KEBU Opening Memorizer is quickly becoming the preferred method of doing the otherwise tedious work of memorizing your opening variations. I’ve created this article to take you step-by-step through the process of creating files to memorize and then using the software to seal the variations into your memory.

KEBU Opening Memorizer is a fantastic training software program for efficiently memorizing your openings. The first step to using the program is to create a PGN file with the opening variations you wish to memorize. Developing the file is relatively easy and can be done with a number of software programs. If you don’t own any software to create PGN files ChessBase Lite is a great place to start. It can be downloaded for free. There are countless other software programs that will assist you in creating PGN files. For the purposes of example I’ve used ChessBase 11.

Let us say that I wish to develop a repertoire against the move 1.e4. Through some research I’ve learned that the “French Defense” (beginning with 1…e6) is a relatively easy opening to learn and play, and I like the ideas – it seems to suit my style. I’ve read a book on the opening, but I want to remember the key variations so that I won’t be “caught out” in the opening.

Since White has a few different ways to respond to the French Defense, I’ll probably need to focus on one important response at a time as I learn the opening. White’s most popular reply is 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 so I’ll start there – my first file will deal exclusively with how I plan to react against 3.Nc3.

Now using any of my materials: databases, chess engines, books, opening manuals – I develop a file which contains the most important ideas for my opponent and how I plan to respond to them. Here’s a screenshot:

(Don’t worry – I’ve attached a link where you can download this sample file right away!)

For each important option I found for White (using the database) I attached some line I’d like to learn for Black. Importantly, there’s no situation where I gave multiple ideas for Black  - the file just has all of the ideas I want to learn to play against, and then one single method of how to reply as Black.

Now I save the game as a PGN file (be careful not to save it in ChessBase format!).

Notice that I’m saving it as a PGN file! Click here to download the PGN file and take a look for yourself what I created.

Notice that I kept the file very simple. I think this is an important secret which I’ve written more about throughout this blog. You don’t need to make your files very complicated, you just want to be very confident about a smaller number of lines which, as a rule, don’t go too deep. Try it – and you’ll find that you’ll win a lot more games knowing a lot of basic lines as opposed to a few overly complicated lines.

Now there’s just one more step: getting these lines sealed in your memory! And here’s where KEBU Opening Memorizer comes in.

If you haven’t already done so please take a look at the following short video which in fact is a great introduction to how to memorize your files.

Best of luck with the openings software! We hope you find it to be truly enjoyable – but most importantly – we want you to win more games of chess!

Before you go, here are some great general articles that you might also want to take a look at on opening study and chess improvement:

Studying your openings

Should you commit opening lines to memory (part I)

Memorizing opening variations (part II)

How to select your chess openings

During a chess game we often make mistakes which in retrospect seem completely ridiculous. Blunders are the most obvious manifestation of this, but sometimes we miss strong continuations, or commit grievous positional mistakes which later appear to be obvious. What is the reason for this?

In chess it is very easy to lose our presence of mind. Chess is endlessly presenting us with excitements, disappointments, joys, and agonies. Practically every game is full of these things as well as tense critical moments. At such moments we can easily become distracted in the most slippery of ways. With victory nearby we suddenly blunder, with the initiative suddenly in the opponent’s possession we suddenly collapse.

“Few people realize that the ability to focus one’s thoughts during the decisive moments of a game is just about the most important quality a chess player can possess.” – Garry Kasparov

There you have – focus is named as perhaps the most important quality a player can possess by the greatest player of all time.

What are some practical strategies to ensure that we are able to concentrate fully during the difficult, tiring, and emotional phases of a chess game?

Firstly we should maintain a constant awareness of the various emotional and thought-based pitfalls that we can fall into. Jonathan Rowson’s excellent book The Seven Deadly Chess Sins talks almost exclusively about the various ways our concentration and quality of thought can be sabotaged during a chess game. Becoming well-acquainted with these tendencies of thought, and reviewing your own tendencies and thought patterns during a game is the first step to creating a plan to combating these insidious issues.

Also of help is to practice concentration and a present mind in daily life. For those so inclined, there are various methods offered by modern psychology, or even meditation practices to help steady the mind and these can come in handy both throughout daily life, training sessions, and during the games. For instance, when you feel yourself nearing victory in a tournament game, you can focus on your breathing and count slowly to ten in order to reduce the impact of your excitement and clear your mind to deliver the final blows. You might think that sounds juvenile – but I’ve used it to beat very strong players, and have innumerable moments of regret when I lost my head!

Ultimately presence of mind is a matter of being confident, cool, and balanced in our thinking. When you notice that you’re agitated, upset, excited, thinking about the opponent’s strength, or whatever…you just bring yourself back, redouble your confidence and your cool focus and get back to the work of thinking strategically and calculating variations. Practicing these simple strategies over time and increasing your ability to do this over time will have remarkable effects on your results.

In the previous article, we talked about some of the big benefits of memorizing opening variations. We made a case that opening memorization, done correctly, can actually help you to accumulate strategic and tactical ideas as well as deepen your understanding of chess positions. Now I want to develop these ideas.

 To begin with, most openings have what can be called “critical lines”. This typically refers to those lines which are thought to give your side the most headaches, the ones which are theoretically “best” for our opponent as far as theory is concerned.

Let’s say I am playing the King’s Gambit as White (something I wouldn’t recommend – but to each his own!).

A cursory look through some books and database statistics shows that one of the lines that has been causing the most problems is 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5! 4.exd5 Nf6 when White has had serious problems proving anything – and Black seems to have strong chances at the initiative.

“Let’s see what our friend Suba has to say about this subject: … ‘Memorize opening variations, endgame techniques, combinations, even whole games if you can, but not rules and dogma.’ This last sentence is a remarkably honest proposal! After all, it runs counter to the advice of just about every instructional book or magazine article out there! Haven’t you seen it time and again: ‘Don’t memorize openings; just learn the principles behind them’…’you shouldn’t be trying to learn by heart; understanding the ideas is what really counts’…’young players spend too much time learning openings, when they should be mastering the fundamental principles of the game’, and so forth?” – International Master John Watson in Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy

One of the most oft-repeated advice to beginners and intermediate players is to study the typical plans and ideas of their opening rather than to commit variations to memory. And yet, we have here a clear example of “do as I say not as I do”. Not only do the top players in the world have a lot of knowledge of concrete, specific variations – but so do many chess coaches, authors, club players, and certainly those young players who are advancing rapidly. Indeed just about every player, author, coach who says “don’t memorize variations” has memorized oddles of variations – and has lived to tell the story.

So what gives?

The truth lies somewhere in the middle

The truth lies somewhere in the middle. When studying the opening, our chief aim really is to absorb the essential tactics and strategies of our particular system. But on the other hand, we need to equip ourselves to avoid dangerous traps, to assimilate the theory and games which have been handed down to us throughout the ages, to be able to exploit the mistakes of our opponents quickly and proficiently, and to minimize our use of clock time so that we can spend it on the complicated problems offered by the middlegame and endgame.

Memorizing opening variations not only gives us concrete knowledge of a given opening – it is also an efficient method of absorbing the crucial ideas/strategies behind our openings.

Read that again!!

If you memorize opening lines properly (and I’ll discuss more on how to do this) you will not only gather some key lines which may be of use to you in the games, but you also absorb the spirit of the opening efficiently.

Memorization and understanding go hand in hand

If you have ever tried to memorize opening variations you'll quickly realize that in order to memorize a series of a moves you have to try to understand it. Even if only on a superficial level, you have to make some meaning out of the moves. This forces you to think carefully about the nature of the moves, why they're being played, and causes you to gradually absorb the key ideas in your opening.

I would challenge you right now to pick up a game in one of your favorite openings and commit it to memory. Do this by playing through the game once, then putting the game aside and trying to recreate as much of it as you can. Guess where you ran into trouble? The moves which didn't come naturally to you are precisely those moves which you understand the least. If you give special attention to those situations where you lacked clarity, and strive to understand the moves (you can use books, databases, coaches, engines, online chess forums/groups, your own reasoning to help you) you will be able to grasp the moves and memorize them more easily.

In a sense, memorizing opening variations has a "nuclear" effect because you are often memorizing important strategic and tactical devices and clearing up areas of mis-understanding. One of the best ways to see where your understanding is deficient is to try to commit and rehearse things from memory.

But what exactly should I memorize?

The good news is that you really don't have to commit billions of lines to memory. What you should focus on is identifying the most critical lines, most tactical lines, and most illustrative lines. (We'll review how to do all this in upcoming articles.)

Critical lines are those lines which are theoretically critical to the assessment of a variation. For example in most openings there is a well-established "main line" where much of the theoretical debate takes place. A lot of players enjoy such lines because both sides enjoy chances, and its helpful to know roughly how to get to these positions and how to play them.

Tactical lines refers to those lines which involve long forcing sequences and plenty of tricks and traps. These are the sorts of lines such players fear - some young kid sits down whips off 20 moves of theory and suddenly you're lost. This is an extremely rare occurence, but many openings have well-known traps and tactical lines which it can be helpful to know.

Illustrative lines are more subjective. Here I'm referring to lines which help to demonstrate the main ideas of the opening. They may involve thematic strategic and tactical devices. One great way to have such illustrations in mind is to memorize the opening and middlegame phase of well-annotated games played in your openings. The idea here is to have some rough plans committed to memory so that you can rely on them by analogy when you reach such positions during the game.

We've discussed a lot of important information about studying openings here. During the next article, we'll dive into more details. Until then, happy king hunting!

In the previous article I discussed two important principles in building your opening repertoire. I suggest that you operate from your strengths (which I defined not as your personality or chess-related preferences, but as structures/systems you’ve developed a personal history with) – and secondly I recommended expanding towards main lines as much as you can stomach.

Here is an example of a very reliable opening repertoire –I’ve limited the number of replies I’ve considered for the opponent to the most common options.

Keep in mind that I’m not explicitly recommending you adopt these openings. I’m simply demonstrating what a repertoire based on a principled approach looks like.

 Sample Repertoire

White: 1.e4 with the Ruy Lopez against 1…e5, Open Sicilian against 1…c5

Black: Sicilian Dragon, Semi-Slav

Discussion

All of these openings have a long history as being sound. The Open Sicilian is a bit tricky for White to play/learn because Black has many diverse setups against it – but in the end the amount of setups for White to choose from in these systems is not very huge, and the plans are actually very closely related and limited no matter what system Black chooses.

Such a system of play allows you to constantly develop in new directions and develop a rich understanding of attacking chess.

Similarly, the Ruy Lopez tends to be more position but still has an aggressive basis with kingside attacks still being intrinsically tied into its basis. Again, Black has a large choice of systems but White’s plans are often quite similar no matter how Black plays, and it is learnable.

The combination of Open Sicilian and Ruy Lopez will have a high potential of success no matter what level you are or aspire to. Whether you’re 1000, 1700, or 2800 – these are time-tested systems.

Of course I haven’t mentioned how to play against the Caro, French, or other systems – they occur on a less frequent basis and White has a number of principled options against them. They are very good systems in their own right, but again White can react by following the principles we’ve discussed.

As Black this repertoire includes the very sharp Sicilian Dragon. This is a good time for me to talk about many of the fears related to opening study. Many players have heard that an opening like the Sicilian Dragon requires a lot of theoretical study. But this neglects the reality of your opponents who, just like you, don’t know everything about every system – in fact, they may know very little – including masters. Furthermore, even a more knowledgeable opponent (which is rarer than you might think) still has to be very skillful in converting the fruits of his labor if he should trap you.

The best way to learn a sharp system like the Sicilian Dragon is simply to start playing it. Play it in blitz games, play it against friends, and yes play it I tournaments. By brooding over the problems of the positions and having a couple of good and bad experiences – you’ll have something to study. Figure out what you could have done better by using books, databases, software…whatever you might have. After just a couple months of this process, you’ll very likely realize that no one is simply rattling off 20 moves of theory, and that you’ve acquired more knowledge than 80% of players have about your particular systems.

For a crash course in your openings I recommended looking at the “Starting Out” series which provides excellent content and explains the ideas of a great many positions.

I think we’ve demonstrated during this article what a principled approach to the openings might look like. If you feel intimidated, don’t despair. First of all, operate from positions you feel comfortable and experienced with. And gradually expand towards more main-line handlings of those systems.

If you are totally new to the game and all this sounds like Greek to you, then of course you may not benefit too much from worrying about the opening – but even in that case these suggestions can be very helpful.

This article takes a look at some principles upon which to predicate your choice of openings.

The most oft-repeated advice (even by Dvoretsky) is to select openings which suit your temperament and playing style. Thus, a young aggressive player should adopt the Sicilian Dragon, while a more mild-mannered fellow should defend the Ruy Lopez (for example).

I think this advice is a bit flawed for many reasons. Many players do not benefit from psychoanalyzing themselves in an attempt to find the openings which blend with their personality. First of all, such an analysis of one’s own character is often distorted. But more importantly, chess is a very dynamic game and in just about every opening there is a blend of strategic and tactical positions. In fact, in just about every position there is quite a blend of these things. You can attempt to steer the game in certain directions but often aiming for one extreme just leads to the next.

For example, many very sharp opening lines – if handled well by both sides – peter out quickly into balanced strategic situations. On the contrary, almost all strategic situations will inevitably “explode” into sharp tactical contests. Chess truly demands that you are able to do many things well. World champions can afford refined analyses of their strengths and try to steer the struggle there, but for most players this attempt is often fruitless.

The simplest way to select openings is to work from those systems which you’ve already developed a history of playing. Don’t get caught up in trying to find a perfect harmony between the opening and your tastes. If you’ve been playing the French all your life, sticking with it is often a very fruitful path if you are willing to investigate alternative ways of handling it from time to time (for example).

The second principle in selecting openings is somewhat different. In my experience of teaching, I always tried to steer a truly searching student towards progressively playing lines which are more and more respected at the top level. For example, a King’s Gambit addict may eventually want to expand towards the Ruy Lopez for White. Theoretically speaking there really is very little wrong with playing the King’s Gambit, though most strong players feel that it doesn’t offer White very much. The real problem is that such lines tend to be a bit too one-dimensional for the development of chess strength. When playing a King’s Gambit, the strategies and tactics are quite limited for White – rapid development, kingside attack (this is a bit crude of an assessment, but my point remains the same). The Ruy Lopez demands more strategic and tactical diversity on the part of both sides, and will assist you on your chess journey as far as you want to go – even if that’s World Champion.

This tends to be the case with almost all openings which are played at the highest levels on a frequent basis. Because they are so principled and reliable, many ideas, paths, systems have been developed and there is a ton to learn from such systems.

This an important point to keep in mind when selecting your openings. While selecting such systems may require more work, in the long run you develop better chess strength, and a more reliable set of openings.

In the next article, I will suggest some sample repertoires.

In part one of this article, we discussed three principle causes of blunders in chess.

• A heightened emotional state of some kind (getting close to victory, a feeling of self-satisfaction, excitement)
• Insufficient skill in tactics and combinations
• Failure to penetrate the position and account for all its features

In this article we discuss how to work on these three things.

A heightened emotional state

Many chess players flat out refuse to accept that there is emotional arousal during a chess game. This is categorically bad thinking and will only result in a dampening of the results you could potentially achieve. The truth is that a chess game between players of a reasonably close strength is filled with tension. A chess game is complicated, full of surprises and in the case of a tournament game we have invested considerable time and effort into achieving our aim – the prospect of a result (winning OR losing) is very influential on our state of mind.

I’ll assume that you don’t need to be convinced of this and move on to suggesting how to help yourself diminish the blunders which go along with our inherently subjective nature when we examine chess positions.

The most important thing is to be aware of certain tendencies of thought and their corresponding dangers. I’ve already mentioned in the previous article that more than anything, one should be on guard against feelings of self-satisfaction or excitement at the prospect of winning (or equalizing against a stronger player). When you find yourself getting close to achieving a result or even a positional aim of some kind the most important thing is to slow down and insist on accounting for the whole board and for the opponent’s intentions. The surest way to make a blunder is to temporarily forget about your opponent’s right to exist and his inevitable cunning. And by “temporarily” I mean even just one move. For just one move you eagerly pursue your plan, and suddenly the opponent demonstrates that you’ve missed something obvious and devastating – such as hanging a piece. It happens every day.

Thus before every move you must constantly be sure that you’ve asked yourself, “What are his intentions? What are his plans? What will he play after I play that move? What does my move weaken?” You simply must get in the habit of asking these questions during the course of the entire game and always directly before you make your move. The sooner you can develop this as an absolute habit – one from which you never vary – the sooner you will see a drastic decrease in your blunders.

Insufficient skill in tactics and combinations

This is perhaps the simplest problem to correct. The best way to gain skill in tactics and combinations is through solving tactical puzzles on a regular basis. Visit www.kebuchess.com for a low-cost program (which offers a free version) with hundreds of tricky puzzles taken exclusively from recent games.

Failure to penetrate the position and account for all its features

The remedy for this is simple. During your opponent’s clock time (while he is pondering his move) simply ask yourself a lot of questions about the position. I often ask (and attempt to answer) such questions as “What is my opponent’s most principle plan here?” “What features of the position am I not noticing?” “Where are the potential pitfalls in my position?” “If I had to summarize what’s going on here in a single sentence, what would I say?” … you can be creative here, the main thing is that your churning the position around in different ways in bringing attention to your opponent’s intentions, and the salient features of the position.

This may not seem connected with blunders, but you will find that establishing control over your thoughts and feelings about the position in this way will lead you to make far less oversights of a tactical and even strategic nature. Now when the moments of tension arise (and they surely will) you will consciously and subconsciously be able to make a use of all the extra information you’ve gained during your opponent’s time. This has a magical way of reducing mistakes.

If you practice the suggestions listed here you will see a reduction in your “silly” oversights and be in a position to take advantage of your opponent’s!

More than anything, chess games are decided by tactical mistakes and blunders. We’ve all had the terrible experience of achieving a “crushing” position after a long drawn-out battle only to blow it in one single move due to a blunder – a colossal oversight.

In my experience with teaching students and improving my own game, eliminating or drastically reducing such colossal mistakes constitutes a huge part of chess mastery – an enormous step forward.

The causes of blunders

The favored explanation for blunders is a “lapse of concentration” – and while this may be true it is almost always only half of the story. Think about your mental state before making a blunder. If you’re honest, you won’t be able to demonstrate that you were clearly less concentrated at that moment than you were at other stages of the game. You weren’t falling asleep, checking out an attractive person, or balancing your checkbook. You were probably engaged in exactly the same behavior as you had been the whole time – thinking about the position. So what is this mysterious lapse of concentration?

In chess, a lapse of concentration is usually preceded by a heightened emotional state of some kind. Probably the most notorious emotional state is to be just around the corner from victory. How many times has it happened? You are close to realizing a plan, a kingside attack, eliminating the opponent’s forces, and it is at precisely this moment that you suddenly … drop a piece, drop a queen, mate in one, or you deliver stalemate! I have found from a thorough investigation of my own games and my experience with students that a huge percentage of blunders come just after a feeling a self-satisfaction or excitement.

If you have some games of your own stored in a database, review those ghastly blunders. And think about what I’ve just suggested. You may also find that the vast majority of your blunders don’t happen in balanced positions where there is still everything left to play for – on the contrary, they often come when you’re sure of victory, or have just equalized against stronger opposition, or are very close to realizing an intention. You probably make very few blunders during the initial phases of a game which are tense and require an obvious degree of concentration.

In the next article, we’ll develop the idea of how to reduce this kind of error.

Another more obvious reason that blunders occur is having insufficient skill at tactics and combinations. Many texts admonish us that nothing, absolutely nothing, can compensate for a lack of tactical ability – and this is true. Dvoretsky mentions this important point in his book Training for the Tournament Player as does Alexander Kotov in his book Play like a Grandmaster. Fortunately, this is an easy problem to correct over time since it mainly comes down to solving tactical puzzles on a regular basis. Visit www.kebuchess.com for a low-cost program (which offers a free version) with hundreds of tricky puzzles taken exclusively from recent games.

A final cause of blunders which is actually quite related to the first is a failure to fully take in the position and its strategic components. While playing a game of chess your task is very simple (though not easy). You must constantly try to penetrate the position at hand through strategic thinking, calculating, guessing the opponent’s intentions, and keeping your mind clear and sharp. You should devote yourself to these tasks during the course of the entire game and try to keep the minimum amount of tension in doing so. The more you penetrate the position (ask questions about it, calculate some interesting variations, etc.) – even while your opponent is pondering his next move – the less you will blunder. Blunders are often related to overlooking some basic strategic component of the position – failure to fully appreciate for example, that the opponent has a bishop on an awkward square – and then moving your queen right in the line of fire (for example)!

Stay tuned for the second segment of this article, where will discuss what actions you can take to reduce or eliminate blunders.

The following is adapted from a lecture I gave on the Internet Chess Club a few weeks after Aronian's stunning victory in Nalchik 2009. The majority of the audience was composed of members of the LeChess group. I hope you enjoy this fascinating game!

This blog article analyzes the recent game Mameydarov-Aronian 2009. Throughout the analysis we'll pay special attention to the topic of Modern Chess Tactics and Strategy. This is a lengthy article in which I'll make use of diagrams to hel address key points.

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3

The Vienna Game. This can be classified as a sort of waiting move. By avoiding development of the kingside pieces White reserves the option of a timely f2-f4, or a development scheme involving g3, Bg2, Nge2. In addition to that, he can still play Nf3 or Bc4 and so remains somewhat flexible. Though the Vienna Game is not popular at this level, one interesting modern trend is towards “flexibility”. Increasingly, modern players value systems which don’t commit key pieces until the opponent has clarified his or her intentions. This is usually a tool used by Black. Modern handlings of the Sicilian and Slav (we’ll see an example next week!) come to mind.

2…Nc6!?

Already Black has a decision to make. If he plays the more natural 2…Nf6, then he is better prepared to deal with a system such as 3.g3 because he has immediate access to 3…d5! 2…Nf6 also gives Black the opportunity to try 3…Nxe4!? In the event of 3.Bc4. But as we said, one of the advantages of “flexibility” is being able to decide on one’s own strategy *after* the opponent has already declared his setup. Here Black’s last move encourages the aggressive 3.f4, because 3…exf4 ? 4.e5! is a disaster – after 4…Qe7 5.Qe2 , Black has no choice but to put the knight right back on g8. With Aronian’s 2…Nc6 Black can healthfully capture on f4 but can’t take advantage of an early …d5 break if White plays g3. Even on move two this topic of flexibility turns out to be quite interesting! Okay, let’s move on…

3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3

White makes it clear that he’s aiming for a Bishop’s Opening. Black still has to be on the lookout for a sharp f2-f4, but on the other hand, the bishop on c4 is a sitting duck.

4…Na5 5.Nge2 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.a4 Nxc4

Not a moment too soon, otherwise the bishop would escape to a2.

8.dxc4 d6 9.b3

The only other game in which White has tried the Bishop’s Opening at this level was Morozevich-Leko 2001. There White continued 8.Ng3. There has to be a reason so few elite players have been keen to go into this position as White. Let’s take stock.

Black has snapped White’s bishop off the board rather quickly and therefore wields the bishop pair. He’s even doubled White’s pawns in the process. But White has a semi-open d-file and either an outpost on d5 or a backwards pawn on d6 (if and when Black pushes …c6). White still has the option of striking with f2-f4 as well.

The real key comes when we try to assess what actions should be taken. The bishop pair and better pawn structure are long-term advantages which, if consolidated, could bear fruit in the late middlegame and endgame. Thus, Black’s job is to consolidate and make it difficult for White to achieve any aggressive intentions. White, on the other hand, should try to rapidly utilize his strengths and attacking chances before Black is able to do this – a very common scenario in modern chess. White has accepted a slight positional inferiority in the long run and so must play accurately to compensate with this by the initiative.

9…Be6 10.a5?!N

10.a5 is a completely new move here, seeking to put pressure on Black’s queenside with a6. But this is not a very serious threat, and as we’ll see the pawn actually becomes rather vulnerable on a6, demanding protection from the rook on a1.

10…c6 11.a6 b6 12.Ba3 Qc7

Development is basically completed, Black will transfer a rook to the d-file, and may then search for a breakthrough with …d5. In the meantime, it seems, Mamedyarov’s queenside initiative has accomplished very little. At this point I think the game is about equal if White continues with a sensible plan and doesn’t alter the structure too much. One idea is 13.Ng3!? Rad8 14.Qe2 g6!? 15.Rad1. White doesn’t have an initiative, but he at least contains Black’s chances and hasn’t harmed his structure. Instead, Mamedyarov continues to look for swift action.

13.f4?!

This is quite a natural move, but it suffers from serious defects. Firstly, as White tries to get his attack underway he will find that his previous maneuver (a4-a5-a6) leaves his rook on a1 tied to the defense of the a6 pawn. This little fact makes it difficult for his a-rook to participate in the crucial fight for the d5-square (where Black could suddenly open the center) or to swing it over to the kingside. But the biggest problem with f4 will turn out to be the damage to the e4-pawn who now is without a potential pawn-defender and may very well end up on an open file. This e4-weakness, the constant threat of explosion in the center (…d5), and the a6-pawn spell a difficult position ahead for Mamedyarov.

What’s absolutely fascinating about this game is that from here on Aronian takes virtually perfect advantage of White’s one little mistake. Watch how much Aronian makes his opponent suffer for this slip.

13…Rad8

Very logical, Black prepares the retreat …Bc8, which highlights, in the first place, the weakness of a6. It also takes the sting out of a potential f4-f5. Now f4-f5 would just fix the structure and would make the breakthrough …d5 all the more delicious.

14.Kh1 Bc8!

Threatening the a6-pawn. Notice how Aronian achieves his strategic aims from here on while delivering threats on each move.

15.Bb2 Ng4

This is the beginning of a beautiful plan designed to free Black’s position and take immediate advantage of his better structure. Of course, the immediate threat is …Ne3. (Again: strategic aims fulfilled while creating threats!)

16.Qd3 exf4!

With the knight on g4, Black finally alters the structure. The knight is ready to plop into the unattended e5 square. I would mention the fact that Nimzovich first told us about all of this when he said “restrain, blockade, destroy!” … but then I might be accused of not fulfilling my promise to reveal the secrets of modern chess. Apparently, some things haven’t changed ;)

17.Nxf4 Bh4!?

Strong players (and computers) wring the maximum out of the unique placement of their pieces. Before bringing the knight to its dream square on e5, Black first uses …Bh4!? to create the threat of …Nf2+. By doing so he gains time to stick a rook on e8. Aronian insists on achieving his aims by creating threats every step of the way.

18.Qe2

White isn’t keen to weaken his light squares with g2-g3, and so defends against the threat in a more tame fashion.

18…Rfe8 19.h3 Ne5

Almost as if by magic, Black has lifted his rooks to the central files, and removed both bishops from the e-file and his knight has floated to the wonderful e5 square. Meanwhile there is the nagging pressure on the a6 pawn. I think Black’s combination of tactical threats and strategy has already been very instructive.

20.Nd1

One should not forget the opponent’s right to exist. At this point, White may not have actually been too concerned. His plan is simply to bring the knight to the kingside and continue the kingside attack which he has been plotting. But strangely, I think that White has to assume a defensive posture. We’ll see this in a moment.

20…Bg5 21.Nh5!? Qe7

Aronian has restrained. He’s blockaded. Now he’s working on destroying the poor e4-weakness.

22.Ne3?

It wasn’t too late to have a change of heart and switch to a defensive setup. After 22.Nc3!? Black still has a significant pull, but converting it is not going to be easy. 22…Nd7? 23.Nxg7! would be a disaster. And 22…g6!? Is not as strong as after the move played in the game. White can calmly continue 23.Nf4 Nd7 24.Nd3, when his position isn’t delightful, but it’s definitely playable. The cold-blooded 22…f6 (removing Nxg7 sorties) 23.Ng3 Ng6 24.Qf2 still offers Black a nice position.

22…g6 -/+ 23.Nf4

23.Ng3!? is not much better. One sharp option continues: 23…Bh4 (23…Qf8!?) 24.Kh2 Qg5 25.Qf2 f5! 26.Bc1 fxe4 27.Nxe4 Bxf2 28.Nxg5 Bh4 29.Ne4 d5! -/+

23…Nd7

Destroy!

24.Nh5?! This if the final stage of White’s attack, which by now can be classified as a kamikaze attack. Before we move onto Aronian’s rather heavy-handed destruction of this sacrificial assault – I’d like to really investigate this position.  I highly advise working through the following variations on a chessboard - the variations are very beautiful and instructive.

 Better is 24.Qf2!? Qf8!

a) 24...Nc5 25.Ned5! cxd5 26.Nxd5 Qe6 (only move) 27.Rae1 Nd7 28.Qg3 unclear

b) 24...Qxe4 25.Nd3 f5 26.Ng4! Qe2 (26...-- 27.Rae1!+-; 26...fxg4 27.Qf7#) 27.Qd4 Ne5 28.Rf2 Qe4 (only move) 29.Qxe4 fxe4 30.Ndxe5 dxe5 31.Nf6+ Bxf6 32.Rxf6 Black has a slight advantage;

c) 24...Bh4 25.Qd2 Nc5 26.Ned5! cxd5 27.Nxd5 Qf8! (27...Qxe4? 28.Qh6; 27...Qe6? 28.Qh6) 28.g3! Nxe4! (28...Bxg3? 29.Nf6+; 28...Bxh3 29.gxh4 Nxe4 30.Qd4 Re5 (only move) 31.Qxe4! Rxe4 32.Nf6+ Kg7 33.Nxe4+ Kh6 34.Bc1+ Kg7 35.Bb2+=) 29.Qd4 Nxg3+ (29...Re5) 30.Kg2 Re2+ 31.Kg1 Re5 32.Qxh4 Nxf1 33.Rxf1÷; 25.Ng4 (25.Qg3 Bf6! Black is much better) 25...Rxe4! 26.Qg3 f5 27.Nd3 (27.Nxg6 Rxg4! (27...hxg6?! 28.Nf2! Bf6 29.Nxe4 Bxb2 30.Nxd6!µ) 28.hxg4 Qh6+ 29.Qh3 hxg6–+) 27...Qe7 28.Nb4 fxg4 29.Nxc6 Qe6 30.h4 Re3 31.Nxd8 Bxd8 32.Rae1 Rxe1 33.Rxe1 Ne5 34.Bxe5 dxe5 35.Qxe5 Qxe5 36.Rxe5 Black is much better; 24.Rae1 Shipov 24...Bxa6 Black is much better

Of course after the fantastic 24…Qf8! Black still has a near-decisive advantage. But the moves shown here demonstrate how every factor of a position must be exploited. Just as Aronian has combined all of the resources in his position, Mamedyarov also missed an opportunity to set a serious practical problem for his opponent using every factor which was in his favor. Even after the correct 24…Qf8, White is still “more alive” than he is after Mamedyarov’s move.

24…Qxe4 -+

Just ten short moves ago White played the aggressive f2-f4. In that short time, Black has achieved total coordination, and cooly picked off the weakness which was created by the move. Black is winning.

25.Qf2 f5 26.Ng4

A valiant effort, but it is easily thwarted.

26…gxh5 27.Nh6+ Bxh6 28.Qg3+ Kf7 29.Rae1

White has invested two pieces and a pawn for his attack. Aronian now finds a nice way to simplify the position – but even the greedy 29…Qxc2 is fully playable here.

29…Rg8 30.Qf2 Qxg2+!  31.Qxg2 Rxg2 32.Kxg2

Black has two pawns and two pieces for the rook. More importantly his pieces will quickly dominate the endgame. A sample continuation is: 32…Rg8+ 33.Kh2 Nc5 followed by …Nxa6. Before waiting for Black to make his move, Mamedyarov resigned.

A beautiful game! In it we saw a carefully constructed net of tactics and strategy. We also discussed, if only briefly, one of the newer concepts in opening strategy. I hope you’ve enjoyed this game (and analysis)! 

A pin occurs when a piece of lesser value cannot move because its movement would expose a piece of stronger value behind it. The piece is then said to be “pinned”. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples…

Stupak(2458) – Tihonov(2460)

Ch-BLR, 2009 

In this position White played 30.Bxc5! and now if 30…dxc5 31.f4! would lead to White recovering the minor piece and holding onto his extra pawn with a crushing position. In the position after 30.Bxc5 the knight is pinned to the rook since its movement would mean the rook is exposed to Rxe8. Here is a somewhat trickier example:

Zhao Xue(2517) – Beliavsky(2638)

6^th Gibltecom Masters, 2008 

Black to move, Beginner puzzle from KEBU Chess Tactics Software 2009

In this position the grandmaster made use of the pin two times. After 32…Bxg4! The bishop cannot be captured by the knight because Black could then capture the queen. (A queen and pawn is usually stronger than a rook and bishop) Thus, the knight is “pinned” to the queen. But what if 33.Qxg4 is played? That is what was played in the game but then Black played 33…Rg8! Another pin. The queen is lost because moving her would expose the king (and this is illegal).

These examples were taken from games played very recently (last year) directly from KEBU Chess Tactics Software. You can download a free version here for more puzzles like these.