra8 25. g3 Bb7 26. Rxa8 Bxa8 27. Bd3 Bb7 28. h4 h5 29. Bg5 Bxg5 30. hxg5 Nd2 31. Qe3 Nxb1 32. Bxb1 Ke7 33. Qf3 Rg7 34. Nd3 Kf8 35. Nc5 Kg8 36. Qf6 Bc6 37. Bd3 Kh7 38. Kg2 Rg8 39. Be2 Ra8 40. Bd3 Be8 41. Qf3 Kg8 42. Bc2 Ra3 43. Bb3 Qa5 44. Qf6 Qc7 45. Qf4 Qe7 46. Qc1 Ra8 47. Bc2 Rb8 48. Qd2 Qd8 49. Bd3 Qa5 50. Nb3 Qa3 51. Nc5 b4 52. cxb4 Qxb4 53. Qf4 Qb6 54. Qf6 Qd8 55. Qf4 Rb4 56. Qe3 Bb5 57. Bxb5 Rxb5 58. Qf4 Rb4 59. Kh2 Rc4 60. Kg2 Qb6 61. Nd7 Qxd4 62. Qf6 Qe4+ 63. Kh2 Rc8 64. Qe7 Qf5 65. Nf6+ Kg7 0-1

[29. Bg5? led to the loss of the exchange, which gave black a slight advantage and 32. Qe3? then gave black a clear advantage that he used to win the game (32. Bxb5+, with a slight advantage for black, was required)]

The game is at http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=75395

The "St. George defence" is a good name for the opening because "Englishmen use it to defeat World Champions - every century or so!" (Myers quote) e.g. Steinitz-Baker, London, 1868; Karpov-Miles, Skara, Sweden, 1980 and Kasparov-Short, Leuven, Belgium, 2011.

And Kasparov is still a great blitz player so this is a great win by Nigel. Did u know they had an "Ultimate Blitz Challenge" tournament this year with 4 players and the final standings were: Nakamura 11/18, So 10/18, Kasparov 9.5/18 and Caruana 5.5/18. Kasparov was right up with the leaders and beat Caruana by 4 points!

I might as well show you my Allegro game this year with an IM in the St. George defence. I had a clear advantage after only white's tenth move (!!) but missed the winning continuation 😞 and ended up losing:
IM Mark Chapman (2539) - Kevin Sheldrick (2292), Allegro tournament, Adelaide, Australia, 2016
[Note: those are Australian ratings for "quick" chess e.g. Allegros - our standard ratings for longer games are much lower at 2363 (Chapman) and 2161 (me)]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 a6 3. c4 b5!? 4. cxb5 axb5 5. Bxb5 Bb7 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Bd3 f5 8. Qh5+ g6 9. Qe2 Nf6 10. Bg5? h6??

I missed 10...fxe4! -+, since if 11. Bxe4? (11. Bc2 -+) 11...Nxe4!! 12. Bxd8 Nxc3 13. bxc3 Bxc3+ 14. Kd1 Bxa1 -++, as played in Pritchett-Basman, Bristol, UK, 1980, ...0-1, 59.
And Chapman went on to win our game.”

Valuable Hippopotamus Bibliography

There is a rise in interest in the Hippopotamus Defence.
In this brief post you will find  references of the Hippo bibliography not mentioned in the above mentioned Wikipedia link:

In 2006 the Italian FM De Santis published the book: "La Difesa Ippopotamo". The book is out of print now, but the editor is currently selling an ebook of it. 
At this link you can read a preview of this work.
The book has 146 pages, italian language, algebraic notation.
Highly recommended.
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Chapter 4 of GM Hillarp Persson'5 2005 book on the modern is fully devoted to the Hippo: that means 26 pages.

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FM Feustel's "Eroeffnungen-abseits aller Theorie" devotes 47 pages to the Hippo, mostly annotated games in german language, algebraic notation.
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In 2009 Nicholas Kostov compiled a free booklet on the Hippo. His work has been much appreciated:
http://www7.zippyshare.com/v/UttP91ZU/file.html

Basman plays the Polish Opening

A video of the rapid game between GM Fodor Tamas Jr and the chess legend IM Michael Basman played at the  Golders Green Rapidplay Congress August 2016

The difference of:

• 250+ elo points;
• 45 years of age (70 vs. 25)

between the players must be taken in consideration  as our hero lost, but we love to see Basman in action regardless.

For those who prefer to just see the pgn:

[White "Fodor, Tamas"]
[Black "Basman, Michael"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B28"]

1. d4 b5 2. e4 Bb7 3. Bd3 e6 4. Nf3 c5 5. c3 Nf6 6. Nbd2 a6 7. O-O Nc6 8. a4 cxd4 9. cxd4 Nb4 10. Bb1 Rc8 11. axb5 axb5 12. Qe2 Qb6 13. Nb3 Be7 14. d5 O-O 15. Be3 Qc7 16. Nbd4 exd5 17. Nxb5 Qd8 18. e5 Ne4 19. Nfd4 f6 20. e6 Nc6 21. f3 Ng5 22. Bf2 Nxd4 23. Nxd4 Ra8 24. Rxa8 Bxa8 25. exd7 Qxd7 26. Bf5 Qb7 27. h4 Nf7 28. Qc2 h6 29. Ne6 Rc8 30. Nc5 Bxc5 31. Bxc8 Bxf2+ 32. Rxf2 Qb6 33. Qf5 Nd6 34. Qe6+ Kf8 1-0 

Stockfish 7 recommends 17...Qc4 with equality.

PS As you can see, Basman annotated his game. More Polish Defense/St. George material (books or booklets) to come? :-) 

"La mia polacca" book on the Polish Defense by Alberto Mortola

Alberto Mortola is an italian Candidate Master who has published a book on the Polish Defense (1.d4 b5) in 2015: “La mia polacca” Here you can see the book cover and the Index.

The book is in italian language but all the games are in algebraic notation. In this post, we will ask Alberto (see picture on the left) a few questions:

Question (Q): We are curious to know how you came to play the Polish Defense…

Answer (A): I came to play the polish defense by chance. I was searching for a chess tournament in Poland through internet and suddenly the polish defense appeared to me. I started to use it at school and at the chess club, then I decided to experiment it in the tournaments, at the beginning against 1d4 and later with other White first moves.

Q: In your opinion, is there “a best way” to study the Polish Defense?

A: I think the best way to study the Polish defense is buying and reading “The Polish defense” written by Kapitaniak. Then, if you want to enjoy yourself, you can start playing it and, if you are really interested in this matter, you could buy and read also my book.

Q: Would you recommend to play the Polish Defense in blitz/rapid chess tournaments?

A: Yes, I recommend the polish defense, above all in blitz tournaments, perhaps also in rapid ones, but I don’t promise you will obtain immediately good results.

Q: Are there any strong players who played the polish defence in their chess career?

A: It was ideated by Wagner and successfully used by Miles against Karpov. The only chess players I know that currently employ it are Hubert Biernacki and Emanuel Binaj, two friends of mine.

Q: Is it correct to state that the polish Defense is a reversed 1.b4 in some variations ?

A: I think it is quite correct, but in some complex variations black can find himself in troubles if he plays as he was White.

Q: Do you want to show us your best game with 1.d4 b5 ?

A: In my opinion it is this one (from page 39 of my book):
Saffioti Massimo – Mortola Alberto
Genova, 18/10/2014
1 d4 b5 2 Cf3 Ab7 3 e3 a6
questa è la variante Hubert vera e propria, in cui il nero preferisce difendere il pedone b5 senza spingerlo in b4.
4 c4 bxc4 5 Axc4 e6 6 0-0 Cf6 7 Cc3 Ae7 8 Te1 0-0 9 Dc2 Axf3
come in una delle partite precedenti, qui ho deciso di rinunciare all'alfiere polacco. In questo caso la mia scelta è giustificata anche dal fatto che il mio avversario, costretto a riprendere con il pedone
g, indebolirà irrimediabilmente l'arrocco corto.
10 gxf3 d5
secondo la mia consueta strategia, dopo essermi liberato dell'alfiere campochiaro sistemo i pedoni centrali su case bianche.
11 Ad3 c5 12 dxc5 Cc6
il nero non ha fretta di recuperare il pedone e continua tranquillamente lo sviluppo minacciando 13...Cb4.
13 a3 Ce5 14 Ae2 Axc5 15 b4 Ad6
con questa mossa completo lo sviluppo: tutti i miei pezzi sono disposti attivamente, mentre il mio avversario deve ancora tirare fuori l'alfiere camposcuro. Ora la mossa migliore dovrebbe essere la semplice 16 Ab2.
16 f4 Cg6 17 Dd3 e5 (D)

con questa spinta sacrifico momentaneamente un pedone per ottenere un forte attacco. Il mancato sviluppo dell'Ac1 comincia a farsi sentire.
18 Cxd5 Cxd5 19 Dxd5 exf4 20 exf4 Df6 21 f5 Ce7 l'immediata 21...Dxa1 consentirebbe 22 Dxd6 con un buon compenso per la qualità, ma dopo la ritirata del cavallo effettuata in partita il nero ottiene un netto vantaggio. Il bianco avrebbe
dovuto accontentarsi di 21 Ae3, restituendo il pedone con ottime possibilità di difesa, anche se l'iniziativa del nero rimane insidiosa.
22 Dd2 Dxa1 23 Ab2 Af4
in caso di 23...Da2 24 Dc3 Cxf5 25 Ac4 Tac8 26 Axa7 Txc3 27Axc3 il finale pare favorevole al bianco in virtù della coppia degli alfieri in posizione aperta e della possibilità di crearsi un pedone passato sull'ala di donna. Tuttavia, dopo la corretta 24...Axe5 25 Dxe5 f6 26 De6+ Dxe6 27 fxe6 il nero ha buone possibilità di vittoria.
24 Dc3 Ae5 (D)

questa è una delle combinazioni più complicate che io abbia mai calcolato in una partita di torneo: niente di straordinario, naturalmente, ma quanto basta per sentirmi, almeno per un giorno, un forte giocatore di scacchi.
25 Dxe5 Dxe1+ 26 Rg2 Cxf5 27 Dxf5 Dxe2 28 Axg7 Tfe8 il nero non cade nell'ultimo tranello del bianco: dopo 28...Rxg7 29 Dg5+ Rh8 30 Df6+ Rg8 la partita terminerebbe con una patta per
scacco perpetuo. 29 Dg5 De4+ 0-1

Q: After a book on the Polish Defense, are you planning to publish other chess books?

A: At this moment I think I am not going to publish other chess books, in the future I don’t know.

We thank Alberto for this interview and we wish him much success for his chess life & his book as well.
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The book “La mia Polacca” can be purchased at this link. 

Capablanca defeated by a chess problem

According to a piece of news contained in the Sept. 30th 1954 issue of the italian magazine"Tempo", (what follows is a synopsis) in 1916 Josè Raùl Capablanca  participated in a solving  chess challenge in Philadelphia. The challenge was won by the composer Charles Promislo who solved all 8 problems in 16 minutes. Capalanca was able to solve seven problems in 19 minutes. The attached "White to play and mate in two" problem (by C. F. Kuiper) was the one he could not solve.
Do you want to try and solve it? Of course you cannot use more than 3 or 4 minutes, the same time Capa had at his disposal.....and you cannot use chess engines of course...:-) 
You can find the solution under the diagram.

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Solution

1.Kg5

Remembering FM Bernd Feustel

A few years ago, I came across a very interesting book in german language "Eroeffnungen abseits aller theorie" (english translation of the title: "Openings - beyond all theory") written by FM Bernd Feustel. 
The book contains many Modern Defence & Hippo annotated games mostly. Feustel was a strong player who had a peak elo rating of 2375 in the year 1981. In the above mentioned link, we learnt that Bernd Feustel passed away in 2012. His games will continue to inspire chess players around the world.
In this perspective we offer two games from his book:

Chessbase article in german language

A BIG Thank You

We wrote it a few years ago, we want to write it again: a BIG THANK YOU to IM Gerard Welling for being such a great source of chess inspiration for this blog.