Category: Chess Feature

    Chess Club News Chess Feature
    Annie Wang Simul and Lecture on May 30, 2023

    We are pleased to announce that International Master Annie Wang will conduct a simultaneous exhibition on May 30, 2023 at our SGVCC location in Altadena.

    International Master Annie Wang started playing chess at the age of five, after encountering the game in a local park. Since then, she has won many local, state, national, and international titles. In 2013, at the age of 11, Annie became the US’s youngest-ever female National Master, breaking Irina Krush’s longstanding record. A few years later, she won the Girls’ Under 16 section of the 2017 World Youth Chess Championships with a score of 10.5/11 and a performance rating of 2589. Annie was the runner-up at the 2018 U.S. Women’s Championship and the winner of the Open section at the 2019 Pan American Junior Chess Championships. More recently, Annie became the 2021 US Girls’ Junior Champion and qualified for a spot on the 2022 US Women’s Olympiad team. Today, Annie is a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she studies computer science.

    Annie will give a lecture starting at 6:30p.m. and the Simul games will start at 7:00. The costs is $25 per player and you can pay at the door (cash or check only). But due to the anticipated interest we recommend you register in advance (please ignore the bye request section, this is not a tournament). Register: here

    Contact John Wright at jw84771@gmail.com or at (626) 864-5744 for more information.

    Chess Club News Chess Feature
    IM Shlyakhtenko Shows His Prowess!

    IM Robert Shlyakhtenko showed he’s a tough guy to beat at his Simultaneous Exhibition on November 29, 2022. Facing 23 adversaries ready to make their mark he went 22-1, giving up only one loss against Expert Leo Wang. Despite our collective thumping everyone was appreciative that Robert visited the Club. The Simul was preceded by a very instructive lecture where Robert went over one of his many impressive wins. Special thanks to Senior TD Phil Chase for arranging Robert’s visit.

    Leo Wang saves the day with our only win!
    Chess Feature
    Positional Finesse (1) – Opposite Colored Bishops

    10th world chess champion Boris Spassky was on record for saying he and his first wife Larissa “were like bishops of opposite color.” Indeed, opposite bishops in chess act as if they live in parallel universes- neither one intrinsically better than the other, they follow similar movements only to never actually meet or share a common long term goal (Boris would marry three times, and unfortunately ended all three in divorce).

    Boris and Larissa Spassky
    (Photo by Harry Benson. Courtesy LIFE Magazine, Time Inc.)

    Ok enough of the sappy stuff.

    The mark of a good chess player has always been the ability to churn out winning ideas from a level playing field-given a similar amount of resources and time. How then, does one take the imbalance of opposite bishops and turn that into a winning advantage? After all, a light squared bishop can never hope to contest the same squares as its dark squared counterpart, and vice-versa. Do they invariably cancel out?

    Let’s take a look at three instances where such a situation arises, first from Aaron Nimzowitsch vs Jose Raul Capablanca:

    Second, let’s look at a game from the Magician of Riga-Mikhail Tal- and Ivan Radulov, in a pure bishop of opposite color face off:

    Now for the third, and what I consider the apex, example. The following game is between two absolute legends: Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (white) and Garry Kimovich Kasparov (black) during their titanic 1985 world championship match. In a clash of opposing styles (Kasparov is known for his tactical prowess and opening preparation with flashy attacks and sacrifices. Karpov is known for his positional grinding and exploiting small wrinkles in the position with minimal risk.), what better way to end on the topic of opposite bishops? It’s one of my personal favorite games and is appropriately dubbed: The White Key Symphony.

    Kasparov (left) and Karpov (right) in their 1985 match

    Absolute masterclass by Karpov! Despite this brilliant game, Garry would continue on to win a thrilling 24 game match which was a nail biter till the very end (for those interested, I would recommend The World Chess Championship, Karpov-Kasparov: Moscow 85 by Y. and Mark Taimanov Averbakh).

    So what can be gleamed from this? In general terms, it’s fair to assess the following:

    • Opposite colored bishops favor the attacking side, since the defender essentially has one less piece to participate on key squares.
    • Use the uncontested color complex to induce positional weaknesses in a slow, gradual manner.
    • Keep heavy pieces on to maximize winning chances. Avoid trades/simplification until a tangible advantage is present.

    I intend to continue this “series” with topics intended to broaden chess knowledge, cherry-picking ideas from chess lore and history. See you in the next one!

    Chess Social Returns March 2022
    Chess Feature
    Echo Mountain Open Analysis – NM Karl Tolentino

    Hey everyone!

    On behalf of the SGVCC I wanted to share the games that I had played in the somewhat recent Echo Mountain Open (January 2022), along with annotations denoting my thought process and post-mortem analysis. This is my first post on the site, so any criticism is more than welcome! I intend to be semi-regular about this as far as unorthodox hobbies go.

    I was more than lucky to win that last one! Ryan sure gave me a run for my money. I can’t promise that all my subsequent posts will be this detailed as I was working off a backlog. I also fully intend to post my losses as well. Regardless, I hope that analysis was some combination of entertaining / instructive. Good luck to all participants in the upcoming Bunny Hop Open!

    Chess Feature
    Aleksenko Perfect in Euwe Open!

    Artem Aleksenko went an undefeated 5-0 to win the Euwe Open, our most recent Friday  night online event. He finished in style with a nice game against NM John Wright where he delivered  a knockout blow after Black snatched a pawn with Qxd4.

    NM  Larry Stevens took second with 3.5, his only loss also by Artem. Special kudos to Russel Keating who won his last 3 games, including a win over the always tough Arturo Armagnac.

    A new Friday online event starts October 29, sign up here

    https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/1241