Which Two Books ?

[Chris Bernard]

My survey continues...

Opponent from South Korea had no books but a laptop but no database just a chess program which is used as a mentor.

Fellow tourist from Rome on 4 points takes the view that the kids here get better so quickly that there's no point using a database. Even if you find your opponents games from a few months ago, they will have come on a lot in that period and you don't get a true reflection of what you're about to face.
He has no books or database but goes through last days games each morning to correct any inaccuracies he is falling into.

Almost there last round and final book report tomorrow.

[John McKenna]

Note that Karl Georg is only 8 years old (possibly 7). His draw in R6 came when his opponent - with 4 queens - gave stalemate.

Having played in Paleochora twice in previous years, I am most impressed with the standards of the Greek youngsters. I suspect that their standard of play improves because they are thrown into top competitions so young. In England we encourage mediocrity by expecting kids to go through our system of Minor-Intermediate-Major tournaments.

Back to the subject of this thread - anybody going to Crete should read Kazantzakis' 'Zorba the Greek' and James Leigh Fermor 'The Cretan Runner'.

Very interesting post, above, by Mr. Bielby.

It made me think about several things. Including, how many queens can you legally have on the board together with the two kings and not give mate by default?

I am sure that Chris made a good, but challenging, choice when he picked Paleochora for his first international.
He's done really well to reach 4/8.

And - despite his causality denial - he probably did help young Karl George get his first precious half-point.

Today's final round is about to begin and the top ten boards can be seen here -

http://www.chaniachess.gr/International ... Games.html

Here's hoping Chris, Tim & Karl all get a result today.

[John McKenna]

Looks like wins for Tim and Karl!

Unfortunately, Chris received Black versus an experienced Paleochora campaigner from, you might have guessed, Germany.
So, it was the daylight version of Ill Met by Moonlight - he didn't get the German. The German got him with the light pieces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ill_Met_by_Moonlight

No doubt Chris will say what happened, and if he found out what documents his opponent was carrying.

[Chris Bernard]

Karl won a nice game as Black. Left a piece on prise for a move but didn't seem to matter as his opponent didn't want it anyway. Karl got his Rook to the 7th in the Queen, Rook and Pawn endgame and a few moves later looked happy to have done so well all on his own. His first international tournament win of many I am sure.

....I was thinking in the last game perhaps my words of advice as a Crystal Palace (chess) player he'd picked up that if you can get the draw by making your opponent having a flat back four (queens) so you can concentrate better on the away leg...

I have many more book references from Austria , Italy and beyond but will report more on "which two books" after the closing ceremony...which i must dash to as Tim tells me i've missed one round 9 punch up in the town square already.

[Chris Bernard]

My last posting on the subject.

Jesper Hall in his book divides players into three catagories; Happy Amateurs, Ambitous Aspirants and Serious Professionals. My Survey is clearly that of Ambitous Aspirants of which this tournament had plenty. The nearest I got to talk to a Serious Professional was an embarassing attempt to talk to a couple of Russian GM's in the hotel foyer at the reception area but it did get me promoted to nodding good morning greeting rights from them for a couple of days.

My last batch of ambitious aspirants confess to :

Italian lad who did very well : no books no computer a trainer back home & non playing father with him
My opponent in the last round : An opening book on the Alapin counter gambit which never got to play
Austrian Gent : "The secrets of positional Chess" by Marovic. Raved about it all the way to the tournament hall.

So there we have it.

I would spend less time on preparing for individuals and just find out if they're an e4, d4 or other player - maybe one move deeper but no more. Spend the week before the tournament not on openings - you're going to be doing that at the tournament - but training on just Rook & Pawn end games (which was a decisive factor in a few of my games games - and in the hall a lot) & understand the openings you are playing to a greater depth than I did.

Finally have a mate back home who enjoys running background checks on players - so that when you get murdered in the very opening you prepared for they can put your mind at rest that the opponent had clearly been getting this line ready just for you and this is new world cutting edge theory - it maybe complete cowpoo but does your ego the world of good.

Over and Out

[John McKenna]

The 8th Paleochora Open Chess Tournament 2015, on Crete, was won outright by Ukrainian GM Vladislav Borovikov (2562) with 7.5/9 (+7,=1,-1) so what about that loss?

Looks like Borovikov was winning but suddenly stepped into a series of mid-game cowpats -

[Event "8th International Open"] [Site "Paleochora"] [Date "2015.07.19"] [Round "4.2"] [White "Borovikov, Vladislav (2562)"] [Black "Markidis, Konstantinos (2378)"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A40"] [WhiteElo "2562"] [BlackElo "2378"] [Annotator "JM"] [PlyCount "74"] [EventDate "2015.07.17"] 1. d4 e6 2. c4 Bb4+ 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. a3 Be7 5. e4 d6 6. Ngf3 O-O 7. Bd3 c5 8. d5 Nbd7 9. O-O Ng4 10. h3 Nge5 11. Nxe5 Nxe5 12. Bc2 Ng6 13. f4 Bf6 14. dxe6 Bd4+ 15. Kh2 fxe6 16. Nf3 e5 17. f5 Nh8 18. a4 Bd7 19. Ra3 Nf7 20. h4 Qe8 21. Ng5 Nh6 22. Nh3 Kh8 23. g4 Ng8 24. g5 b6 25. Rg3 a6 26. h5 b5 27. b3 bxc4 28. bxc4 Rb8 29. f6 Rb7 30. fxg7+ Kxg7 31. g6 hxg6 32. Rxg6+ Kh8 33. Rf5 $2 Bxf5 34. exf5 e4 35. Re6 $2 Re7 36. Nf4 $4 Rxe6 37. fxe6 Be5 0-1

It would be interesting to know what books, if any, Borovikov was carrying but as Chris points out, above, if you approach East European GMs at a tournament too directly with such a question they will suspect that you may be a spy trying to steal their secrets.

Maybe Chris is right - if you are a "Happy Amateur"" wishing to take a couple of chess books with you consider making it one one on middle games and one on endings. Leave the openings to the "Serious Pros".

[AustinElliott]

Impressed by John McKenna's Ill Met By Moonlight reference. Remember watching the film as a grad student long ago, as my film-student flatmate was writing his dissertation on Powell and Pressburger.

I'm imagining a chess version.

Player One and Two meet on a walking trial above the hotel and stand gazing at the view.
Player One quotes a couple of lines of Horace.
Player Two looks puzzled.
Player One: "That was Horace"
Player Two: "Horace? Is he titled? And do you know what openings lines he plays?"

[JustinHorton]

Powell and Pressburger

[Roger de Coverly]

There's lots of decent stuff in there (Alekhine's Best Games).

If you play either the Kings Indian or against the Kings Indian, it's not going to help. Or at least that was my university experience.

[Roy Summers]

Enjoyed reading this thread, credit to Chris and John for making it so interesting.

[Chris Bernard]

I must add a post script.

Karl George Bismark's parents Professor Alex and Katharine indeed took myself and the missus their kids and our kids out for drinkies. As a thank you for giving up a few hours to pep up young KGB they kindly gave me Two Books. Having come across this thread they could see I was on a quest for the answer to a serious question which they had also given serious thought to. I gave KG Bismark my tattered copy of the GPA Attack (if he's playing here again he's going to need it! but with such academic parents, with him already speaking German, Greek and English fluently and an interesting lineage, the boy will go far).



The books were wrapped up




so I unwrapped them




I know it took a while.




What were they ?




The beach bar was a bit dark..



Both by Nikos Kazantzakis - Zorba the Greek and Christ Recrucified


So there we have it: A database, a Laptop with Fritz perhaps and these two books.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Alekhine's Best Games - "A Matter of Life and Death"?

[JustinHorton]

Indeed

[IM Jack Rudd]

The answer to the queens question is nine, by the way.

[Tim Harding]

For what it's worth, my recommendations for the Ambitious Aspirant:

Training for the next tournament (which may be months away) starts as soon as critical self-analysis of the latest one has been done.

Two books to work through steadily BEFORE the event (not starting the week before):

1. Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual (preferably the 4th edition, which takes account of 7-man tablebases). As you say, R+P endings are particularly vital. To avoid the kind of gross errors seen today in Carnstam v Aabling-Thomsen from the second round of the Politiken Cup. (Can somebody please post this as an interactive game as I don’t know how…?) Black’s 76th turned a win into a draw and White’s 90th move returned the favour.

<pgn>
[Event "Politiken Cup"]
[Site "chess24.com"]
[Date "2015.07.26"]
[Round "2.47"]
[White "Carnstam, Tomas"]
[Black "Aabling-Thomsen, Jakob"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A28"]
[WhiteElo "2034"]
[BlackElo "2333"]
[PlyCount "190"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. e4 Bc5 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Nxe5 Nxe5 6. d4 Bb4 7. dxe5 Nxe4 8.
Qc2 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Nc5 10. Be3 Qe7 11. f4 b6 12. Bxc5 Qxc5 13. O-O-O Bb7 14. Rd4
O-O-O 15. Bd3 g6 16. Be4 Rhe8 17. Bxb7+ Kxb7 18. Rhd1 d6 19. Kb1 Re6 20. g3 Qc6
21. Qb3 Rd7 22. Qb4 f6 23. exf6 Rxf6 24. Re1 Rf5 25. Ree4 Rc5 26. Qb3 d5 27.
cxd5 Rdxd5 28. Rxd5 Rxd5 29. Kc2 Qd7 30. Re2 Qf5+ 31. Kc1 Qd3 32. Qc2 Qc4 33.
Rd2 Rc5 34. Rd3 Qe4 35. Qd2 b5 36. Rd4 Qc6 37. Kb2 a5 38. Rd3 Rc4 39. Rd4 Rc5
40. Qd3 Kb6 41. Qd2 Qf6 42. Rd5 Rc4 43. Qe3+ Ka6 44. Re5 Rc6 45. Qd3 Rb6 46.
Qd5 Qc6 47. Qxc6 Rxc6 48. Re7 h5 49. Rh7 Re6 50. f5 gxf5 51. Rxh5 Re2+ 52. Kb1
Rf2 53. h4 Rf3 54. Rg5 Rxc3 55. h5 Rf3 56. h6 Rf1+ 57. Kb2 Rh1 58. Rg6+ Kb7 59.
Rf6 c6 60. Kc3 Rh3 61. Kd4 Rxg3 62. Ke5 b4 63. Rxf5 Rh3 64. Rf7+ Kb6 65. h7 a4
66. Kf4 Rh1 67. Kg3 b3 68. axb3 axb3 69. Rf3 Rxh7 70. Rxb3+ Kc5 71. Rc3+ Kd5
72. Kf2 Re7 $1 73. Rc2 c5 74. Rc1 c4 75. Re1 Ra7 76. Ke3 Ra2 $4 {DIAGRAM?
Presumably Black miscalculated the possible king and pawn ending. He could win by 76... Re7+ 77. Kf2
Re4 for if 78. Rxe4 Kxe4 79. Ke2 c3 80. Ke1 Ke3) 77. Rd1+ Kc5 78. Rb1 Ra3+ 79. Kd2 Kd4 80. Rb8 {White has achieved a drawn position, but...} Ra2+ 81. Kc1 Kc3 82. Kb1 Rh2 83. Rg8 Rh1+ 84. Ka2 Rd1
85. Rc8 Rd4 86. Kb1 Kd2 87. Kb2 Kd3 88. Kc1 Rg4 89.
Rd8+ Kc3 90. Rd1 $4 (90. Kb1) 90... Kb3 91. Rh1 c3 92. Kb1 Rg2 93. Rf1 Rb2+ 94. Kc1 Ra2 95. Kb1 c2+ 0-1
</pgn>

2. “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Nobel economics prizewinner Daniel Kahneman (recommended to me by GM Jens Kristiansen at last year's world seniors. He had it with him on his Kindle.) It's not easy going; read when fully awake and concentrating. Fortunately it is divided into lots of short sections.

Books to bring to a tournament? These days I would not bring any chess book to a tournament. Least of all a long-outdated opening book like Hodgson & Day on the Grand Prix Attack or Alekhine's Games (full of dodgy combinations probably refutable by the engine on your phone).

Exciting novel or enthralling non-fiction for the plane journey, yes.
At the event itself: many years ago Stefan Fazekas was asked what was the secret of his being the surprise winner of the British Championship. He said it was bringing a boring bedtime book that enabled him to get to sleep swiftly. The Kahneman could fulfil that function too.

The week before the tournament is the time to check whether there are recent high-level games which impact your opening repertoire, and to plug any gaping holes in your openings.