Don't look now!

Vassily Ivanchuk looks at anything but the board!

How do we know that Neanderthal Man played blindfold chess? Because in excavations of their sites no chessboards or pieces have been found.

It’s an old and rather cheesy joke but don’t let that hide the essential truth that it exploits. The physical manifestation of the game of chess (the board and pieces) only exists to help us players visualise the moves. Once you have learned chess notation and grasped of the rules you can play the game in your head. That virtually none of us practice this is an indication of how difficult it is to do. If you’ve never tried it I recommend you give it a go. It is mind bogglingly difficult! However, one skill that, throughout history, sets aside the very best chess players from us mere mortals is their ability to do this very thing.

I recently came across a very interesting and very comprehensive post by HeinzK on his Chess Plaza blog called “The big comparison” in which he associates this game we play with lots and lots of other aspects of life. It is a post which is by turns funny, philosophical, insightful and poetic. It is also full of links to other related blog posts and stories and I followed one about super Grand Master Vassily Ivanchuk which looked interesting. I ended up reading a very nice little interview conducted with him shortly after he had won the Gibraltar Chess Festival in February of this year. One answer he gave tickled me in particular and it was also the answer that had grabbed HeinzK’s attention. Ivanchuk was asked how much time he spent on chess (aside from playing in tournaments) and he answered:

“It’s hard to say, because chess and the way you train for it, is quite unusual. For example it’s not even obligatory to sit at a computer, or even a chess board. I can also walk in the park and analyse some important position in my head. Moreover, it’s by no means certain that working using such a method will have any less effect than if I sit at a computer. It depends much more on getting into a mental state that allows you to discover new ideas.”

“I can walk in the park and analyse some important position in my head.” Woah! Ivanchuk has a reputation for being a “genius” and also for being, shall we say, one of the game’s more colourful characters. This statement certainly seems to bare that out. So next time you take your dog for a walk and spot a dishevelled looking fellow doing laps of the park and muttering to himself as he gazes somewhere into the far distance, don't worry, he might appear to be a lunatic but it is probably just Vassily analysing an opening novelty.

The real point I guess, is that this extraordinary ability to visualise games and positions is both a blessing and a curse for the chess professional. On the one hand it helps them develop their astounding powers of calculation and concentration, on the other it means that their minds can never truly be free of the game that dominates their lives. The truth that Ivanchuk reveals by being unable to provide an answer to the interviewer’s question is that lots of his chess is played in his head and so it is impossible to keep track of how much time he spends on it.

I’ve seen it mentioned in several sources that Ivanchuk (and some other players) frequently sit at the board and calculate variations without spending much time actually looking at the pieces themselves. On his blog, Tim Krabbé suggests that this is actually quite a logical way to visualise future positions because “the mental pieces are often on different squares than their wooden counterparts.”

To illustrate this point (in a post that is interestingly titled “The handicap of sight”) Krabbé references this incident which is taken from "Psychology in Chess" by Nikolai Krogius.





The Colonel is back!

 So now, I’d like to end this post on a slightly lighter note. As I read the interview with Vassily Ivanchuk I also remembered that our old friend, Colonel Walter Polhill (RTD), had written an article for The Independent on Sunday in which he referred directly to Ivanchuk’s ability to find brilliant ideas without looking at the board. I am willing to risk prosecution to bring you that article for your amusement.

"You can tell great players by their eye movements. An average club player’s eyes dart about hopelessly, never knowing quite where to look for the best move. A Grand Master focuses rapidly on the critical area of the board. It is a rare genius that looks, as Vassily Ivanchuk does for much of the game, at the ceiling. And when he is not perusing the ceiling, he often stares blankly at the audience. His 24th move in this game however, surely came from the ceiling."



Notice how, in this game, there are numerous occasions when one piece advances to enable another to occupy the square it has vacated. 24.g6!! enables the White bishop to occupy g5, 29.e5! and 30.Nb6! allow the g2-bishop to check on d5 and this bishop then immediately vacates this square again with 32.Be4 in order to allow the knight back to d5 on it’s way to e7.

These kinds of moves can be hard to spot over the board because your eye sees a piece on its current square and that can mean that you rule out a good plas because in your mind a certain key square is unavailable. By visualising the board and pieces without looking at them Ivanchuk is able to liberate his creativity and come up with combinations that many mere mortals wouldn’t be able to spot.

So, the moral of the story is that if you want to improve your abilities to visualise positions during analysis then take up blindfold chess. Just don't expect me to be leading by example!

Captain Marvel to the rescue

Is it Captain Marvel or is it Martin Syrett?

As the Calderdale Evening Chess League season begins to draw to a close both of Hebden Bridge Chess Club’s Division 1 teams rode into battle on Monday night in matches that could yet decide their success or failure of their seasons. The club’s regular venue at the Trades Club was unavailable and so the players were forced to de-camp to the unfamiliar surrounds of the White Lion pub. This could have been a disruptive influence on proceedings but it must be said that the function room we were given was big enough, comfortable enough and quiet enough and generally very satisfactory. It also seems that the players agreed with this assessment because both sides managed to win their matches, though in rather contrasting styles.

I’ll deal with the ‘B’ team first. They have been locked in a relegation battle all season and as the night begin they occupied second last position in the league table with Halifax ‘A’ one point above them and Brighouse four points ahead. These were the only two teams they had any chance of over hauling before the end of the season so a win was essential. Their opponents were Belgrave who are occupying a sort of mid-table limbo between the dangers of relegation and the excitement of the title race. In the reverse fixture at Belgrave in November Hebden Bridge lost 3-2 in a match they probably should have won. It was clear they were capable of victory but confidence and expectationshave been low for several months now.

The night began badly for Hebden Bridge as, on board 1, Pete Olley blundered a bishop against Gordon Farrar and was compelled to resign shortly afterwards. Pete has had a very challenging year on board 1 and has generally given an excellent account of himself against the league’s top players although he only has two draws to show for his troubles. The ‘B’ team steadied the ship with comfortable draws on boards 3 and 5 where Andy Leatherbarrow and guest star Steve Priest respectively kept Les Johnson and Angel Gonzalez at bay. All this left the match situation in the balance as Hebden Bridge required the remaining two boards to win the tie



Dave Shapland was first to finish on board 2 where he successfully out fought Malcolm Corbett. The players had met with the same colours last season and they once again discussed the Voronyez Variaiton of Alekhine’s Defence. This line is characterised by White’s attempt to set up a bind on the Black position and force him to create positional concessions in order to liberate his pieces. Dave managed to do this successfully early in the game but Malcolm defended himself stoutly and creatively for a long time until eventually, possibly in desperation, he opted for a line that brought about an unclear tactical melee. For several moves the outcome was unclear but then Dave found the most accurate continuations and Malcolm missed a few difficult saving chances and Hebden Bridge had their first win of the evening.



This left the match all square with just one board left to play. ‘B’ team Captain, Martin Syrett, built up a significant space advantage on board 4 against Mike Barnett but, in the process, he also got himself into trouble on the clock. The tension in the room was palpable for the Hebden Bridge players. Would Martin beat the clock and maintain his advantage or would defeat once again be snatched from the jaws of victory? Find out below where the full game and some accompanying commentary is given:



A thrilling climax to the evening then and huge relief for the ‘B’s who, aided by their Captain’s brave victory, now step out of the relegation zone once again as Halifax ‘A’ fell to a 1-4 defeat at home to Courier ‘A’. The effort must be sustained however for in the last match of the season Hebden Bridge ‘B’ must travel to Brighouse whilst Halifax ‘A’ go to bottom side Todmorden. The ‘B’ team must at least match Halifax’s result to stay in Division 1 next season. At least they are in control of their own destiny. Anyone who wants to see Captain Syretts celebrations after the match should watch the video below which will give you a general impression!



The match card is given below:

Hebden Bridge ‘B’ – Belgrave

P.Olley 0 - 1 G.Farrar

D.Shapland 1 - 0 M.Corbett

A.Leatherbarrow ½ - ½ L.Johnson

M.Syrett 1 – 0 M.Barnett

S.Priest ½ - ½ A.Gonzalez

3 – 2

Meanwhile, Hebden Bridge ‘A’ are sadly not in a position to be in control of their own destiny. They trail Huddersfield at the top of the table by a single point but now require their nemesis to slip up in order to allow them to retain their title. They did their job against Brighouse on Monday night with three wins, one draw and a single defeat on board 5 where Nick Sykes lost to Nick Hudson.

It feels like a few members of the ‘A’ team might be feeling a little battle weary at the end of a long hard season. Certainly, the side is not winning matches by the kinds of crushing margins they were in the first half of the season. Their title rivals Huddersfield, by contrast, began with a draw and a defeat but have since won every match including two critical victories against Hebden Bridge ‘A’.

On Monday night there were some signs that Alastair Wright’s team still has the stomach to fight to the end though as, on board 1, Dave Wedge won smoothly against Robert Broadbent. By his own admission Dave has not had a vintage season, but he has picked up some form since Christmas and will need to maintain that for the last round match against Courier ‘A’.



Captain, Alastair Wright, also ground out a win on board 3 against Bruce Bendall.



Matthew Parsons played out the most exciting game in this fixture against Dennis Breen. I didn’t get the chance to catch much of this game and when I did I must confess I wasn’t at all sure what was going on. The complications seemed to be extensive. Matthew certainly enjoyed it and, rather than publish it here, I will instead link to his own blog so that you can read his thoughts on it and play through the game which ended in a draw.

The other home team win came from Matthew Wedge-Roberts who dispatched his opponent in fairly straight-forward fashion.



The final match card looked like this:

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ – Brighouse

D.Wedge 1 – 0 R.Broadbent

M.Parsons ½ - ½ D.Breen

A.Wright 1 – 0 B.Bendall

M.Wedge-Roberts 1 – 0 R.Grandage

N.Sykes 0 – 1 N.Hudson

3½ – 1½

Team Lightning Competition and other impending events

Can Hebden Bridge 'A' make
 lightning strike twice?

Today’s post is designed merely to give members and regular readers a heads up on some important dates coming up in the next few months.

1.) First of all, on Monday the 9th of May, the 2011 edition of the Calderdale Chess Team Lightning Competition takes place at Todmorden Working Mens Club. Please note that, unlike recent years, this is tournament is taking place in Todmorden and NOT at the Belgrave Club in Halifax.

All players are welcome but it is suggested that you contact your team Captains about entries from your club as several will already be making plans. In previous years additional teams have been made up by gathering surplus players from all clubs so everyone should get a game that wants one.

Last year Hebden Bridge ‘A’ won the tourney with a record score of 24/25 but they did not have to face the 2009 champions, Huddersfield, who will no doubt be hungry to snatch the title back this year.

The Team Lightening event is always a really fun way of ending the season so please do come along and join in.

Grand Master Danny Gormally returns to Leeds Chess
Club for another simultaneous event on the 12th of June

2.) On Sunday the 12th of June Leeds Chess Club will be hosting a simultaneous event with Grand Master Danny Gormally. It costs £10 to enter and you can register for it on the Leeds Chess Club website. I entered the corresponding event last year and can heartily recommend it. Danny was very laid back and relaxed and this made for a friendly and fun atmosphere. If you want your chance to take on a Grand Master face to face then this is as good as you’ll get.

3.) Finally, here is a real coup for this website! I am delighted to announce that, from May the 4th, our humble blog will be hosting the 5th edition of the Chess Improvement Carnival. The idea behind the event is very simple. Readers nominate interesting and useful posts about chess from across the blogosphere. Those nominations are edited and promoted right here for all the world to see. It’s a kind of “Chess Blog Greatest Hits” for the month of May. If anyone is interested in taking a look at the current edition then you can go to the Liquid Egg Product blog and have a browse. Of course we need nominations for May’s edition so if you’ve spotted a useful, interesting or funny blog post about chess anywhere on the internet recently then please submit it here and it will be considered.

Blink and you'll miss it

Last Monday night it was the turn of Hebden Bridge Chess Club’s League Division 2 teams to wade into action. Hebden Bridge ‘C’ had a home fixture against Todmorden ‘C’ and our ‘rookie’ squad, the ‘D’ team played away against Halifax ‘B’.

Our ‘D’ team mostly comprises players who are taking their first steps in competitive chess and so it is no surprise to learn that they have struggled this season and are bottom of the league. Last Monday, Halifax’s team of seasoned campaigners was too strong for our chaps and ran out 5-0 winners. The full match scorecard is given below:

Halifax ‘B’ – Hebden Bridge ‘D’

B.Wadsworth 1 – 0 J.Todd

J.Aldridge 1 – 0 T.Whelan

J.Nicholson 1 – 0 M.Levy

D.Summerskill 1 – 0 K.Sharpe

J.Gilhooly 1 – 0 D.Crampton

5 – 0

It is worth noting that our club’s most promising junior, Kyle Sharpe, played his first match for the ‘D’ team and is beginning to get some experience of playing against adult opponents. This will no doubt act as further spring board for his burgeoning ability. News of his exploits in the world of junior chess can be found in the “Juniors” section of this site.

Now, onto the ‘C’ team. Non-player Captain, Peter Rawlings had been optimistic of the side’s promotion chances prior to the match against Todmorden last week. Unfortunately, he was compelled to put out a slightly weakened line up and the side paid a heavy price against a useful Todmorden ‘C’ team. The only winner of the night for Hebden Bridge was Steve Priest on board 3 and, although both Josh Blinkhorn and Dave Sugden took draws against decent opposition on the top two boards, boards 4 and 5 were (as they so very often are) decisive with the visitors taking two wins to seal a tight match. This result is something of a set back for the ‘C’s who had been on an excellent run of form. Promotion now looks unlikely, but is still a possibility. Here is the match card:

Hebden Bridge ‘C’ – Todmorden ‘C’

D.Sugden ½ - ½ D.Milton

J.Blinkhorn ½ - ½ R.Stoelman

S.Priest 1 – 0 J.P.Ellis

P.Leonard 0 – 1 T.Webster

P.Dearden 0 – 1 B.Joyce

2 – 3

After the match, despite his disappointment, Pete couldn’t hide his delight in telling me about Josh Blinkhorn’s game on board 2. Josh has had a pretty good season this year and his playing standard is developing progressively. Many of his games bare the hallmarks of his aggressive attacking style and Monday’s effort was no different. I’ve published the game in full in the viewer below but the starting position is a key moment in the game.

Early in the game Josh overlooked the threat behind 8…Qc7 and lost material as a result. This pretty much left him with only one option. Do or die attack. Pete told me that Josh had a 20 minute think before playing 20.Nf3! in the position below. It was certainly well worth spending the time for it transpires that the rook on h1 cannot be taken. To Ruud Stoelman’s great credit he spotted the trap and side-stepped it. Moment’s later the players had agreed a draw although it looks like Black’s king could have escaped the checks according to Fritz.

"Good! That's the spirit"

As it appears increasingly likely that the ‘B’ team will be getting relegated from division 1, the side’s board 2, Dave Shapland, reports on last week’s tragic battle against the dying of the light…

Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty

“At the climax of the cult sci-fi film “Bladerunner” (the link goes to a YouTube clip that includes the quote but if you haven't seen the whole film go watch it now!) the superhuman android Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) is knocking seven shades of the proverbial out of Deckard (Harrison Ford) and gleefully utters the immortal line of dialogue above as the Deckard smashes an iron bar over his enemy's head more in hope than expectation. The line, and Hauer’s grinning physog, came immediately to mind as I read a text message from Huddersfield ‘A’s team captain last week. But before we get to that, let’s rewind for a moment…

Last Thursday Hebden Bridge ‘B’ were due to travel to face champion’s elect Huddersfield. Having beaten our ‘A’ team in the last round of fixtures Huddersfield had put themselves into the box seat for the championship. Meanwhile Hebden Bridge ‘B’ were languishing in the relegation zone in desperate need of a result to climb out of the mire. Could the ‘B’ team redeem themselves and at the same time hand the initiative in the title race back to their colleagues? The chances of success were virtually zero, but sometimes in the face of adversity astounding human stories are written. Who’s to say this wouldn’t be one? We had a shot at immortality.

Then I got the phone call on Tuesday evening from our Captain. Which went something like this.

“I’ve defaulted the match on Thursday… you’re the only player we have available… we’ll have to hope we can get results out of the last two matches and scrape through.”

After he had hung up I stared at the phone. No! No, no. This wasn’t right. We couldn’t hand Huddersfield a 5-0 walk over. We might as well hand them the league trophy too. I played for the title winning ‘A’ team last season. I didn’t want Huddersfield to take it back so easily. This was too much. But what could we do? No players available! I went to bed feeling depressed.

On Wednesday morning I woke up still thinking about the default but then I had to get myself in a more positive frame of mind. I had a match for my other club in Leeds that evening. Then it hit me… could I get a team together for the following night by pulling in colleagues from Leeds? It was very short notice, but surely worth a try? One thing I’ve learned about Leeds Chess Club is that they have a sizeable pool of players and plenty of those just want to play games at every given opportunity. If I was going to do it I needed to swing into action straight away.

First things first. I called Huddersfield’s Captain, Robert Sutcliffe early on Wednesday morning to ask if he’d contacted his players to cancel the match the previous evening. Only one it turned out, and he could call him back to re-instate the match. I asked Robert to give me 24hours grace to get some sort of side together. Fortunately for me Robert is the kind of chap who’d much rather play a match than take a walk over and he accepted my proposal happily.

Now I had to get a team together. Next up I spoke to the main man at Leeds Chess Club, Tony Ibbitson. He organises the teams, manages the negotiations with the venue, sets-up out of season activities. He’d be able to help. By 10 o’clock on Wednesday morning Tony had agreed to play against Huddersfield himself and also to send an e-mail out to club members giving them a heads up.

“We’ll talk to players at the club tonight as well. We’ll definitely be able to get a team out for you” he said.

By the end of Wednesday evening I had 4 players including myself! That was enough to take to Huddersfield and Tony was very optimistic about recruiting a fifth player during the course of Thursday. I texted Robert on Thursday at lunch time to confirm that we could play the match, that we had 4 players and were trying for a fifth. Robert replied…

“No prob and very well dun – that’s the spirit!”

The game of chess does actually make an
appearance in the film when Batty assumes command of
J.F.Sebastian's pieces against Eldon Tyrell

And that’s when I thought of Roy Batty. Robert had in no way intended to be condescending towards me but the irony of this turn of phrase was not lost on me. In the film Batty knows that Deckard can’t beat him and so does Deckard. Nevertheless, Deckard fights desperately for his life as Batty toys with him. I felt a bit like Deckard did in struggling to get out a team that I knew would be weaker than our regular line up and playing against the strongest side in the division. We were going to get killed.

Thursday night came around and we did get a fifth player. I picked up 3 of the team from Huddersfield station and took them to the match to make their lives a bit easier. I owed them all several drinks. When we arrived at the venue I was very surprised to see that Huddersfield were well below their usual strength. Their board 2 player had made regular appearances on board 4 this season. That said, they still out graded us on every board by at least 20 points and on board 1 I had to face Leo Keely from whom I had not extracted even one half point in two previous attempts.

So we sat down to play and it wasn’t long before I started to feel a faint tingle of optimism. Tony was playing against David Firth on board 2 and had deployed his Black Knights Tango against Dave’s QGD. This was just what I’d hoped for and the reason I had opted to play Tony on board 2. I’ve scored well against Dave in the past with the Budapest Gambit and I was confident that Tony’s eccentric choice could undermine the grade difference between the two. In reality Dave built up a big central space advantage but, like the true hypermodernist that he is, Tony worked around the flanks and slowly wormed his way to equality. In the end Dave offered Tony a draw and Tony accepted. What a brilliant start!

Looking at the other boards at this stage of the evening I was feeling really pleased with how things were developing. We were competing well on all boards including, somewhat to my surprise, on board one! My game with Leo is given below. We debated a Meran System of the Semi-Slav which was also the battle ground for our last contest. On this occasion Leo obtained excellent chances when I went astray late in the opening but he didn’t capitalise and I ended up playing the endgame with a decent advantage.



Leo thought for a long time before accepting the draw I offered in the final position above and I could understand why because the match situation was very tight. On board 3 Dave Summerland had gotten himself into trouble against Nigel Hepworth and gone a piece down. He later regained the piece to go into a knight and pawns vs. bishop and pawns ending but sadly, he made another mistake and lost. On board 4, John Mahoney was playing Robert and had been under pressure in the opening but gradually relieved the situation and had offered a draw in the middle game. Robert declined but shortly afterwards he blundered a piece and John converted his win very smoothly. That levelled the scores and at that point I was pretty confident our board 5 player could hold a draw. It was on this basis that I had offered peace terms myself because even though I had an decent advantage I couldn’t figure out how I was going to convert it and I didn’t want to get swindled.

So it came down to board 5 with the match all square. I could never have dreamed that we’d have come so close to a result but here we were all staring intently at the game between Stuart Oliver and Phil Rhaim. Stuart was having all the fun but Phil was defending bravely and had a bit more time on his clock. I’d have been over the moon with draw and a drawn match, but unhappily, Phil couldn’t hold on and Stuart’s attack finally broke through in dramatic fashion. The final score 3-2 to Huddersfield. Unlike “Bladerunner” then, no fairy tale ending to this story, but if the ‘B’ team does go down, we’ll go down fighting to the very end.”

Here is the score card for the match:

Huddersfield ‘A’ – Hebden Bridge ‘B’

L.Keely ½ - ½ D.Shapland

D.Firth ½ - ½ T.Ibbitson

N.Hepworth 1 – 0 D.Summerland

R.Sutcliffe 0 – 1 J.Mahoney

S.Oliver 1 – 0 P.Rhaim

3 – 2