what is the title please?

Technical questions regarding Openings, Middlegames, Endings etc.
Catherine Glynn
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what is the title please?

Post by Catherine Glynn » Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:34 pm

A customer has asked me about a book he read many moons ago and I'm ashamed to say I don't know what it is, His question:
One book, which I feel almost sure was by Euwe, had a line of play in the introduction or somewhere near the beginning of the book in which the author gave an illustration of ability by showing how players of different levels would probably be able to calculate this line of play, each higher level of player seeing one move further than the last. Have you ever seen anything like this? I'd love to know which book it was because I can't recall now. For some reason I thought it was in the "Road to Chess Mastery" but there's nothing like it in any of my books by that author.
I've looked through the Euwe books I have in stock but I don't have them all at the moment. And it may not be Euwe.

If this rings any bells, do tell, or email me at [email protected]

Thanks

Catherine
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John McKenna

Re: what is the title please?

Post by John McKenna » Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:59 pm

A possible is Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur (Dover reprint 1994) but I wouldn't bet on it. I have it and will have a look at it tonight and let you know if it starts in the way you describe unless someone else says yea/nay first.

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John Upham
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Re: what is the title please?

Post by John Upham » Tue Mar 05, 2013 1:27 pm

British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Catherine Glynn
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Re: what is the title please?

Post by Catherine Glynn » Tue Mar 05, 2013 1:52 pm

I don't think it is Chess Master vs Chess Amateur, nor Chess Master & Chess Grandmaster, although I would be happy to be corrected.

Catherine

E Michael White
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Re: what is the title please?

Post by E Michael White » Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:38 pm

Catherine Glynn wrote:A customer has asked me about a book he read many moons ago and I'm ashamed to say I don't know what it is, His question:

One book, which I feel almost sure was by Euwe, had a line of play in the introduction or somewhere near the beginning of the book in which the author gave an illustration of ability by showing how players of different levels would probably be able to calculate this line of play, each higher level of player seeing one move further than the last. Have you ever seen anything like this? I'd love to know which book it was because I can't recall now. For some reason I thought it was in the "Road to Chess Mastery" but there's nothing like it in any of my books by that author.

I've looked through the Euwe books I have in stock but I don't have them all at the moment. And it may not be Euwe.
This sounds like the following position from a game in 1914. There are 5 different levels of opinion discussed in many magazines/books among them "The Listener" 1966 and Leonard Bardens "The Guardian Chess Book" 1967. If it's not that position the idea that a closer look by a better player reveals more is well illustrated.



With White to move.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: what is the title please?

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:48 pm

E Michael White wrote:
<snip position - see previous post>

With White to move.
Nice. I have 1.Rh7 Ka5 2. Rh8 so far, but there must be a stalemate trap somewhere that I'm missing...

Doh! 1.Rh7 a1=Q 2.Rxb7+ Ka5 2.Ra7+ Kb4 3.Rxa1 stalemate. But there is probably more to it than that!

Ooh! 3.Ra4+ is gorgeous! (Er, or maybe that still draws... I'm being very silly, of course it does, and it probably loses - I hate king and pawn endgames :oops: )
Last edited by Christopher Kreuzer on Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: what is the title please?

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:53 pm

E Michael White wrote: If it's not that position the idea that a closer look by a better player reveals more is well illustrated.
It's a theme used by chess writers from time to time. I seem to recall BH Wood in Chess running an article or series of articles by Simon Webb (?) along these lines. This would have been in the 1970s.

Neil Graham
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Re: what is the title please?

Post by Neil Graham » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:05 pm

I seem to recall something similar in "Think like a Grandmaster" by Kotov.

En passant this reminds me of the comment I read somewhere in the past - "My wife's started taking an interest in chess. When I came home tonight she told me to take my Kotov and Euwe the Flohr"

John McKenna

Re: what is the title please?

Post by John McKenna » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:30 pm

Not Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur. I checked the start of it.

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John Clarke
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Re: what is the title please?

Post by John Clarke » Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:24 pm

A passage closely fitting the given description (but too long to quote in full here) occurs in The Chess Mind by Gerald Abrahams (Penguin Books, 1951), pp 23-24. The position discussed is Rubinstein-Capablanca, San Sebastian 1911.



The caption to this diagram is: "White to move. Should he play 15.Nxd5?" The text goes on to explore the different levels of perception about the consequences of that capture. (The moves actually played were 15.Nxd5 Qh6 16.Kg2 Rcd8 17.Qc1! when White wins a P.)
"The chess-board is the world ..... the player on the other side is hidden from us ..... he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance."
(He doesn't let you resign and start again, either.)

Catherine Glynn
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Re: what is the title please?

Post by Catherine Glynn » Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:02 am

Thank you very much for all your useful suggestions.

The section from The Chess Mind (from the first chapter Vision in Chess) seems a good fit. Have to see whether my customer concurs.