Overprotection and prophylaxis are all very well, Dave, but what
about ordinary players, what do they need? I believe that we don’t
really know a lot about the chess thinking of ordinary players.
There are some things that have been done on amateur games over the
years (by de Groot, Euwe/Meiden, Webb, Heisman, Silman,
Rubin/Emms and Davies) and there are a set of common beliefs about
amateur play, but I think that amateurs are a lot more complex than
is often suggested.
Amateurs are more diverse than is given credit for – they often
have marked strengths and weaknesses, but these weakness and
stylistic preferences may be very different between players. I was
interested to look at this book which focuses on one particular
amateur chess player, and offers some Grandmaster comments upon a
game. [Steve Davis Plays Chess (Norwood/Davis), also published as
Grandmaster meets Chess Amateur]
Norwood,D (2500) – Davis,S (1605) [C90],
1994
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0
I am not happy with my Pawn structure
5…Bg4
counterattack
6.h3 Bxf3?
I thought it wasn’t a good idea to get the Queen out at an
early stage “. (but here it can’t be harassed)
7.Qxf3
DN: ” Where do your pieces belong?
SD: ” Nf6, Bd6/c5, Qe7, O-O-O
DN: ” Can’t find anything to fault there
7…Nf6 8.d3 Nd7
SD thought about:
[8…Be7 idea 9.Bg5 but… (9.Qg3! hence the chosen move)
9…Nd7!;
8…h6 ” to stop the pin “]
9.Nd2 Bd6 10.Nc4 0-0 11.Ne3 Qf6 12.Qg4
[12.Qg3 was analysed: 12…Qg6 13.Qxg6 hxg6]
12…Nc5 13.Nf5 Qg6
14.Be3
[14.Qxg6 analysed: 14…fxg6? x e5]
14…Rfe8 15.Nh4 Qxg4
[15…Qe6 overlooked]
16.hxg4
No Pawn breaks ” DN
16…Ne6 17.f3
Maybe I should swap Bishops?
(Yes! see his own comment at move 8)
17…Nd4 18.Bxd4 exd4 19.f4
Oh hell
19…f6 20.g3 g5?
21.Nf5
and he can check me on h6
21…c5 22.Kg2
He’s going to double Rooks, I’ll get the King out of the
way
22…Kf7 23.fxg5 Re6?
[23…fxg5 24.Nxd6+]
24.gxf6 Rxf6 25.g5
From bad to worse
25…Rxf5
[cutting losses]
26.Rxf5+ Kg6 27.Rf6+ Kg7 28.Raf1 Be5 29.R6f5 Re8 30.Kh3
Re6 31.Rf7+ Kg6 32.Kg4 b6 33.Rd7 h6 34.gxh6 Kxh6 35.Rh1+ Kg6
36.Rdh7 Bd6? 37.R1h6# 1-0
This was the first time I had played Steve. During the
course of the game I made several observations about his chess
ability:
Reasonable grasp of strategy – understood
the importance of the centre and the need to have active pieces
Positional understanding less adequate –
did not appreciate the full importance of Pawns and Pawn structure.
Planning patchy – good at short-term
planning, but found it difficult to formulate a long-term plan.
Calculates well but prone to tactical
errors – poor sense of danger.
Little opening knowledge – did not know the
general strategy behind one of the main line openings.
Good at assessing positions – main weakness
here was a tendency to be over-pessimistic.
…These are among the most typical failings of the
club/occasional chess player who wants to improve their
game
— NORWOOD in NORWOOD/DAVIS, Steve Davis
plays Chess (a.k.a. Grandmaster Meets Chess
Amateur)
Now, assuming that at least some of these might apply to at
least some of us, let us review these comments one by one, and
suggest some therapy.
I’ve recommended some books. This is the easy bit. There are
lots of good books which will give you the ideas you need, rather
fewer that will allow you to check your understanding and help you
incorporate the ideas into your own play.
The best ways to improve in all respects are to study games,
your own and others’, and check out your conclusions. We don’t do a
lot of this in group coaching sessions, but that’s what you should
be doing.
Get hold of collected annotated games, or get some recommended
to you. Pick games which illustrate the theme you are working on,
pick openings which feature the theme, and pick games by players
who are noted for their facility with your theme. Play through the
games three times: once quickly to get a feel for the game and its
phases/turning points, once slowly, making your own notes, and once
comparing your notes to the annotator’s. Games by the old masters
like Tarrasch, Lasker and Capablanca, are all pretty useful,
perhaps also some by the moderns like Alekhin, Botvinnik, Fischer
and Nunn, but these are more complex. The older guys are useful for
all points of study below, in my view – you can look to Lasker for
his endgames, his tactical alertness, his preferred classical
openings, and his swindles and general fighting spirit.
Reasonable grasp of strategy – understood the importance
of the centre and the need to have active pieces
Comment (DR): I wonder if DN would say that
after playing more games with SD. My scan through the openings in
the Minor section at WECU suggest to me that at least some club
players don’t have a good understanding of the centre, in
particular how to defend when your opponent has closed the centre
(as in this game). Moreover, when asked to come up with some plans
in a minority attack position (A), participants at a session
recently came up with some rather passive plans (B) rather than
more active ones (C).
(A)
(B)
(C)
What you can do to get better : We can play and
study openings where the centre and activity are important (say,
like the Scotch Game), we can study games by other players in our
chosen openings (Lautier and Kasparov have been important in the
recent theory of the Scotch, and earlier Penrose played the Gambit
line), and study players whose style is marked by central control
and/or piece activity (Tarrasch, Capa, Lasker, Alekhin, Tal).
Good further reading : Logical Chess (Chernev),
The Middle Game (Vol. II, Euwe/Kramer).
Little opening knowledge – did not know the general
strategy behind one of the main line openings.
Comment (DR): You would have thought with all
those openings books out there, we’d be better than this, but we
aren’t.
What you can do to get better : DN’s next step
was to advise SD to play the Modern Defence, which I think is
wholly mistaken. It is important to become an expert in your
openings systems, but there is too much to the Modern to get a hold
of for Minor players. What else, then? Pick something more
straightforward, less flexible, more classical, more clearly
characterised. You must also learn to combat the common ‘no-theory’
systems like the Stonewall.
This is potentially a huge topic, but Tony D’s repertoire might
run: Scotch, French or Petroff as Black, QGD Swiss as Black, with
against the half-open defences: Tarrasch French, Panov Caro-Kann,
Alapin Sicilian (three systems with overlapping Pawn structures),
Exchange Alekhin, Be3 Pirc. I (DR) recommend: Italian Game (Giuoco
Piano and related openings) as White, with against the half-open
defences either the King’s Indian Attack and/or a selection from
Classical French, Classical Caro-Kann, Bb5 Sicilian, Exchange
Alekhin, Be3 Pirc. As Black, as well as approving Tony’s ideas, I
would also look at the Semi-Slav or Stonewall Dutch.
The real point is to find a repertoire which suits you, which
you believe in, and which has some consistency of style about
it.
Good further reading : The Ideas Behind The
Chess Openings (Fine), Chess Openings for Juniors (Walker), The
Chessplayer’s Battle Manual (Davies)
Calculates well but prone to tactical errors – poor
sense of danger.
Comment (DR): This apparent contradiction is
commonly found. We see tactics once they start happening, but can
blunder terribly if the danger light is off
What you can do to get better : Tactics really
is something you can get your eye in for. Euwe says: study, learn
and revise all the basic ideas, then rehearse examples (in your
mind or at the board). I came up with the mnemonic:
J ust M ight F
ind a N eat P owerful
T actic for J umps
M ates F orks N
ets P ins and T ies. What we also
need is a book of tactics with a realistic proportion of false
leads and positions with no tactical solutions. No such book
exists, but there are lots of straightforward tactics books. On
developing a sense of danger: I’ve just done two sessions and
looked at 111 games on this recently, so a quick run through the
positions given there might give you a better sense of when the
trap detector should be turned up a level.
Also, Steve didn’t recognise real and apparent dangers – he was
afraid of a measly check by a lone Knight, but didn’t appreciate
the concessions he was making on the king’s-side.
Good further reading : Winning Chess
(Chernev/Reinfeld), Test Your Chess IQ (Livshitz), Danger in Chess
(Avni), Chess for Tigers (Webb). Games by Tarrasch, Lasker.
Good at assessing positions – main weakness here was a
tendency to be over-pessimistic.
Comment (DR): Again, I wonder whether DN would
still say this after playing many games with minor players. Club
players seem to me to have a fine capacity for missing the
positional point just as much as the tactical point. It’s not that
we are thinking about nothing, we are making some sense and
noticing some features of the position, but we are often missing
much more important features.
What you can do to get better : We need to
review and refresh our stock of ideas, and check them out. I came
up with the mnemonic To Know What Plan to
Follow Look Carefully , for
T actics, K
ing safety, W eak squares & weak Pawns,
P iece position, F orcing moves
(initiative, breakthroughs), L ine control,
C entre and space . Many books review the
positional elements, but in terms of books for self-assessment we
have a market of about one. So, we are back studying master games.
On pessimism: this is again mostly attitude, but you might work on
it by finding more resources in your old games, perhaps by playing
over master games whose players might have shown a more
forward-going attitude in similar positions.
Good further reading : The Most Instructive
Games of Chess Ever Played (Chernev), The Strategy of Chess
(Cafferty), My System (Nimzovitch), Think/Plan Like A Grandmaster
(Kotov), How to Reassess Your Chess (Silman), Test Your Positional
Play (Bellin/Ponzetto). Games by Capa and Botvinnik.
Positional understanding less adequate – did not
appreciate the full importance of Pawns and Pawn
structure.
Comment (DR): I think Pawns and Pawn Structures
are the easiest thing in chess to learn about (what’s hard is
linking the understanding to piece play).
What you can do to get better : Choose openings
for study and play which have characteristic Pawn formations:
Scotch Four Knights, French Defence, Caro-Kann Panov, Ruy Lopez
Exchange all have these features. (I’ll do a session on it if you
like.)
Good further reading : The Middle Game Vol. 1
(Euwe & Kramer), Pawn Structures (Baburin), Test Your
Positional Play (Bellin/Ponzetto). Games by Capa, Botvinnik.
Planning patchy – good at short-term planning, but found
it difficult to formulate a long-term plan.
Comment (DR): Not all positions require
long-term planning – watch for priorities. There are some positions
which have marked long-term features which can be easily
understood. In this game Black had a long-term headache on the
Queen’s-side and with the dark-squared Bishop, which he sort of
recognised but did nothing positive about. When I showed this game
without identifying the combatants a disdainful howl went up when
White provoked the exchange of Queens – “White’s just playing for a
draw”. No – this was part of White’s winning plan! Exchanges are
like other moves, they make a difference. In this case, White would
like to get to an endgame, so the exchange improves White’s
chances.
What you can do to get better : Play and study
some games with ‘long-term’ features – things like weak Pawns or
Bad Bishops, in openings like the French Tarrasch, QGD or Exchange
Ruy – and see how these features are reflected or superceded in the
following play. Planning comes down to: Ready, Aim, Fire!
Ready – Notice and assess the positional elements
(see below), Aim – form a realistic plan based on
an appraisal of the chances for each side, then
Fire! – pick the moves which best meet your
needs.
Good further reading : Think/Plan Like A
Grandmaster (Kotov), The Chess Struggle in Practice (Bronstein –
some of the best bits are quoted by Kotov), How to Reassess Your
Chess (Silman). Botvinnik games again.
Also:
The endgame
Comment (DR): It didn’t arise in the Davis
game, but club players are widely regarded as being poor at
endgames, and everything I’ve observed at the club reinforces
this!
What you can do to get better : (1) know your
onions – get to grips with the theory of basic endings and general
endgame principles, (2) study the play and writings of endgame
specialists like Capa, Smyslov, Mednis, Karpov, (3) play “endgame
openings” with an early exchange of Queens – Ruy Lopez Exchange,
and French Tarrasch for example.
Good further reading : Winning Endgames
(Kosten), Capablanca’s 60 Best Chess Endings (Chernev), Rate Your
Endgame (Mednis/Crouch).
Panic and Collapse
Comment (DR): You notice in the game SD
panicked when he was attacked and lashed out with the horrible
20…g5 , instead of looking for defensive
improvements like centralising Rooks or finding Queen’s-side
counterplay, and later he allowed mate in one. By the time it came
to cutting his losses it was already over. Quite often in club
chess games are won by the more determined as often as by the
stronger player.
What you can do to get better : Again, the
blunders sessions hold some clues – so often I was writing “from
the frying pan into the fire”, and “panic” or “bluff”. This is a
change of attitude as much as theory. Try looking at the games of
the great swindlers – Marshall, Lasker, Webb – and the great
defensive players – Steinitz, Petrosian, Karpov – and the
counter-punchers like Korchnoi.
Good further reading : Chess for Tigers (Webb),
The Chess Amateur (Silman).
Inconsistency: know all the words, but there is no
consistency or rigour.
Comment (DR): It takes a bit of time to spot
this, but listen out for it. DN didn’t particularly emphasise this
in his notes, but SD was in two minds about whether to get shot of
his dark-squared Bishop. Undoubtedly he should have done – he did
talk about it more than once, but never got around to it. I think
this lack of clarity is more characteristic of club players than
lack of knowledge. Chess positions are complex and often pretty
balanced, so it is often possible to talk for a long time about a
chess game without saying anything wrong, but without really
getting to grips with it.
What you can do to get better : This goes back
to the first point about studying games and checking out your
conclusions, and the study of guys like Botvinnik who have a
well-marked analytical prowess.
Good further reading : How to Reassess Your
Chess (Silman), The Amateur’s Mind (Silman) Test Your Positional
Play (Bellin/Ponzetto).
OK, get that lot sorted out and then get back to me!
Books with amateur games
DAVIES The Chessplayers Battle Manual
EUWE/MEIDEN Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur
HEISMAN The Improving Annotator
RUBIN/EMMS Chess for the Rank and File
SILMAN The Amateur’s Mind
WEBB Chess for Tigers
Useful books for club players
Don’t buy the lot – just one from each category
(opening/strategy/endgames) – start with the ones marked * first,
then **
AVNI Danger in Chess
BABURIN Pawn Structures
BELLIN/PONZETTO. Test Your Positional Play
BRONSTEIN The Chess Struggle in Practice (some of the best bits
are quoted by KOTOV),
CAFFERTY, The Strategy of Chess
*CHERNEV Capablanca’s 60 Best Chess Endings
**CHERNEV, The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played
*CHERNEV, Logical Chess
*CHERNEV/REINFELD, Winning Chess
DAVIES The Chessplayer’s Battle Manual
**EUWE & KRAMER, The Middle Game Vols. I/II
FINE, The Ideas Behind The Chess Openings
**KOSTEN, Winning Endgames
KOTOV, Think/Plan Like A Grandmaster
**LIVSHITZ, Test Your Chess IQ, Vol I
MEDNIS/CROUCH. Rate Your Endgame
NIMZOVITCH, My System
**PACHMAN Modern Chess Strategy
**SILMAN. How to Reassess Your Chess
*WALKER Chess Openings for Juniors