President’s column

The defeat of the English chess players.

It was much more difficult for the players of the USSR to prepare the games of this match. Some of the English players, such as Alexander or Clyne, did not take part to the major tournaments during the last six years and we could not study their games to be well prepared for the struggle.

Many players think that the win with Black is more valuable that the win with the white pieces. Botvinnik has won more games with Black than with White in his tournaments. When playing Black, Botvinnk generally plays complicate opening where it is very difficult to give a correct assessment of the position. But of course, Black has also to play very carefully in such openings. In the second game played against Alexander, Botvinnik played a French defense and get a position where both players had good chances for sizing the attack. He played a wrong move and was forced to play in defense. Botvinnik does not very often make mistakes, but in this particular case, the lack of training during more than a whole year could be felt. Botvinnik did not take part to any tournament since the 14^th USSR championship played in May 1945.

Has the English team be able to avoid the “American Tragedy”? Indeed, the percentage is not as disastrous as the American one, but the defeat could not be avoided.

The art of soviet chess has won a prestigious victory in the radio match URSS – Great Britain.
V. Ragozine.

Great Britain			USSR
C.H.O.D Alexander	1	1	M. Botvinnik
E. Klein	½	1 ½	P. Kérès
I. Konig	0	2	V. Smyslov
H. Golombek	1	1	I. Boleslavsky
W.A. Fairhurst	½	1 ½	S. Flohr
P.M. List	0	2	A. Kotov
W. Winter	1	1	D. Bronstein
J.M. Aitken	0	2	I. Bondarevsky
B.H. Wood	½	1 ½	A. Lilienthal
G. Abrahams	1 ½	½	V. Ragozine
Miss E. Tranmer	0	2	V. Byelova
Mrs R.M. Bruce	0	2	I. Rudenko

The magazine published a photo of the soviet team who played in the game against the USA, and some of these members, amongst them Ragozine, played also in the match against Great-Britain.

The two games played by Alexander and Botvinnik have also been published in Le Monde des Echecs (pages 261 – 262 & 356-358).

F. Molnar "Le Monde des Echecs" (1946)

The preferred move of Botvinnik in the French, his first choice against 1.e4

Master Alexander is not intimidated and uses an aggressive move 7.¤f3 ¤bc6 8.¥d3 £a5 9.£d2 c4 10.¥e2 £a4 to avoid a4, Pogrebysski - Botvinnik en 1939.

Who will be the first? White wants to make the decision on the King side, whereas Black launches an attack on the Queen side. But the move ...£a5 is not as efficient as ...£c7, due to the double threat ...£xc3 and ...£xe5 while defending b7.

After 9...£c7 the game continues 10.¤e2 ¤bc6 11.f4 ¥d7 12.£d3 dxc3 13.¤xc3 a6 14.¦b1 ¦c8 15.¥d2 ¤a5 16.£h3 b5 17.¥d3 ¤c4 and Black has the better game Lilienthal - Löwenfisch, Moscow 1936.
10.¦b1


A very strong move. The defensive move ¤ge2 would lead to a similar game as in the preceding line.
10...£xc3+ 11.¥d2 £c7

11...£xa3 should be tried.

12...¤d7 would be a complete resignation . 13.¤f3 ¤f8 14.£d3 ¤f5 15.¤xd4 ¤xd4 16.£xd4 £xc2 17.¥b5+ followed by the castle and White has an overwhelming position.

A very aggressive move. White attack can now hardly be refuted.

The exchange sacrifice is mandatory. Black tries to escape from the struggle by dominating the center, but all tries will be unsuccessful.

If Black plays 14...¤d8 15.¥b4 and Black position is completely blocked and the Queen side castling is no more possible. Moreover 14...¦f8 would be bad, in view of 15.£h5 and the threat is ¤h7.
15.fxg5 0-0-0

The sacrifice of the f7 pawn cannot be avoided and Black is seeking for more space.

15...£xe5+ 16.¢d1 b6 17.¥d3 and Black game would be completely paralyzed.
16.£xf7 £xe5+ 17.¢d1

White king is in safety and the passed pawns become now very dangerous.

The threat of mate allows Black to win a pawn, while White is continuing his development.

If 23...e5 24.¦xg2 exf4 25.g7 ¥e6 26.¦g6 ¥g8 27.¦f6 etc.

The little pawn is growing....

Black’s position is hopeless, and the rest of the game is merely a question of technique.

If 32...¤xe2 33.¥f5 wins.

To unpin the King.

The Knight and the pawn are pinned.

To prevent the push a5-a4 that threats to win the Rook.

Black has no other choice than to resign.

I. Shernetsky " Le Monde des Echecs" (1946)

This move has been first played by the grand-master Rubinstein. Many “young” grand-masters have adopted it, especially the young one such as Botvinnik, Reshevsky, Fine, Flohr et Lilienthal. For a long period, the best line against the aggressive “Nimzowitsch Defense” has been 4.£b3 c5 5.dxc5 ¤c6 6.¤f3 etc, then 4.£c2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.¥g5 £d6 7.e3 ¤e4 8.¥f4 has been the favorite line of play.

The great Akiba preferred 5.¤ge2 0-0 6.a3 ¥xc3+ 7.¤xc3 avoiding the doubled pawns, but the modern grand-masters consider that the pawn complex c3-c4-d4 can be accepted, once Black has played d5. That’s why Black tends to adopt the pawn formation c5-d5-e5 that seems to create more problems to White.

Probably better was 7...¤xd5 avoiding the possibility to have an isolated pawn at d5. But the missing Knight at f6 makes White attack on the King side much more efficient.

Preparing the development of the Bishop on a6 and not on b7, to exchange it against the very active white Bishop.

In order to provoke the pawn push ...c4 to release the tension on the Queen side where the four black pawns are blocked by the three white pawns, and then attack on the King side by playing f3-e4-e5-f4-f5 etc.

We would have preferred 14...£b7, maintaining the tension around c5 and d4.

After 14...¤b8 White cold have played15.c4!
15.£c2 ¤b8 16.¦ae1 ¤c6 17.¤g3 ¤a5 18.f3 ¤b3 19.e4! £xa4

Played as in the well known game Botvinnik - Capablanca, Avro, 1938.

Black has won the a4 pawn and White has to demonstrate that his initiative on the King side is worth the sacrifice.

The two games are almost identical, the sole difference is that White has played his Bishop on

b2 and not on a3.
20.£b2

If 20.¥b2 Black wins a valuable tempo by playing 20...¤c5! 21.£f2? ¤d3 etc, or even 20.¥b4

Ignoring the attack on the King side, Black tries to use his pawn majority on the Queen side.

If 22.exf6 b4! winning back the piece.

Black has no time to play 29...f6 because 30.¤h5! would be decisive.

To give the d4 square to the black Knight, but it is too late to bring back this piece to defend the King.

Otherwise 33.¤f5 wins

This pseudo sacrifice could have been played at the previous move

Mandatory in view if the threats ¤h6 or ¤e7 mate.

If 37...¦xe5 38.¤h6+ ¢h7 39.g8£+ etc.

If 38...fxe6 39.¤h6+ ¢h7 40.f7 wins the game.

First rank, sited from left to right : A. Kotov, V. Smyslov, M. Botvinnik, V. Ragozine et S. Flohr.

Second rank : A. Lilienthal, I. Boleslavsky, V. Makaganov, I. Bondarevsky et D. Bronstein.

Ivar Bern in World Championship XVII
  by Atle Grønn

You check the mail-box, put the coffee on, plug in Fritz, and away you go….

Ivar Bern (37) from Bergen, Norway has been away from the chess-board for a while, but spends numerous hours analysing chess positions on his PC. A CC career spanning nearly 20 years is close to being crowned with the World Championship title, in World Championship XVII, possibly the last Championship being played by ordinary mail. Bern is in the lead as the smoke is beginning to clear, even though the incomplete cross table shows that in theory someone can still catch up with him. However, the tiebreak will in all probability favour the Norwegian, and the possibility that anyone beats Bern’s own 10½ point prognosis, is remote (see table). Whatever the final result, Bern is in the process of obtaining a world class result, and the games in this final demonstrate a depth seldom being served to the readers of a Norwegian chess journal.

The Norwegian hope believed the tournament would end during 2005, but the Russian Khlusevitsj (2569) –

the only one in the field Bern suspects is without a PC – suffers from slow mail and a worst-case scenario is that it may take several years before the winner is decided. With such time perspectives we found it best to ask our anonymous world star to tell us about this strange form of competition, which seems rather hopelessly out of date in these days of speed chess, but at the same time being characterized by modern technology. Before reflecting on the effect of computers on (correspondence) chess, we let Bern sum up the road to success in this branch of chess that he describes as extreme sport: – The World Championship title was my motivation for starting with CC in 1986. Through my results in the semi- and ¾-final, I qualified for the final starting in March 2002. If this results in a World Championship title, a 20-year project will be complete. Things take time! One of my advantages in the final was being an out-of-work part-time dad, with lots of time and energy on my hands. One of my opponents got his fourth child during the final, besides working full-time. Obviously we had completely different working conditions!
What is the level of play in this final?
None of the top ranks are participating. But CC ratings can be misleading, because the strength of play is dependent on how much energy you put into the tournament. In a World Championship final I assume that at the outset everyone is top motivated and consequently plays better than their rating. Personally I play much better in this final, having only 16 games to concentrate on, compared to my play in the semi-final when I also took part in several other tournaments. At most, I had 63 games running simultaneously! Such factors also influence the play of my opponents. Besides, I have a stronger PC now, even though it is a rather poor PIII 1000Mhz.
The level of the games is extremely high.
Bern’s «life-time project» is definitely rather original. But if you have a talent for chess, some free time and an unusually developed interest in chess analysis, you just go ahead. As it says on the website of the Norwegian Correspondence Chess Federation ( www.postsjakkforbundet.no –in Norwegian only): «If your playing strength is good enough and you are patient enough, you can start in the Open Class and end up in the World Championship final.» In addition a computer and selected software are prerequisites. The first time a Norwegian reached the top of the CC world, was when Frank Hovde of Steinkjer in the 1980s chose to live alone with chess analysis, returning to the civilisation several years later with the title “European CC Champion” to his name. Bern says he saw daylight again at the end of 2003, when 10 of the 16 games were finished. – With only 6 games remaining the workload was so reduced that Fritz had a couple of good nights’ sleep, and the time had come to crawl out of the cave and get an honest job.