Attack the Najdorf way

Martin Seeber writes for Chess Tales:

The world has changed.

When you play chess or anything else, the result seems everything. This is crazy its much nicer when we think about the quality of the game and the fun of it all. I told my students about Pele the footballer and that when I was their age they beamed his image across the world on the new satellites. He was very creative and always looking to produce new moves, pushing back the boundaries of the sport. In one game he let the ball cross the box as the keeper came out, he dummied to let the ball run across him and the poor keeper who was left stranded, he ran around the back of him to collect the ball and fired it back towards the net and he didn't score but the result was visually jaw dropping.

Okay so how is this connected to chess? Well I took one chess book on my holidays to Italy and it was Najdorf's life and games by Batsford. I recognised the name when I got the book but what really attracted me was the fact that he came from a different age and he wasn't a world champion. Because to me the game is brilliant because its for all of us.

Najdorf helped develop that interesting opening, the Sicilian defense. Bobby whats his name he played it and Garry that Russian guy who liked to attack used it a bit and even I bought a book on it when I was seventeen. I also knew Najdorf liked tactics and attacks. The book tells how he was left stranded in Argentina as Poland was blitzkrig by the Germans. His family disappeared, he was left with chess.

Sitting in the Italian sun playing through some of the games I thought this guy was amazing.

My daughter Sophie who has played for England this year was sitting beside me and I said look at this game. First there was one sac, then another I then told her that Tal reckoned that two sacs usually sorted the problem and finished off the defense, then came sac three at that stage I said to my daughter who is a very defensive player what will Najdorf do next and she looked at the board and then she said he'll have to sack the knight to win dad. She was right and I burst into laughter 4 sacs to win- magic. Pele! Najdorf!

Martin Seeber