isolated pawn

Monday, January 21, 2013

Chess and World War II

World champion Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946) was supposed to play a title match with Paul Keres in 1940, but World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939.
When World War II broke out, George Koltamowski (1903-2000) of Belgium was in Central America. He then came to the US and became a US citizen. Many of his family members died in concentration camps.
Moizhem Lowtzky (1881-1940), a Kiev master, fled to Poland after the start of World War II, and died there after the Nazi invasion.
David Przepiorka (1880-1940), a Polish master, died in a mass execution in Palmry, outside Warsaw around April 1940. During the Nazi invasion of Poland, his apartment was destroyed and he moved to share an apartment with another chess player in Warsaw. He was arrested after a Gestapo raid of his apartment. The Jews were later rounded up an executed.
On September 23, 1940, the Germans bombed the National Chess Centre in London, which burnt down. It may have been the largest chess club in the world with over 700 members. The contents of the chess center were entirely destroyed. It opened in September 1939, the same month as the start of World War II. Vera Menchik, world women’s champion, was its manager. The National Chess Centre was re-opened in 1952.
The finals for the 13th Soviet Championship was set for the fall of 1941. In June, 1941, one of the semi-finals was being held at Rostov-on-Don. During the 9th round, the Germans attacked the Soviet Union. Moscow officials wanted the tournament to continue, but some of the players left for home and others were ordered to induction centers. The 13th Soviet Championship resumed in 1944.
Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky (1894-1941) may have been killed on September 3, 1941, during the siege of Leningrad. He was on a barge on Lake Ladoga, east of Leningrad, when a German aircraft bombed the barge. He was the only one killed on the barge, which was displaying Red Cross flags. Other sources say that he was a victim of Stalin’s purges since Alexander was part of the Old Guard of revolutionists.
Genrikh Kasparyan (1910-1995) spent the first year of the war on the Crimean front in some of the heaviest fighting of World War II.
In November, 1941, Viktor Korchnoi’s father was killed in battle east of Leningrad. His father was part of a volunteer defense unit.
During the siege of Leningrad, officials ordered the evacuation of all children, which included four-year-old Boris Spassky (1937- ). Spassky learned to play chess on a train evacuating from Leningrad.
In 1941 Karel Treybal, one of the strongest Czech players of his period, was executed by the Nazis in Prague.
In 1942 Ilya Rabinovich, Leonid Kubbel, Mikhail Kogan (chess historian), Samuil Vainshtein (chief arbiter), and Alexei Troitzky starved to death during the siege of Leningrad.
During World War II, many prisoners of war spent much of their time playing chess. Chess sets and boards were sent to POWs and were used to hide maps, and sometimes a compass.
Prisoners in German concentration camps made chess sets out of candle wax and soap, which they colored, and wood.
A prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp made a chess set out of rye bread for an SS guard. The king piece on the brown German side was crafted to resemble Hitler.
Chess was popular in the air raid shelters during the Blitz against Britain.
During World War II, no postal chess play was allowed between civilians and servicemen in the United States and Canada. Soldiers overseas were not allowed to play postal chess due to censorship restrictions.
During World War II, the world chess federation (FIDE) headquarters was transferred to Buenos Aires, Argentina. During that time, Augusto de Muro, president of the Argentine Chess Federation, became president of FIDE.
Reuben Fine spent most of his time during World War II as a translator (he spoke 7 languages) in Washington D.C., and worked on mathematical models to predict movements of enemy submarines.
British Master Harry Golombek was a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II.
Sonja Graf was the ladies woman champion of Germany, but she was not allowed to play on the German chess Olympiad team by a Nazi edict. She went on to play at large under the banner of “Liberty.”
Chess masters in England were recruited as code breakers. The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was also known as the Gold, Cheese and Chess Society. Harry Golombek, Stuart Milner-Berry, and C.H. O’D Alexander (promoted to Colonel) were on the team which broke the German Enigma code.
During World War II, Alexander Alekhine served briefly as an interpreter in the French army.
Alekhine played in Nazi chess tournaments in Munich, Salzburg, Warsaw, and Prague.
Ossip Weinstein was a top Russian master and editor of the Soviet chess magazine Shakmatny Listok before World War II. He became a civilian casualty of the German bombardment of Leningrad during World War II.
Akiba Rubinstein was put in an insane asylum during World War II to protect him from the Germans.
Miguel (Mendel) Najdorf’s entire Polish family died in German concentration camps during World War II. Najdorf tried to communicate to his family that he was alive in Argentina by giving large chess simultaneous exhibitions for publicity.
During World War II, Savielly Tartakover escaped the German occupation in France and served as a Lieutenant Colonel (named Cartier) under Charles de Gaulle. After World War II, he was granted French citizenship.
During World War II, Svetozar Gligoric saw action as a Yugoslav partisan against the Germans. He was considered a war hero.
During World War II, Arnold Denker gave simultaneous exhibitions at military bases and aboard aircraft carriers.
Top Hungarian chess master Bora Kostic spent some time in a German concentration camp.
Rashid Nezhmetdinov was a decorated veteran of World War II and grandmaster strength.
Walter Korn fled Czechoslovakia during World War II, and came to the USA.
During World War II, Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, ordered German chess masters to visit hospitals and barracks to play exhibition chess matches. The same thing was happening with chess masters in the Soviet Union.
During World War II, the Japanese confiscated chess books from prisoners, thinking they were military code.
During World War II, Alexander Kotov was made a chief engineer and created the first breech-loading mortar. He was awarded the Order of Lenin at a Kremlin ceremony for his work.
Hungarian champion Laszlo Szabo was in a Hungarian Forced Labor unit where he was captured by the Russian army. He was a prisoner of war until after the end of World War II.
Larry Evans learned chess from his older brother. His brother was later killed in action as a bomber crew member during World War II.
Arvid Kubbel was a noted chess problemist. For over 30 years, the Soviets said he died in the siege of Leningrad. Instead, he died of nephritis in a Soviet gulag.
During World War II, Paul Keres of Estonia participated in several German and German-sponsored chess tournaments. When the Red Army liberated his country, Soviet authorities planned to execute Keres. Mikhail Botvinnik interceded by talking to Stalin, and Keres was spared. During World War II, it was rumored that Keres was killed. This was reported in Chess Review.
World women’s chess champion Vera Menchik died in 1944 at the age of 38 during a German V2 bombing raid on the city of London. Her sister Olga also died from the bombing raid.
Klaus Junge was an officer in the 12th SS-battalion defending Hamburg. When he was asked to surrender, he stood up, shouted “Sieg Heil!” and was shot just three weeks before the end of World War II.
After World War II, world champion Alexander Alekhine was not invited to chess tournaments because of his Nazi affiliation.
Soviet master Georgy Schneiderman-Stepanov was shot just after World War II began for the Soviets. He was shot on suspicion of being a German spy only because there was a German general named Schneiderman.
The first sporting event after World War II was the USA vs. USSR radio chess match in September, 1945. The Russians won.
One of the world’s strongest chess players was a Latvian named Vladimir Petrov. After World War II, the Soviets occupied Latvia. The Soviets suspected that Petrov collaborated with the Nazis. Petrov was sent to Siberia and never returned.
The Latvian master Karlis Ozols was accused to have taken part in atrocities during World War II. After the war, he fled to Australia. He became Australian champion in 1958. Ozols was a senior officer in the pro-Nazi Latvian militia who carried out mass executions of Jews in Latvia.
Prominent chess players lost during World War II included Polish master Isaak Appel (1905-1941), Hungarian master Zoltan Balla (1883-1945), Moscow chess champion Sergey Belavenets (1910-1942), Russian master Fyodor Fogelevich (1909-1941), Henryk Friedman (1903-1943), Polish master Achilles Frydman (1905-1940), Polish champion Eduard Gerstenfeld (1915-1943), Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky (1894-1941), Klaus Junge (1924-1945, Lev Kaiev (1913-1942), Mikhail Kogan (1898-1942), Josek Kolski (1900-1941), Plish master Leon Kremer (1901-1940), Arvid Kubbel (1889-1942), Leonid Kubbel (1892-1942), Salo Landau (1903-1943), Benjamin Levin ( -1942), Moishe Lowekl (1881-1940), Kiev master Moizhem Lowtzky (1881-1940), Moscow Champion Isaak Maisel ( -1943, Mikhail Makogonov (1900-1943), Olga Menchik (1908-1944), Vera Menchik (1906-1944), Latvian champion Vladimir Petrov (1907-1945), Mikhail Platov (1883-1940), David Przepiorka (1880-1940), Ilya Rabinovich (1878-1943), Vesevold Rauzer (1908-1941), Nikolai Riumin (1908-1942), Georgy Schneiderman-Stepanov ( -1941), Byelorussian champion Vladimir Silich (1906-1943), Vasily Solkov ( -1944), Endre Steiner (1901-1944), Mark Stolberg (1922-1943), Polish master Abram Szpiro (1910-1941), Karel Treybal (1885-1941), Alexei Troitzky (1866-1942), Samuil Vainstein (1894-1942), Boris Vaksberg ( -1942), Otaker Votruba (1894-1943), Heinrich Wolf (1875-1943), and Lazar Zalkind (1886-1945).
During World War II, prominent chess players that died included Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941), Jose Capablanca (1888-1942), Rudolf Spielmann (1883-1942), and Frank Marshall (1877-1944).
– Bill Wall

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Chess and World War II

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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Chess Limericks

There once was a man from Maine,

Who played chess on a fast train.

He took a move back

And was thrown off the track,

And he never played chess again.

There once was a lady named Flo,

Who liked to mate, you know;

When someone castled long,

She helped along,

and would say, “O – O – O.”

There once was a man named Maloney,

Who always played the Benoni.

But his counterattack,

failed to a sac;

And his Benoni was just baloney.

There once was a lady in the nude,

Who played chess with some dude;

She announced to her date,

She was ready to mate,

But her meaning was quite misconstrued.

There was a young fellow named Fyfe,

Whose marriage was ruined for life,

For he played chess all day

and was always away,

and avoided mating his wife.

There was a young lady named Mable

Who played chess on a very big table,

When she played against a man,

she always began,

“Try to mate me if you are able.”

There once was a chess player named Nate,

Was anything but sedate;

When moving to win,

He broadly would grin,

And bellow: “That’s check – and mate!”

There once was a lady with one ambition,

To win chess under any condition.

But to this date

She has yet to mate

She just can’t find the right position.

There once was a Grandmaster named Browne,

Who always wore a perpetual frown;

As he played blitz against Dzindzi,

The crowd got all cringy,

He said just one word, that was, “DOWN!”

There’s something chess computers lack;

It’s not that they know how to attack;

They can fork and pin;

They may lose, more often win.

But they just will never talk back.

Postal chess is still being played today,

And there’s no reason why I shouldn’t play.

It is nice and slow,

And I can use my ECO,

It’s the postage I can’t afford to pay.

This has happened to you, I bet.

You bring your chess set and didn’t forget.

Then you notice with shock

You have a broken chess clock,

And a piece is missing from the set.

The USCF rating system is inflated,

But the lower rated players are elated.

They can lose every game,

But their rating stays the same,

Or even become higher elevated.

A chess board of a new design

that prevents an early resign.

With a different king

On either wing

The board must be 9 by 9.

There once was a strong chess master

Who moved faster and faster,

But he couldn’t wait

To find a mate

So his games were always a disaster.

There once was a lady with big tits

Who played a match with Deep Fritz;

She tried to distract

By showing her rack

But got mated instead in blitz.

There once was a famous chess café

Where famous players came to play.

They paid a franc;

Played chess and drank.

And got checkmated all day.

There once was a blind man in jail,

Who beat everyone at chess without fail.

He recorded his moves,

With little grooves,

By writing everything in Braille.

There once was a player named Bob

Who was fired from his job.

He played chess at work

With some known jerk

Who always beat Bob with the Grob.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Jose Capablanca

Jose Raul Capablanca y Graupera was born on November 19, 1888 in Havana, Cuba. His father was a Spanish army officer and Jose was his second son. Jose learned chess at age 4 by watching his father play. He defeated his father the first time they played. At the age of 8, his father took him to the Havana Chess Club to meet stronger players. Capablanca did not take any chess lessons.

In 1901, when Jose was 12, he began an informal match with Cuban national champion Juan Corzo (age 28) and won, scoring 4 wins, 6 draws, and 3 losses. Capablanca’s only preparation was reading a chess book on chess endings that someone had given him.

In early 1902 at the age of 13, Jose played in the first Cuban national championship (won by Enrico Corzo) and took 4th place.

In 1904 Jose went to a private school in New York to learn English. In 1905, he passed with ease the entrance examinations and entered Columbia University in 1906 to study chemical engineering (and perhaps play professional baseball). He was selected as shortstop on the freshman team. Capablanca spent much of his time at the Manhattan Chess Club and played many games with the current world champion, Emanuel Lasker. Fifteen years later, Capablanca would defeat Lasker for the world championship.

In 1908 Capablanca’s patron withdrew his financial support because Capa was giving too much time to chess and not enough time to studies. Capablanca then attempted to live by means of chess.

In December, 1908 through February, 1909, Capablanca made a tour of the United States. In 10 exhibitions he won 168 games in a row before losing a game in Minneapolis. He played 602 games in 27 cities, scoring 96.4%.

In 1909 U.S. Champion Frank Marshall agreed to a match with Capablanca. Capa won with 8 wins, 14 draws, and 1 loss. Capa then went on a simultaneous tour and played 720 games, 686 wins, 20 draws, and 14 losses.

In 1910 Capablanca won the 32nd New York State championship with 6 wins and 1 draw.

In December 1910 through January 1911, he made another tour of the US. He then rode on a train for 23 hours straight to get back to New York to play in the New York State championship.

In 1911 he took 2nd place (behind Frank Marshall) in the 33rd New York State championship, with 8 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss.

In March and April, 1911 Capablanca made his first European tour. He gave exhibitions in France and Germany.

In 1911 Capablanca was invited to San Sebastian, Spain and won a major tournament at his first attempt (the last person to do that was Pillsbury when he won Hastings 1895). He won 6, drew 7, and lost 1 ahead of Rubinstein and Schlechter. Before the tournament, Nimzovich protested that such an unknown player should play in this event. Capablanca then proceeded to beat Nimzovich in the first round. At age 23, Capablanca was now the 2nd strongest player in the world, after Emanuel Lasker.

Capablanca next challenged Lasker for the world championship. Lasker wanted the match limited to 30 games, first person winning 6 games would be world champion. Capablanca objected to the limits of 30 games and other conditions, so Lasker broke off the negotiations. It would be 10 more years before the two of them agreed to the conditions of a match.

In 1912 Capablanca published a chess magazine in Havana. It lasted until 1915.

In 1913 Capablanca took second (after Marshall) in a Havana tournament. Capablanca had the mayor of Havana clear the tournament room so that Capablanca could resign his game to Marshall without anyone seeing him resign.

Capablanca returned to New York and in July, 1913 went 11-0 in a New York tournament (Rice Tournament).

In September, 1913 Capablanca obtained a post in the Cuban Foreign Office. He was expected to be an ambassador-at-large for Cuba. His official title was “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipoteniary General from the Government of Cuba to the World at Large.”

In October 1913 to March 1914 Capablanca traveled to Europe on his way to the Consulate at St Petersburg to play matches or exhibition games against their leading masters. In serious games, he scored 19 wins, 4 draws, and 1 loss during that period.

In 1914 Capablanca won a New York event with 11 straight wins.

In 1914 Capablanca took 2nd in the St Petersburg tournament behind Lasker, losing their individual game. Czar Nicholas II conferred the title “Grandmaster of Chess” on Capablanca and four others for the top five finishers. He was negotiating for a shot at the world championship title with Lasker when World War I broke out.

During World War I Capablanca stayed in New York, winning events there in 1915, 1916, and 1918.

In the New York 1916 event, Capablanca lost one game, to Chajes. He would not lose another chess game for 8 years.

The New York 1918 event saw the introduction of the famous Marshall Attack of the Ruy Lopez that Frank Marshall prepared against Capablanca. Capablanca won that game.

In 1919 Capablanca beat Boris Kostic of Hungary 5-0 in a match held in Havana. At Hastings 1919 he won with 10 wins and 1 draw.

In 1920 Capablanca wrote MY CHESS CAREER.

In June, 1920 Lasker resigned the title to Capablanca, but the public wanted a match. The record prize fund was $25,000. Even if he lost, Lasker would get $13,000 of the prize fund.

The world championship match began on March 15, 1921 in Havana. Capablanca won the match against Lasker with 4 wins and 10 draws. The match was scheduled for 30 games. Lasker resigned the match on the grounds of ill-health. Capablanca became the official 3rd world champion (1921-1927) in the history of chess.

In 1921 Capablanca wrote CHESS FUNDAMENTALS and a book on the world championship match.

Capablanca got married in Havana in December, 1921. He married Gloria Simoni Beautucourt. They had a son, Jose Raul in 1923 and a daughter, Gloria in 1925.

In 1922 Capablanca conducted some simultaneous exhibitions in the United States. His best performance was when he played 103 opponents in Cleveland, winning 102 games and drawing 1 game.

In 1922 Capablanca took 1st place in the 15th British Chess Federation championship in London with 11 wins and 4 draws, 1 1/2 points ahead of Alekhine (London, 1922).

In New York 1924 Capablanca took second (won by Lasker) with 10 wins, 9 draws, and 1 loss. The loss was to Richard Reti. It was his first loss of a game in 8 years.

In 1925 Capablanca gave a simultaneous exhibition in Moscow and won every game but one. He drew against a 12 year old and told the boy after the game, “One day you will be champion.” The boy was Mikhail Botvinnik.

In Moscow 1925 Capablanca took 3rd place behind Bogoljubov and Lasker, with 9 wins, 9 draws, and 2 losses. While in Moscow, Capablanca took part in a movie film called CHESS FEVER.

Capablanca won Lake Hopatcong, New York 1926 with 4 wins, 4 draws.

In 1927 Capablanca was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary at Large of the Cuban Republic.

In March, 1927 Capablanca won the New York International, 2 1/2 points ahead of Alekhine. Up to this time, Capablanca had only lost 4 games of the 158 match and tournament games he had played since 1914.

In September, 1927 Capablanca faced Alexander Alekhine for the world championship match in Buenos Aires. The stake money was $10,000 in gold. When it was over in November, Capablanca lost, winning 3 games, drawing 25 games, and losing 6 games. The entire match took place behind closed doors and lasted 73 days. There were no spectators or photographs. The opening of 32 of the 34 games were Queen’s Gambit Declined.

Capablanca settled in Paris after the match, trying to get a return match. Capablanca won Berlin 1928, 2nd at Bad Kissingen 1928 (behind Bogoljubov), 1st at Budapest 1928, 2nd at Carlsbad 1929 (behind Nimzovich), 1st at Barcelona 1929, 1st at Ramsgate 1929, and 2nd at Hastings 1930-1 (behind Euwe).

Alekhine avoided Capablanca’s challenge of a re-match and played the much weaker Efim Bogoljubov in 1929. Alekhine further avoided Capablanca by insisting that Capablanca had to put up $10,000 in gold. After the stock market crash, there were no backers for Capablanca.

In 1930-31 Capablanca took 2nd at Hastings. His only loss was to an illiterate player named Sultan Khan.

In 1931 Capablanca played Max Euwe in a match and won with 2 wins and 8 draws.

Capablanca won the New York 1931 tournament with 9 wins and 2 draws.

Capablanca took 4th place at Hastings 1934-5, and 4th place at Moscow 1935.

In 1935 he took 2nd at Margate (behind Reshevsky).

In 1936 he took 2nd at Margate (behind Flohr).

In 1936 Capablanca won at Moscow 1936 with 8 wins and 10 draws, one point ahead of Botvinnik. In August, 1936 he tied for first place at Nottingham with Botvinnik.

In 1937 he obtained a divorce from his first wife, whose family succeeded in having Capablanca demoted to the post of commercial attache.

In 1937 Capablanca tied for 3rd-4th at Semmering (won by Paul Keres).

In 1938 Capablanca married Olga Chagodayev, a Russian princess.

In 1938 Capablanca took 7th out of 8 places at AVRO in Amsterdam. He won 2 games, drew 8, and lost 4. He had suffered a slight stroke halfway through the event and was suffering from high blood pressure.

In Margate 1939 Capablanca tied for 2nd-3rd (won by Keres).

His last serious games were at the Buenos Aires Olympiad in 1939, where he played first board for the Cuban team. He had the best score for board one, with 7 wins and 9 draws.

On March 7, 1942 Jose Capablanca suffered a stroke at the Manhattan Chess Club while watching a skittles game. He died on March 8, 1942 at Mount Sinai hospital, the same hospital that Emanuel Lasker died in a year earlier. He was the shortest lived world champion, dieing at age 53 years, 109 days. He was buried with full honors in Havana. General Batista, President of Cuba, took personal charge of the funeral arrangements.

Capablanca won 7, drew 35, and lost 6 world championship games, for a total score of 24 1/2 points out of 48 games played. He was world champion for 6 years and was never given a chance for a re-match. His historical Elo rating has been calculated to be 2725.

Capablanca played over 700 tournament games winning over 71 percent of the time. He only lost 36 games in his entire life. Capablanca played over 1,200 games that have been recorded.

In 1951 Cuba issued a 25 cent stamp with a portrait of Capablanca on it. It was the first stamp issued which portrayed a chess master.

Capablanca proposed a new chess variant, played on a 10×10 board or a 10×8 board. He introduced two new pieces. The chancellor had the combined moves of a rook and knight (the piece could move like a rook or a knight). The other piece was the archbishop that had the combined moves of a bishop and knight.

– Bill Wall

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Analyzing Your Chess Games

You can always improve your game if you analyze your own games. Learn from your mistakes. Recognize some pattern that got you in trouble and try to avoid that pattern in the future. I’ve been going over my 36,000 plus games for years, analyzing my openings, middlegames, endings, and losses. I look for trends as to where and why I lost. And with today’s computers, it is easy to see missed opportunities from tactical shots and combinations that you normally wouldn’t see.

I would start with a database of your games. I have put all my games in Chessbase 11, but there are a few free databases, such as SCID, that you can use. The advantage of the database is the sorting ability, the ease of replaying games, and the ease in annotating your games. I usually look at my losses and try to find out where the losing move is. I also look at theoretical novelties, but that takes a second database, or at least a large file, of previously played games. I use the Mega Database 2013 with over 5 million games in addition to my own 36,000 games to look for new moves. There are many sites that have an Opening Explorer that you could also use for alternative moves that have been played in the past.

Once I play an important games, either over-the-board in a tournament or online, I try to analyze the game as soon as possible. If I lost, I try to find the losing move. If I won, I look for where a novelty occurred and run a chess engine against the game to look for blunders for both sides. When I just finish a game, I try to put my thoughts I had about the game and what alternative moves I thought about. I try to list the serious candidate moves and try to pinpoint where the game was winning or losing for me. If I have a scoresheet, I sometimes write the times it took with each move for Black and White. I usually see a trend that if I did not spend the proper amount of time on a difficult position, I would make less that best moves.

Chess software now have blunder checks, so I do look at major blunders and find the alternative better moves for me and my opponent. I usually start backward, and look for blunders at the end of the game first, then move forward to the beginning of the game.

Most chess engines can evaluate the position with a plus or minus factor. A minus factor of 1 is like a pawn down. A plus factor of 3 usually means a winning position equivalent to a minor piece up. I try to find where these evaluation factors swing to high numbers during the game. The point is to find the critical moments of the game where you are winning or losing. Then I look to see if I can increase the winning percentage or minimize the losing percentage with candidate moves.

I try to analyze the opening very carefully, since that is the most important stage in the games that I play. I look at traps and see if I can force a trap and make sure I avoid a trap. I’ve written dozens of chess books on traps (the 500 Miniature Series) and I look at chess traps first in any opening that I plan to play. I usually have two openings prepared for White and two openings prepared for Black when I play in a tournament. I also have one opening for White and one opening for Black that I play when it is not a serious game (final round with nothing at stake) and these are usually my fun, gambit or very irregular opening that I experiment. Also, with databases, I can compare my openings with my past experience of that opening and see how well I am doing. If I have serious problems with a certain opening, I analyze that opening carefully with the latest master games and try not to get in a bad opening position again with whatever variation I played.

I try to verbally state, “what’s the threat” after each move and try to justify why my position is better or what I missed to get in a bad position.

I try to keep a record of how the game was decided. Was it in the opening, or middlegame, or endgame? Most of my games are really decided in the opening. I play few endgames, but the ones I do play, I study and try to categorize the endgame. Was it just pawn endgame, or rook and pawn endgame, or minor piece endgame with pawns, or queen endgame, etc. Every chess game I play that ends up with 6 pieces or less (counting the kings), I put in an endgame database that has solved all 6-piece endgames. I then look at all the possible moves and see which one win, lose, or draw. With practical endgames that I do play, I try to refresh my memory on that particular endgame, such as rook and 2 pawns vs rook and pawn, or bishops of the same or opposite color.

With a little bit of vanity, I try to publish my games, win or lose. I have published hundreds of my games over the 40 plus years and always look forward to any feedback. My games have been in Chess Informant, Chess Life, several databases, several books not written by me, and opening analysis in Encyclopedia of Chess Openings.

I also try to show my games to stronger players and let them analyze my game for me. I’ve approached International Masters and Grandmasters when they are not too busy and asked them whether they would look over one of my games. You would be surprised that if they are not too busy, they will look over your games. I have had Paul Keres, Viktor Korchnoi, Eugenio Torre, Eduard Gufeld, John Donaldson, Walter Browne, Bill Lombardy, Emory Tate, Arnold Denker, Igor Ivanov, Peter Biyiases, Yasser Seirawan, George Koltanowski, and Doug Root all look at one of my games at one time or another and analyzed some of the moves.

Finally, I analyze some of my older games again with the same opening or some theme that was common with my more recent games. I find it fun to see what I know now vs. what I knew when I was a 1600 player in the 1960s and 1970s. I missed a lot more in my earlier games than I do now, so that must mean some kind of improvement over the years.

– Bill Wall

TAGS: ANALYZE CHESS GAMES

POSTED BY BILL AT MONDAY, JANUARY 14TH, 2013 NO COMMENTS »

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Monday, January 21, 2013

Chess and World War II

Chess and World War II

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Chess and World War II

Chess and World War II

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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Chess Limericks

Friday, January 18, 2013

Jose Capablanca

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Analyzing Your Chess Games

Analyzing Your Chess Games

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