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.
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.
Brabo
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