Sunningdale games: rounds 6-9

Here is the conclusion to my ill-fated event at Sunningdale:

I’ll be away without regular internet access for a couple of weeks now (but will be taking my laptop with me to study these games more carefully).

7 thoughts on “Sunningdale games: rounds 6-9

  1. (Still puzzled by Muller’s comment above but hey english is not my native language)

    Being out of shape does happen, look at Carlsen at Botvinnik Memorial atm.
    Blunders happen too, here is my game against a 2300+ during an IM-norm tourney
    e4 e6
    d4 d5
    Nc3 Nf6
    Bg5 Nfd7 (she had anticipated e5 instead)
    BxQ resigns
    The loser did not give up chess though, and is now a 2450+ WGM

    What I’d say is a concern in your games and your training is a lack of chess culture. Reacting in the center when attacked on the wing is not a concept by Shirov but much older. Bxd7 in your Bailey game is terrible, in closed spanish Black’s problem is he has too many pieces and lacks mobility (See, dunno, Fischer-Gligoric 70) . Someone else mentioned Keene-Stein as a classic game for English opening. Your training always has CT-art, tactics, preparing a given opening for a given opponent, but how about studying the classics? It gives a foundation. It helps recognizing the patterns of the position, even when not familiar with the opening. I”m not saying buy “The Practise of My System” by Nimzo but a series like “My great prdecessors” by Kasparov is a convenient choice, as the comments by Garry are modern and error-free.

  2. Re. Osvaldo’s comment and ‘chess-culture’: I bookmarked GM Kevin Spraggett’s reading list (http://canchess.tripod.com/favorite.htm) which I’m slowly buying on ebay. ‘Dynamic Chess’ and ‘Chess From Morphy to Botvinnik’, neither of which I’d ever heard of before, should be required reading – wonderful books. I had the Kasparov series (and I’ve since sold them) as I think they’re great coffee-table books, but not great books for reading, if you know what I mean? Just my taste perhaps, but those books on Spraggett’s list will teach far more (and be much more fun and interesting to read) than the Great Predecessors series.

  3. I think that Spraggett made a list based on books that are easy to find.

    About the books I have in this list:

    Complete Chess Strategy, by Pachman (3 vol) For aspirant club players
    Life and games of Mikhail Tal, by Tal He must have it already
    Fischer’s 60 Memorable Games, by the ‘MAN’ himself He must have it already
    Rubinstein’s Chess Masterpieces, by Kmoch Descriptive notation PQ4 NKB3 eek
    Pawn Power in Chess, by Kmoch Full of jargon, leucopeny, melanopeny, and mainly closed positions
    Zurich ’53, by Bronstein (one of the ten best of all time) He must have it already
    Practical Chess Endings, by Keres ok
    Tal vs Botvinnik match of ’60, by Tal himself ok
    Ideas behind the openings, by Fine So outdated
    The Art of Attack in Chess, by Vukovich (or how to ‘screw’ your opponent) The Nunn edition ok, not the original one
    My Best Games of Chess , by Tartakover Witty comments but not so great
    GM preparation, by Polugaevsky ok
    125 selected games, by Smyslov Not enough in-depth comments

    I would bar anything written by non-gm people. Reinfeld, Chernev, Coles… This is for reading near your chimney with a glass of whiskey while petting your dog.
    Instead of Alekhine’s listed books I would suggest his comments on New-York 1924 and 1927 (preferably the russian version)

      1. One, Dvoretsky made it clear in the preface of his series of books, saying that becoming a GM would not have been a difficult task for a 2500+ IM, but he chose a different path.

        Two, his books are not in Spraggett’s list. Which btw says a lot about this list’s value in the first place.

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