Chess in the Attic - Buenos Aires 1994

One of my recent re-discoveries on a visit to the attic was "Sicilian Love", not, as some may have believed, an old Barbara Cartland but a wonderful hardcover book about a Chess Tournament in Buenos Aires in 1994.

Well annotated books of great tournaments, e.g. London 1922, New York 1924 and Zurich 1953, used to be eagerly anticipated works of chess literature, but with an increasing number of tournaments, grandmasters, and most recently the immediate availability of games via the Internet, they are almost non-existent nowadays.

Buenos Aires 1994 was also unusual in a number of other ways: firstly it was held as a 60th birthday celebration for Lev Polugayevsky, and secondly it was a themed tournament, every game was an Open Sicilian (Polugayevsky's favourite opening).

Salov, a late replacement when Polugayevsky himself was unable to compete following an operation, won the double round tournament ahead a field of marvellous players: Anand, Ivanchuk, Polgar, Karpov, Kamsky, Shirov and Ljubojevic.

The book contains photographs, sketches, a discussion of 10 memorable Sicilians by Polugayesky, an interview with him, a history of the Sicilian Defence by French author Christophe Gueneau, a fascinating tournament report, and then 130 pages dedicated to the games with notes by Jeroen Piket. It's a veritable bible for anyone thinking about playing the opening.

"Sicilian Love" was published by New in Chess, but unfortunately is difficult to obtain now. London 1922, New York 1924 and Zurich 1953 are all available via Amazon (click on images below):

Grandmaster Preparation, the first ever chess blog

Grandmaster Preparation by Lyev Polugayevsky is an unusual but captivating chess book; browsing through it yesterday, I couldn't help but notice how much like a blog it feels.

The book is neither a middlegame manual, nor an openings primer, nor a games collection, nor is it a biography. Yet, at the same time, it contains elements of all these. What sets it apart and makes it feel like blog is the personal nature of the narrative: Polugayevsky talks about his thoughts, his emotions, what he was doing during the hours before key games, and his giving birth to and raising his child (a new and highly risky variation in the Sicilian Defence). Much of the material, presented chronologically, reads like the pages of a diary and further cements the blog like nature of the work.

The book starts with a discussion during a walk with Botvinnik, moves on to the Polugayevsky variation in the Najdorf, and finishes with chapters called "In the interval" and "On the eve", where Polugayevsky discusses interesting adjournments, and then games that were important to him, including meetings with Tal, Karpov, Fischer and Spassky amongst others. The chess annotations are very good; the narrative and insights are fascinating.

It's now out of print, but you can source second hand copies via Amazon: Grandmaster Preparation (Pergamon Russian Chess)

The Grünfeld Defence

I've never felt comfortable with the chess positions that arise in the Grünfeld Defence. After the usual exchange variation moves, 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cd Nd5 5 e4 Nc3 6 bc c5, games tend to take on a more open character than is typical in queen's pawn openings.

White tries to maintain his impressive centre, using it to first restrict and then drive Black back. Black on the other hand looks to prove the centre is overstretched and tries to gain a strong outpost at c4. Initiative is important, as is a knowledge of endgame strategy as games often develop into a queenless battle between White's central majority and Black's on the queenside. More frustratingly for the amateur player is that early subtleties in White's queen rook positioning can make dramatic long term differences to the outcome of the game.

As we saw in the Karpov - Kasparov game posted earlier today, a single innacurate move can lead to exchanges and no further chances to drum up winning chances.

Kasparov's adoption of the Grünfeld, he used to play the King's Indian until Kramnik posed him a lot of difficult questions, led to a resurgence in the defence. Interestingly, it is an opening that increases in popularity as the strength of the players increases; it seldom features in lower club level games.

Occasionally, swash buckling attacks can occur in the Grünfeld as this game between Polugayevsky and Kudrin shows (this is the line I'd tried to play against Israeli GM Eran Liss, but was badly mauled):