Famous Chess Players « Chess Kids – Chess Coaching and Chess Lessons

Famous Chess Players

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #111

Written by Robert Jamieson on 9th Dec, 2011

Short v Anand

There is a very big chess tournament in progress at the moment – the London Chess Classic 2011 which features four players rated in the 2800s (plus 5 others), namely Carlsen 2826, Anand 2811, Aronian 2802 and Kramnik 2800. Anand is the World Chess Champion and Kramnik is a former World Champion. You can follow the games live on the internet but unfortunately they don’t start until about midnight Melbourne time. One commentator called it the strongest chess tournament ever held in Britain. I’m not so sure.

In rating terms it may well be the highest rated ever but everyone knows that ratings have inflated over time and there have been a few strong tournaments in Britain before. Hastings 1895 apparently wasn’t too bad, but it was a bit before my time. My choice would be Nottingham 1936 which featured Botvinnik, Capablanca, Lasker, Alekhine and Euwe (plus others) who between them held the world title between 1894 and 1957 inclusive! I think that I’d pick them in a match against the current mob.

There has however been some very interesting chess being played in the current tournament. Nakamura v Howell in round 5 was a nice tactical skirmish which I may well publish in “On the Move.” Meanwhile for today’s puzzle place yourself in the shoes of the current World Champion, Anand, as Black to play in the diagram against Short. He can play 1…Qf4+ to swap off queens but that gives him isolated and doubled pawns. Would his extra pawn then be enough to win? You decide.

8/5p2/5qk1/6p1/1Q5p/7P/6PK/8 b – - 0 1Should Black play 1...Qf4+?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #107

Written by Robert Jamieson on 11th Nov, 2011

World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik thought that lightning (5 minute) chess ruined your normal chess so he advised his students against playing this fast form of the game. I love lightning chess, but I find myself fighting a losing battle trying to persuade the players at Chess Kids On-Line that 2 minute chess is a waste of time. “It’s a test of who can blunder fastest” is my usual comment.

Indeed chess is a strange game in that a player can have many fine wins in a tournament, yet one bad loss will be so painful as to erase the joy of many wins. I remember stories of one Melbourne player whose initials are DH who allegedly, after a big blunder, would walk outside the Melbourne Chess Club and keep hitting his head against a lamppost!

No doubt this is how Denmark’s top player, GM Sune Hansen, must have felt after his game against world #3 GM Lev Aronian in the European Team Championship. Hansen was White in the position in the diagram below and he has a crushing attack, but is in time trouble. He must chose between 1.Rxg7 or 1.Rg6 or 1.fxe8=Q or 1.Ng5 or 1.Kh2. All of these moves win except one. Your task is to find the one losing move played by Hansen and his opponent’s reply.

4nr1k/5Pr1/b1p2p1p/p3pP1Q/P3N2P/2P1q3/2B2R2/6RK w – - 0 1White to play and blunder

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #103

Written by Robert Jamieson on 14th Oct, 2011

I’m very proud of myself today. I wanted to buy the new iPhone 4S but when I went to the Apple Store at Chadstone there was a queue of 100′s of people lined up ahead of me. What to do? Using my chess player’s lateral thinking I went downstairs to the Optus shop, walked straight in and bought one! It’s great. Now I can lose to Shredder at chess twice as fast as I used to!

Back here at Chess World now, I’ve been browsing through some old issues of “Chess World” to find a puzzle for today. I’ve decided on a position from the match between Cecil Purdy and Lloyd Fell in 1948 (see diagram). Purdy was a small, fit-looking man, bald as a bat but wearing a silly toupee and an eyeshade so that his opponent couldn’t see where he was looking. Fell by contrast was also small in stature but with a huge pot belly and his trousers were kept up with braces. He too was bald, but without the toupee, and spoke in a strange, high-pitched voice. Purdy had been the Australian Chess Champion. Fell had been the Australian Draughts Champion. Let’s see who won their encounter. You can be White and help Cecil Purdy. Black has just played 1… e5. Can you find a winning continuation for White?

2r1r1k1/1p3pn1/3B1bpp/p3p3/P1B1PPP1/1P6/3R3P/3R2K1 w – - 0 26White to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #102

Written by Robert Jamieson on 7th Oct, 2011

Chess is a game where all of the players are continually under pressure. If you are playing a much stronger opponent you are probably a bit afraid and intimidated by your opponent. I remember my first game in an Australian Junior Championship and I couldn’t stop my legs from shaking with nerves because I was playing one of the top seeds. It’s easy not to play your best against a stronger opponent as you assume that you will be outplayed and you have very little chance in the game.

Being the stronger player on the other hand has its problems also. You are expected to win and should you draw with or even lose to your “bunny” opponent think how many rating points you will lose and the embarrassment of such a result. Sometimes players get into drawn or level positions and the stronger player is therefore forced to take risks to try to still beat his inferior opponent, but how much risk is too much?

The world’s highest rated player, Magnus Carlsen, was faced with this dilemma in the Grand Slam Master tournament in Brazil. He was playing the Spanish GM Paco Vallego who you lost all his games so far in the tournament, but the position was even. Carlsen thought hard to find some way to still win and he came up with an idea. Was it a good idea which wins or a bad idea which loses? That is today’s puzzle.

6k1/2p2p2/6p1/p3b2p/2N1q3/P2r2PP/1PQ2P1K/2R5 b – - 1 5Black plays 1...Qd5. What should White reply?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #98

Written by Robert Jamieson on 11th Sep, 2011

John Purdy

John Purdy, RIP 1935 – 2011

Imagine the pressure. Your father is the Australian Chess Champion. Your grandfather was Australian Chess Champion. Even your great-grandfather was a top chess player.

Despite this John Purdy decided to learn to play chess and by age 20 he too had climbed to the summit of Australia chess. He however had the advantage of seeing how his father struggled to earn a living as a professional chess player/journalist and so studied part-time to qualify as an accountant and then as a lawyer. In 1980 he was appointed as a judge on the NSW Family Court, a position he held with distinction until his retirement in 2005.

I’m writing this from Sydney, having just attended Purdy’s funeral along with around 400 family, friends, chess-players and members of the legal profession. It was a great send off for a very popular man who’s humanity, humour and self-depreciating character (despite all his achievements) were noted by all the speakers. Ian Rogers summed up Purdy’s chess achievements and playing style and how he invariably attributed his wins more to good luck than good play so as to console his defeated opponents.

I had a very pleasant dinner with the Purdys after the Australian Open in January and it was great exchanging yarns with John and talking about the “good old days.” He looked very well but, alas, has now been taken from us.

Today’s puzzle shows Purdy finishing off a young Stephen Solomon in the 1982 Australian Championships. Can you spot his winning idea?

r1r3k1/2q2ppp/b2p1P2/3Pp1b1/1p4P1/1N4Q1/1PP2RBP/1K1R4 b – - 0 24Black to Play

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #97

Written by Robert Jamieson on 2nd Sep, 2011

I’m in mourning this week following the unexpected death of former Australian Chess Champion John Purdy who passed away suddenly last Saturday. I’ll say a bit more about Purdy next week when I’ve had time to put together an appropriate tribute, but meanwhile I’ve been consoling myself by playing through some of the games on Chess Kids On-Line.

Just about everyone there (except me) is anonymous, but there are clearly some strong players playing. The new leader “Check Norris” seems to only play 2 minute games and crushes everyone so he is clearly very good at speed chess. There are a couple of players who only play 10 or 15 minute games (they are probably coaches or older players) and rarely lose. Clearly to do well a chess player must play to his strengths and do what he is good at. Positional players should try to simplify the game to suit their style, whereas my mate “Checkmate” is a wild attacking player who always goes straight for the King. I saw him lose horribly to “Murraybeard” who went straight for a blocked position where there were no attacking chances, but then “J.Sidhu” wasn’t so canny and allowed “Checkmate” to attack.

They arrived at the following position with White (Checkmate) to play. Can you spot how he finished his opponent off in spectacular fashion?

r1b1q2k/p1pnbr2/1pn1p1QB/3pP3/3P4/2P2N2/PP2N1PP/R4RK1 w – - 1 16White to Play

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #95

Written by Robert Jamieson on 19th Aug, 2011

Does being good at chess help you in your chosen career? Being good at analysing and problem solving can’t be all bad but many good chess players are, well, just good at chess. On the other hand some have gone on to be successful in other fields.

I was listening to a political discussion on the radio the other day and one of the speakers was Professor Rod Tiffen, Professor of Political Science at Sydney University. Rod Tiffen! (I thought to myself). That must be the Rod Tiffen who was board two in my school chess team at Haileybury in the 1960s. Last week I was listening to a another radio discussion about the economic crisis in the USA and their guest was a Professor of Economics at Harvard University named Ken Rogoff. Ken Rogoff! (I thought to myself). That must be the American junior who played in my World Junior Chess Championships in 1971 and finished in third place.

Yesterday I was reading the newspaper over breakfast and one of the main articles was about a famous Italian Renaissance painting by Correggio that the State Library had just purchased for $5.2m with funds donated by Andrew Sisson. Andrew Sisson! (I thought to myself). Isn’t he the boy who finished runner-up to me in the Victorian U/14 Championships in 1966 and subsequently played board one for Melbourne Grammar in the Interschool Competition? Andrew, the paper reported, is an investment banker worth around $125m!

Perhaps chess has played a role in the success of these eminent people, so let’s knuckle down to today’s puzzle and see if you can follow in their footsteps.

8/4p1k1/3pPbp1/p6p/4KP2/1B4P1/P1R5/3r4 b – - 0 1Black to Play

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #93

Written by Robert Jamieson on 5th Aug, 2011

If I had to choose one chess website as being my favourite it would have to be http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/ “Chess Notes” by Edward Winter.

Winter must be the best chess historian in the world and his “notes,” which run into the thousands, are a treasury of chess history, memorabilia, anecdotes, famous games and quirky incidents. Currently I’m reading a book of some of Winter’s better “notes” which I pinched from the pile of old chess books sitting around here at Chess Kids. (Don’t tell the Guru!).

To whet your appetite here is a quirky position apparently either from a lightning game between Capablanca and Lasker in 1914, or composed by them following the game. Warning: You’ll really need to exercise your imagination to solve this one – both Capablanca and Lasker were world champions.

1R1K4/k1n5/Np6/1P1n4/8/8/8/8 w – - 0 1White to Play

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #90

Written by Robert Jamieson on 15th Jul, 2011

There are many aspects to becoming a good chess player. Rudolph Spielmann, a famous attacking player at the start of the 20th century, once bemoaned that he could see combinations just as well as the world champion (Alekhine), the only trouble was that he didn’t have Alekhine’s ability to achieve the positions where the combinations were possible.

Spielmann perhaps under-rated his ability in this area as today’s position demonstrates. The position is from one of his simultaneous games in 1912. Spielmann is a pawn down but his pieces are all attacking whereas his opponent’s pieces are not co-ordinated. Were I White I would look at 1.Ra7 Qe7 2.Qxc6+ which leads to a R ending where White has a very active R and is probably winning. Perhaps Spielmann can do better? Can you?

1rk4r/1p3pp1/1Qpp3p/R3pP2/2P1P2q/8/2P3PP/1R5K w – - 0 1White to Play

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #89

Written by Robert Jamieson on 8th Jul, 2011

Akiba Rubinstein was a shy man (that’s why you can’t see his full pic above) who was possibly the best player in the world just before World War 1 the onset of which prevented him from playing a match for the World Championship against Lasker. His win against Rotiewi in 1907 is acclaimed for containing the best combination of all time, but Rubinstein’s fame rested largely on his ability in the endgame. He seemed to have a unique understanding of endgames, particularly rook endings, and would often convert even endings into victories for Rubinstein.

Irving Chernev said “Rubinstein’s games flow along so smoothly and easily, and are so pleasant to play over, that one is apt to forget that they also offer valuable instruction” so I thought that today we would see what we can learn from a Rubinstein ending. Let’s see if you have the same “feel” for endings that Rubinstein had.

Rubinstein is Black in the following position and his opponent plays 1.Qxb7+. Now you have to choose between 1…Kf8, 1…Kg8 or 1…Kh6. Which would you choose and why?

8/1p4kp/1p3pn1/3Q4/6P1/2P2N1q/PP2K3/8 w KQkq – 0 1White plays 1.Qxb7+ what does Black reply?

Older Posts »

Quick Links

Play Chess Online! 3565 registered users and counting.

Safe, fun and free - battle other Chess Kids from around the World.

Call Us Now

1300 4 CHESS

(1300 424 377)

Email Us

info@chesskids.com.au