Kill the monster

Imagine you are a weaker player facing a much higher rated oppenent.  First round of a knockout tournament.  You have White, there is a chance right?

Play through the game to see if the all seeing calculation monster was defeated

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How to read a chess book

I was browsing the internet at work the other day and came across an article called "How to read a chess book".  The author advised taking notes after each chapter, playing through every annotation and ensuring you understand each point that is been made.  I don't disagree with this approach and it may even be the best way to absorb knowledge.

Its just a little on the dull side for my taste. 

I work, have a family and a healthy running obsession, so time to 'study' is limited.  I do, however really enjoy playing through really well anotated games.  Not too many variations, just enough explanation so that I can understand the game.  I have just finished reading "The most exciting games of 2016" by Balogh, Maze & Naiditsch, published by Chess evolution.

In that book my favourite game was between Topalov and Carlsen.  Carlsen plays a beautiful strategic master piece and wins a nice game.  Balogh does a good job explaining the key ideas.

Below you can play through the game with my notes, I can't claim I understood all the points on my own and I have quoted the GM where he did most of the work, but I didn't want to just copy out what he had written, so I have tried to incorporate my own understanding.

Click the link below, for the chessbase viewer, or play through the Gameknott app.

Enjoy



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A Recent Game

Here is a recent game that I played at Wakefield.  I lost a piece very early, which my opponent kindly returned a few moves later.  There then followed some 'normal' chess before my opponent found a nice idea swapping knight, bishop and rook for 3 pawns and my queen.  Leaving an interesting unbalanced postilion.

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