Children grow up fast. Last month I bought already the 3rd bike for both my children. Funny I never bought a new bike for myself. Today I use the city-bike of my late mother and before I biked 20 years on the dismissed one of my dad. Despite lacking luxury I always liked to bike a lot. From the moment it becomes warmer, I bike every day to my work which is there and back nevertheless more than an hour/ 22 km biking.
20 years younger I even used such city-bike to do quite some distances. I remember that I more than once biked from Roeselare to Bruges and back which is nonetheless 70km. In Bruges I visited the chessclub still located in the center (Beenhouwerstraat ?). It was the first time that I met a still very young Steven Geirnaert following lessons given by Walter Kardinaal. Next I also almost always visited the problemist Sylvain Kellner at that time still living in the center of Bruges. I composed some problems myself (see e.g chesscompositions) and he always had something interesting to share.
I wrote for many years every month to Sylvain via the ladder match in the column for problemists published at the clubmagazine of Bruges. Unfortunately I lost contact with him. First he moved out of Bruges to the nearby village Assebroek but we stopped corresponding after the board of the club of Bruges decided to forbid non-club members to take a subscription at their club-magazine. In the meanwhile I already was playing for Deurne so some people found it inappropriate that a competitor for their first team could read their club-magazine. Briefly this was a kind of password avant la lettre (see this blogarticle).
I don't know if Sylvain is still alive as I guess he must be otherwise already above 90 years old (somebody knows something more?) but I remember the most his impressive collections of peculiar problems. He called it his rariteitenkabinet (collection of curiosities). I suspect some of the problems published on this blog like Excelsior can be found in his collection too.
Today I play almost exclusively standard chess but I never lost my interest for curiosities. Last I encountered a very strange theme self-forks in one of my games. My opponent Frederic Decoster (playing coincidentally for Bruges) produced a fantastic idea in our game played at Leuven attracting a number of kibitzers around our board.
[Event "Open Leuven 6de ronde"] [Date "2016"] [White "Brabo"] [Black "Decoster, F."] [Result "*"] [ECO "B61"] [WhiteElo "2283"] [BlackElo "2265"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "4k2r/pB1bb3/1p1p4/5pp1/1PPBpn2/P7/3K2PP/4R2R b k - 0 24"] [PlyCount "7"] 24... Rh4 {(Black wants to prevent g4 but allows hereby a fork. This very weird idea seems perfectly playable.)} 25. g3 Rh3 26. Re3 Ne6 27. Bb2 g4 {(Black has an excellent game but lost later the game when running out of time.)} *
It is pity that this well played game was destroyed at the end by both players running out of time otherwise this self-fork would have got more attention.
After the game I looked for similar examples from standard practice. I learned there exists different types of self-forks. Frederics is one in which you provoke the fork but it also possible that you put the pieces yourself in a fork. Some readers will for sure recognize the high-level game below played a few years ago.
[Event "Tata Steel-A 75th"] [Site "Wijk aan Zee"] [Date "2013.01.15"] [Round "4"] [White "Aronian, Levon"] [Black "Anand, Viswanathan"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D46"] [WhiteElo "2802"] [BlackElo "2772"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "2rq1rk1/pb1n1ppN/3bp3/1p6/3P1Pn1/P1NB4/1PQ3PP/R1B2RK1 b - - 0 15"] [PlyCount "17"] [EventDate "2013.01.12"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "13"] [EventCountry "NED"] [EventCategory "20"] [Source "ChessBase"] 15... Bc5 16. Be2 Nde5 {(Black builds himself the fork. It is not only insane but also fully correct.)} 17. Bxg4 Bxd4 18. Kh1 Nxg4 19. Nxf8 f5 20. Ng6 Qf6 21. h3 Qxg6 22. Qe2 Qh5 23. Qd3 Be3 0-1
All examples in this article are about a pawn giving a useless fork. Now I wonder if this is also possible with other pieces. Likely except knights we have to call it rather double attacks instead of forks.
Last year my son collected a number of prizes. Especially money he likes as he was able to buy 2 boxes of lego, a trendy step, 2 footballs,... Briefly although he earned the money by playing chess, nothing is invested to improve his chess capabilities. Therefore he was quite disappointed to find out that he got a voucher to spend at chessconsult when he won the Antwerp championship for the category of -8. Fortunately I knew how to cheer him up as I exchanged the voucher with my cash and used the voucher myself to buy 2 new books: Nadorf x Najdorf and Timman's Titans both published in 2016.
In the meanwhile I finished Najdorfs book. We all know the opening but the person Najdorf is after this death (1997) already largely forgotten. This book tries to bring him out of the oblivion and I think they managed this quite well. The books reads very smoothly and also the selected games are well analyzed. Especially the countless anecdotes make this book a real joy. One is about why Najdorf didn't play his own opening anymore in his later years. There is nothing wrong with the opening but he didn't like to fight against the much better opening-knowledge of many youngsters while his strength mainly positioned around technique and creativity.
Some will state the same about the Modern French. The theory exploded in this opening due to its enormous popularity. I got it 5 times on the board in standard-games about which I wrote in my articles (see e.g. the modern french, the modern french part 2, switching colors part 2, ...). That is really a lot if you take into account that I only play approximately 15 standard games each year. Also today several systems are discovered which allow white to put pressure. An idea which I prepared for a next encounter, was introduced a few months ago accidentally by the strong Dutch grandmaster Benjamin Bok.
Not surprisingly we see more and more players looking for new ideas in the French opening. The 20 years old strong German grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum is for sure a pioneer in this area. More and more he likes to play with the sequence of moves to sidestep the preparation of his opponents. His influence upon the hyper-modern French opening in which Nc6 is delayed or even sometimes cancelled, should not be underestimated. His fresh strategical ideas gave this hyper-modern approach a serious boost. Even some super grandmasters have noticed this and gave it a shot. This year the Indian top-grandmaster Pentala Harikrisha scored a sensational victory in Altibox Norway Chess with this line.
Forewarned is forearmed but I shamefully had to admit in the last Open Leuven that I didn't understand anything about the opening. Besides I was totally surprised that the 47 years old Jan Rogiers had such hyper modern opening in his repertoire. That explains of course why I quickly got into troubles in our game and only an incredible counterattack avoided a big rating-upset.
[Event "Open Leuven 3de ronde"] [Date "2016"] [White "Brabo"] [Black "Rogiers, J."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C11"] [WhiteElo "2283"] [BlackElo "2130"] [PlyCount "67"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Be7 {(First Be7 and only later Nc6 is the hyper-modern version of this French opening which is gaining quickly popularity since 2013. I was aware about this but as usual with new trends I did not yet study it.)} 7. Be3 O-O {(The young strong German grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum famous for deciding the gold in the tiebrakes of the last chess-olympiad at Baku, is the greatest propagandist of this opening. He continuously switches with the different move-sequences which each have their own nuances but this one with Be7 followed up with 0-0 was his favorite in the last 3 years.)} 8. Qd2 {(The most popular continuation but this does not mean much as the opening is still very new. Beside Be2 which can transpose to my game played in the interclub of 2014 against Bart Michiels, dxc5 is a serious option.)} (8. dxc5 Bxc5 {(Black has of course options but here I want to warn chessplayers for trusting too quickly an online openingbook which shows only wins for black.)} 9. Qd3 $146 {(This unorthodox move is recommended by Stockfish 8.)} Qb6 { (The concept used successfully by Bart Michiels in his game against the American grandmaster Samuel Sevian played at Wijk Aan Zee 2015 does not work here.)} 10. Ng5 f5 {(G6 is answered by Bxc5 followed up by Qh3 and white has a clear advantage.)} 11. Nxd5 Qxb2 12. Bxc5 $5 {(White can choose between several fantastic continuations.)} (12. Rd1 $5 Nc6 13. Nxe6 Ndxe5 14. fxe5 $5 Nb4 15. Nxc5 Nxd3 16. Nxd3 $14) 12... Qxa1 13. Kf2 Nc6 (13... Nxc5 $2 14. Ne7 Kh8 15. Nf7 Rxf7 16. Qd8 Rf8 17. Qxf8#) 14. Bd6 Qc1 15. Ne3 $14) 8... b6 9. Nd1 {(Ik was not prepared for this opening so I wanted to experiment with a concept which I had seen in a similar position. I am thinking about the game Anish Giri - Bart Michiels won by Anish in the Belgian interclubs of 2012. I hoped it was playable and throw my opponent out of book. The latter was a wrong assessment as later I discovered Nd1 is the most popular move in this position. It explains of course why Jan still blitzed several moves. Be2 to transpose to my games of 2012 and 2015 against Bart Michiels is an alternative. However the eccentric h4, played earlier this year by nobody less than Vladimir Kramnik, is maybe the most critical test. Finally f5 of which I only found one game in the database, deserves also study. Just like Nd1 white tries to profit from the omission of Nc6.)} (9. h4 $5 cxd4 {(The strong German grandmaster Rainer Buhmann played Nc6 in Dortmund against Kramnik.)} 10. Nxd4 Bb4 $146 11. a3 Bxc3 12. Qxc3 Ba6 13. O-O-O Nc5 $13) 9... a5 10. Nf2 $5 {(I was not aware that normally they play c3 here.)} (10. c3 $5 { (White scores miserable according to my openingbook but an analysis of Anish Giri at schaaksite suspects this score does not reflect the right evaluation of this position.)} a4 $5 11. Bd3 Ba6 12. O-O Nc6 $5 13. f5 {(Earlier this year Anish Giri lost without a fight after Bxa6 against the Indian super-grandmaster Pentala Harakrisha in Stavanger, 4th Norway Chess.)} exf5 14. Bxa6 $1 Rxa6 15. Bf4 $1 Ndb8 16. Ne3 Qd7 17. Qd3 g6 18. Bh6 $1 Re8 19. g4 $1 fxg4 20. Ng5 Bxg5 21. Bxg5 $14 {(Anish often laughs at the superficial preparations of the reigning world-champion Magnus Carlsen and this beautiful analysis nicely demonstrates why this reaction is not exaggerated.)}) 10... Nc6 11. Bb5 Qc7 12. O-O a4 13. Rac1 Ba6 14. Bxa6 Rxa6 15. Qe2 Qb7 16. c4 $6 { (Optically this looks good but a bad surprise awaits me. C3 is still correct with a position maybe giving slightly the better prospects for white at the king-side.)} dxc4 17. Qxc4 b5 18. Qe2 c4 19. d5 $6 {(I was not eager to allow a piece jumping to d5 but this gambit is based upon a hallucination.} exd5 20. a3 {(Only now I realized that blacks last move covers c4 if black continues with b4. However allowing a3 is neither an option so after a long thought I played anyway a3 at the same time fearing a quick defeat.)} Nc5 { (After this move I get some hope again as I feared mostly b4. The engine shows there is little difference between the evaluations of both moves.)} 21. Rcd1 Rd8 $2 {(Afterwards Jan admitted that he completely underestimated my attack at the king-side. During the game I thought Qd7 is strong which the engine later confirmed.)} (21... Qd7 $1 {(It is not easy to position your queen in the line of the rook but black can not ignore f5.)} 22. f5 Nb3 23. Ne4 Qxf5 24. Nc3 Nxe5 25. Nxe5 Qxe5 26. Rxd5 Qe6 27. Rxb5 $17) 22. f5 Nb3 $2 {(Way too slow as whites attack is much quicker. D4 and Nd7 are still just enough to maintain the balance.)} ( 22... Nd7 $5 23. f6 Bf8 24. fxg7 Bxg7 25. e6 fxe6 26. Ng5 e5 $13) 23. f6 Bf8 $6 {(The engines sacrifice a piece to slow down the attack. After the played move white goes like a knife through the butter.)} (23... Nxe5 $1 24. fxe7 Qxe7 25. Nxe5 Qxe5 26. Ng4 $16) 24. fxg7 Bxg7 25. Ng4 Ne7 26. Ng5 Rg6 27. Nxf7 Rf8 28. Ngh6 Bxh6 29. Nxh6 Kg7 30. Rxf8 Kxf8 31. Qf3 Ke8 32. Qf7 Kd7 33. Nf5 Re6 34. Nxe7 {(An incredible conclusion as around move 20 I still was thinking about quickly losing the game.)} 1-0
My analysis causes doubts about the full correctness of this hyper-modern system but I expect we will still see new developments. Besides those rich strategical positions are excellent to play for a win with both colors. A noteworthy statistic is that all my 6 standard-games in this opening had decisive results while always respecting the rating-logic.
Almost everybody frees some time around new year to visit their family. It is a very hyped period in which everything is about fortune and happiness but the reality is rather different. The preparation of the festivities is often creating a lot of stress and some family-members which you fortunately only meet once per year, still manage every time to irritate you. You can choose your friends but it is much harder to ignore family.
I am not going to complain here about my family. Especially my relation with my parents-in-law is very good. If they are visiting us in Belgium for a month during the summer or we visit them in Ufa as last 2 weeks, I am always surprised by their endless patience and concern about us. They clearly put their children and grandchildren in front of their own interests. I don't know if this is something typical for Russians but this is for sure not granted in Belgium.
Anyway despite good relations it is hard to have a conversation going beyond some chit-chat with the family. Most of us have very different interests. One likes very much football while the other doesn't care at all who won last the Champions League. A big exception are the foods and drinks which are normally abundantly available on any family-party. Also in Russia they know how to spoil their guests. Of course parties have their own local characteristics. I noticed that the table always has to be overloaded by different dishes and drinks as you can see on below picture made at a visit of a cousin of my wife.
Last year we discovered an exceptional good restaurant and I had little trouble to convince my family-in-law to make a revisit. Afterwards I found out that Balkan Gril is according to tripadvisor at place 8 of best restaurants in Ufa. As a real bon vivant I enjoy such culinary excursions enormously.
By the way you can find on youtube a funny clip about how the waiter serves the dish flambe.
So food and drinks play an important role at family-parties but it is of course more enjoyable if you have other things in common. Therefore I find it a good idea to try to find a hobby as parent which you can do together with the children. 4 years ago I teached my children the rules of chess (see cheating) and I am happy that today one of them still likes to play.
I find anything what my children do interesting but it is a bonus if you also like to do the same stuff. Besides my son very well realizes that he has a big advantage compared to the other children with a father able to help him any time with any problem (within the boundaries of fair play of course). Today we already see that he has a considerable lead with probably a temporarily biggest accomplishment of a first place in the final standings of the F-series of the last Flemish Youth-criterium.
Naturally I hope that we can play in the (nearby) future some tournaments together as some other families do in Belgium. On the other hand a confrontation at the board will definitely create some extra tension. I am not going to give presents as others do (see Familychess part 1) as I have to show the right example. On the other hand exchanging preparations or knowledge of openings will be obviously done extensively.
I also take this last element into account when I have to prepare against a descendant of a chess-family. In 2011 I played below game against Patrick Boons.
[Event "Open Leuven 2de ronde"] [Date "2011"] [White "Boons, P."] [Black "Brabo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C79"] [WhiteElo "1987"] [BlackElo "2284"] [PlyCount "50"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. O-O {(Despite a number of grandmasters played this move, it is rather inaccurate compared to the more popular c3.)} b5 {(I knew this idea based on the Wing-varation which I had 7 years ago in my repertoire. Contrary to that dubious Wing-variation white already played the slow d3 so giving black a crucial extra move for the development. Of course black can return to the mainlines with Be7 or g6 but my move seems more critical here.)} 7. Bb3 Na5 8. c3 Nxb3 9. Qxb3 Be7 10. d4 $2 {(White understands that the compensation of the pair of bishops must be in the lead of development but this is too aggressive. Better was first to consolidate with h3 or Qc2.)} exd4 $2 { (Played after a long thought and still not the best. Immediately Bb7 is better and blacks pieces are more active.)} (10... Bb7 $1 11. dxe5 Nxe4 12. Rd1 O-O 13. Nbd2 Nc5 14. Qc2 $17) 11. cxd4 Bb7 12. e5 dxe5 13. dxe5 Ne4 14. Nbd2 $2 {(White has to play actively to control the pair of bishops but Nbd2 is not sufficient. Stronger is Rd1 with almost a balanced position.)} O-O $6 {(A little stronger is Nc5 which allows black to profit from the d3 weakness.)} 15. Nxe4 Bxe4 16. Rd1 Qc8 17. Bg5 $2 { (A tactical mistake. Ng5 mitigates the damage.)} Bxf3 18. Bxe7 Bxd1 19. Rxd1 Re8 20. Bh4 Rxe5 21. Qf3 Qe8 22. h3 Re1 23. Rxe1 Qxe1 24. Kh2 Re8 25. Qc6 Qe6 0-1
In the last Open Leuven I met at the board his brother Bert Boons. I didn't find many useful games of Bert in the database but still I won quite some time on the clock due to my rehearsal of my analysis made upon my game against Patrick.
[Event "Open Leuven 2de ronde"] [Date "2016"] [White "Boons, B."] [Black "Brabo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C79"] [WhiteElo "1940"] [BlackElo "2283"] [PlyCount "64"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. O-O {(In 2011 Berts brother Patrick played the same inferior line against me. I even checked that game in my preparation as I expected family often plays the same lines.)} b5 7. Bb3 Na5 8. c3 Nxb3 9. Qxb3 Be7 10. a4 {(Here Bert deviates from Patricks d4. I think a4 is much better but I still like blacks position.)} Bd7 { (Likely a bit more aggressive are 0-0 and Be6.)} 11. axb5 $6 {(The engines rightly ignore that black can win the pawn with bxa4 and play Re1 or Qc2. After the chosen move black already has the initiative.)} axb5 12. Na3 O-O 13. Bg5 h6 $6 {(A bit too slow. More active are Qb8 and Nh5. )} 14. Bxf6 Bxf6 15. Nc2 Be6 16. Qxb5 Rb8 17. Qa5 Rxb2 18. Nb4 $6 { (Immediately after the game we both recommended Ne3 as more solid.)} c5 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. exd5 Qxa5 21. Rxa5 Rfb8 22. Ra6 $6 {(More accurate seems now c4.)} Be7 $6 {(The engine shows R8b3 on the screen but the complications are very hard to calculate. Be7 is more simple guaranteeing however a smaller advantage.)} (22... R8b3 $1 23. Rxd6 Rxc3 24. Ne1 Rb1 25. Nf3 Rb7 26. Rc6 Rxd3 27. Rxc5 e4 28. Ne1 $17) 23. g3 Rc2 24. Ra3 f5 25. Ne1 Rd2 26. c4 Rbb2 27. Nf3 $6 {(The position is not easy but this makes things worse. H4 is more stubborn.)} Re2 28. Ra7 Bf6 29. Nh4 e4 30. Nxf5 $6 {(After this black gets a big pawn which can not be stopped properly anymore.)} (30. dxe4 $1 fxe4 31. Ng6 e3 32. Ra8 Kf7 33. Nh8 Ke7 34. Ra7 Ke8 35. Nf7 Be7 $17) 30... exd3 31. Ra3 d2 32. Kg2 d1=Q {(I also saw Rxf2 but d1 looked easier. Bert agreed as he resigned.)} 0-1
Another well-known Belgian chess-family consisting of already 3 generations are Daniel, Arben and Bardyl Dardha. Also here we see an overlap between their repertoires especially of Arben and Daniel. In my recent game against Arben played in the interclub I followed for some time my preparation which was based on a game played by the son Daniel.
[Event "Interclub Deurne - Hoboken"] [Date "2016"] [White "Brabo"] [Black "Dardha, A."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B32"] [WhiteElo "2314"] [BlackElo "2300"] [PlyCount "70"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 {(In 2005 Arben played the Svechnikov against me. Anyway I had noticed during my preparation that he switched since 2007 to the Kalashnikov or also Neo-Svechnikov called.)} 5. Nb5 d6 6. c4 Be7 {(I found back Be6 and f5 in Arbens games. However Arbens son Daniel already played this move so I did check it briefly.)} 7. N1c3 a6 8. Na3 Be6 {(I once got f5 on the board in 2005 by the French IM Hugo Tirard.)} 9. Nc2 Bg5 10. Be2 Bxc1 11. Rxc1 Nf6 12. O-O O-O 13. Qd2 {(I looked at this line last year for my preparation on the Russian grandmaster Vyacheslav Ikonnikov but I did not expect it for this game which means I had spent little attention to it.)} Rc8 {(More popular and probably slightly more accurate is Qb6.)} 14. Kh1 {(I learned this concept from a few impressive wins by the Belgian grandmaster Alexander Dgebuadze played in 1999 but normally he starts with Rcd1 and only next Kh1. Another concept we see in the very recently played game between Magnus Carlsen - Hou Yifan of Wijk aan Zee 2015 in which white played h3 to create pressure later with Bg4. Finally there are also interesting plans for white based on an expansion of the queen-side.)} Qa5 {(An interesting novelty as I only found back Qb6 but this move is of course pretty standard in this type of position.)} 15. Rcd1 {(White can also choose a different plan with Rfd1 and f3. On the other hand Qxd6 gives black too much counterplay.)} Rfd8 16. a3 $6 { (I realized that f4 is not really good but this is too slow. Besides if white wants to play b4 then this can be done without a3 as again Dgebuadze already demonstrated. Finally I think the solid f3 is the strongest here.)} b5 17. b4 {(Cxb5 is playable but definitely not better.)} Qb6 18. Nd5 {(Again I can not recommend cxb5.) } Bxd5 19. exd5 Ne7 20. Ne3 bxc4 21. Bxc4 Rc7 22. f3 $2 {(This plan is too slow. The engines show the right plan with f4 to maintain the balance.)} (22. f4 $1 e4 23. g4 Rdc8 24. g5 Nd7 25. Qe2 $13) 22... Rdc8 23. Bd3 Rc3 24. Qe2 Nexd5 $2 {(Black fears probably Nc4 but after this liquidation the position becomes equal again. A big advantage could be kept with e.g. a5 or g6.)} 25. Nxd5 Nxd5 26. Bxh7 Kxh7 27. Rxd5 Rxa3 28. Qe4 $2 {(I doubted between this check and immediately f4 and unfortunately I made the wrong decision nevertheless with little time left on the clock. I wrongly feared Qxb4 after f4 and also missed Arbens 29th move.)} (28. f4 $1 Qc6 (28... Qxb4 $2 29. fxe5 dxe5 $6 {(The only playable move is Qb7 but also that gives white an advantage.)} 30. Qh5 Kg8 31. Qxf7 Kh8 32. Rxe5 Ra5 33. Qh5 Kg8 34. Rxa5 $18) 29. Qe4 Kg8 30. fxe5 Re8 31. Qd4 Rxe5 32. Rxe5 dxe5 33. Qxe5 $13) 28... Kg8 29. f4 Qf2 {(We both play solely at increments and then such moves are almost always decisive.)} 30. Rdd1 Qc2 31. Qd5 e4 32. Qxd6 $6 {(I saw the concluding combination while Arben was thinking about it. However the best move Rde1 will neither give much joy.)} (32. Rde1 $1 e3 33. Qxd6 e2 34. Rg1 Re3 35. Qxa6 Rce8 36. Qb7 Qc4 37. g3 R3e7 $17) 32... Rd3 33. Rxd3 Qxd3 34. Qxd3 exd3 35. Kg1 d2 0-1
In my article openingchoices I already indicated that external elements heavily influence somebodies repertoire and this article just confirms this. That doesn't mean that family-members will automatically copy each others repertoire but you should take the possibility into account. Besides my son plays today very few systems which I also play. I did advise against the Dutch. Anyway my knowledge of most openings is more than sufficient to help him at the level he plays today.
