How ideas in chess repeat!

We have all been drawn to studying openings - tons of them- as we feel that the position we are studying might come on the board anytime. Youngsters love to do tactics, they revise their openings and play lots of games. How about studying games of others? Or as Sagar Shah would say "Learn from the Classics"? Well, that's the most difficult part. Somehow it is difficult to understand how an idea seen in someone's game can be used in one's own game. Many youngsters with curious mind ask this question "Why should I study this game? I will never get the same position!" The reality is that chess ideas often repeat and my eyes glitter when I see an idea I already know in practice!

The above was my tweet on 13th August, 2016 after I saw a wonderful game by our little genius Praggnanandhaa (for the record, I have learnt a lot from his games!). Pragg had beaten GM Krejci beautifully, although he did miss something pointed out by my favorite Jan Gustaffson (I am a big fan of commentary of the duo Jan Gustaffson and Peter Svidler from chess24). The idea Pragg missed was beautiful and it made a big impression in my mind. You can watch Jan's chess24 video here.

So basically I had seen an idea on 13th August 2016 and magically got to execute something similar 10 days later in Abu Dhabi about which I tweeted later. Also, my good friend Sagar Shah recorded this video in ChessBase India youtube channel where I explain my game.

The above is my tweet in the year 2016. Why am I writing about something so old now? Well, it has some relevance to a recent game in Tata Steel Challengers, 2019!

First let us understand the idea missed by Pragg in his game against Krejci as explained by Jan in chess24's youtube channel.

Jan's question- White to play and win. What did Pragg miss?

The solution is Qd1 Qxd1 Rxd1 and white wins as mate threatened on d8 cannot be stopped by the misplaced e7 rook. Note the deadly bishop on the h5-e8 diagonal which keeps a watch on the rook.
Now if you again look at my tweet above, you will understand what I learnt and how I used it in my game. I got the same piece placement- my bishop on the h5-e8 diagonal with a deadly check on the 8th rank which the rook on e7 could not defend.

Now let us look at Pragg's first win in Tata Steel Challengers, 2019.

The above is the final position of the game Praggnanandhaa-Kuipers Stefan, round-7.

Pragg has just played 23.c3 and his opponent resigned. We mortals still have to work out why black resigned, so I analysed a little further. 23...Nxe5 24.fxe5 Rxf2 25.Qxf2 Nc6 and here 26.Rf1 would bring us to the following position.

This is how the final position would look like! Does it ring a bell?

When I saw this final position coming, I told myself "this time Pragg didn't miss the idea!" Mate on the 8th rank, helpless rook on e7 and bishop on the h5-e8 diagonal, paralysing the rook!! Ideas repeat, don't they?

Today morning I woke up and saw a message from a friend- "Check Pragg vs Chigaev, your DVD idea"! I immediately opened the followchess app and was so happy to see this position-

This game was played yesterday in the 10th round of Tata Steel Challengers. Black to play and win.

In my ChessBase DVD, "Strengthen your chess foundation", I had shown a few key positions with rook's pawn and wrong squared bishop, as shown to me by my coach Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay. I had mentioned that the bishop on the h4-e1 diagonal wins without the help of own king. This brings us to the solution of the above diagram as played by Chigaev. He went 45...Bg3!! 46. Kf3 Be1. Now the bishop was in the right diagonal, the black king went on to stop White's queenside pawns and Black soon won.

This was the final position of the game. Black had stopped all white pawns and so white resigned. It is important to remember that with White king on f3, Black's pawn h3, Bh4 wins without the king's help. This idea is definitely known for ages and it is not important from where you learn this idea- some old books, my DVD, my blog or even by word of mouth. Important is to remember the idea and use it when time comes!

Now let me show you an example from my recent game but first you must see the source game.

The above is a clip from Sagar Shah's ChessBase DVD "Learn from the Classics". I had written a review of the DVD, so obviously I had absorbed the material well. The position is from the famous game Bobotsov-Petrosian. Sagar explains the importance of the knight on d6- it stops white's b5 break in the queenside and supports b7. Later Black goes for attack on the kingside and wins. Some years later Portisch-Kasparov was also played with similar ideas and Sagar shows that game saying how Kasparov used Petrosian's idea in his own game. I wouldn't lie by saying that this idea or these games were unknown to me before I saw Sagar's DVD. Due to 30 years' of chess experience, obviously I have come across a lot of classics but Sagar's DVD was a reminder of what I knew. Also his explanations are easy to understand and his love of the game is seen in the videos and that makes an impression and helps me to remember the ideas. You can say that his DVD reinforced the ideas I already knew. To be honest, we know many ideas in chess and life, we just forget to implement the right one at the right time and some reminders to us by way of books or DVDs are always useful!

Genish Prakash- IM Mohota Nisha, National Senior, Jammu, India.

The above is my game from National Seniors in India in December 2018. It was the 11th round and I was black against talented Genish Prakash. As the whole world knows, India's lower rated youngsters are the most dangerous. One tournament you play them, they are 1900, next year you play them, they cross 2300 or more! Still, you can never be happy with an equal position. I was a little worried here. How to make progress? Suddenly I remembered the idea of putting my knight on d6! The next few moves were 16.b4 Nb6 17.Nd2 Nc8 18.Rab1 Nd6!

I was so happy to get the position I had learnt from the Classics! I often repeat some clips from Sagar's DVD as I like the way he explains and they work as a reminder of the ideas to me. (Btw, everyone will be surprised but it is true that I often repeat my own DVD, ...I am not born with a photo memory but hardwork is in my hands!).

In the next few moves, I built up a king side attack, just the way I had seen in the games of Petrosian and Kasparov. The next few moves were (probably not everything is accurate and best, if you want accuracy, see games of Carlsen, not mine!) 19.a4 a6 20.Nb3 Qe7 21.Qd3 Qg5 22.Nd2 h5 23.Nf3 Qh6 24. Re1 f6 25.Nd2 Re7 26.Re2 Rae8 27.Rbe1 h4 28.h3 f5 29.Nf3 g5 30.Ne5 g4 31.hg4 h3 32.f3 Rg7 33.gf5 Rg3 34.Ng4 Rg4 35.fg4 h2 36.Kh1 Ne4 37.g3 Nxg3 38. Kg2. The following position was reached.

This was the critical moment of the game. Black to play. What will you do?

I had less time in the clock and the position needed accuracy. I considered 3 ideas- A)38...h1=Q 39.Rxh1 Nh1 B)38...h1=Q 39.Rxh1 Qxh1 and C) 38...Qh4. I could not calculate and evaluate the resulting position with accuracy in the short time that I had. Probably you will do better.

I went wrong with 38...h1=Q? 39.Rxh1 Qxh1? and managed to draw just because my opponent was okay to draw with 40.Kg3 Qg1 41.Kf3 Qf1. Had he played 41.Rg2 (the point is that for 41...Rxe3, White has 42.Kf4! winning) I would be in a complete mess.

However, had I played the correct 38...Qh4!, which I rejected even after seeing, I could boast of this game as a perfect example of using the Classics! After Qh4, g4 falls and white's position is completely gone. Lesson learnt, I got to calculate fast! Time pressure doesn't help.

I hope the examples given by me in this article are able to give the message I want to deliver- ideas do repeat in chess! There is a bundle of knowledge everywhere around us- ChessBase DVDs, chess24 videos, chess.com,youtube channels, articles here and there, all we need is to store the ideas in our head and wait for the right moment to execute them!

EKA-IIFL Wealth 4th Mumbai International Chess Tournament- setting new standards!

India's commercial capital, Mumbai, (formerly known as Bombay) happens to be one of my favorite cities. The weather is warm, the people more so! It's a city where you can live life the way you want. People work hard on the weekdays and enjoy harder during the weekends. It's a happening city where (as the famous Anupam Kher would say) "kuch bhi ho sakta hai!" (anything can happen!). An ordinary man can turn a star overnight and a star can come down to the streets in no time - such is Aamchi (our) Mumbai! I believe in wonders, so such cities full of possibilities attract me!

It was around the end of November. I had just returned from my Senior Women Nationals and had been browsing through different tournament dates and circulars. The IIFL Mumbai International Chess tournament circular caught my attention. I have known the organiser, Praful Zaveri, for more than two decades now - he had been very supportive at the time of my recruitment in my first office, Life Insurance Corporation of India, back in the year 2000! Obviously I had great faith in Praful's organisational abilities and so I looked further in the circular. Something caught my eyes.

I rubbed my eyes! Did I read it right? The best female prize was Rs.75,000/-!! (around 925 euros!). That moment it seemed to me that this IIFL Wealth Mumbai Chess was the Indian version of Gibraltar International Chess Festival! Gibraltar was the first tournament to point out that for every successful tournament, there has to be good women prizes and participation of women players! No wonder, today Gibraltar is the most sought-after tournament in the world! I was extremely happy to see the women prizes in the IIFL Mumbai circular. I have always felt that more than anything else, women need respect and encouragement, in personal life and in the professional field. The prize money for women here catered to both the needs!

IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Chess has been setting new standards since the very inception! At first, the organisational novelty of introducing a tournament for the under-13 section was a bold and interesting idea back in 2015! To be honest, if young aspirants asked me for recommendation for tournaments in India, I landed in a difficult situation. (But not any more!) Yes, there are many tournaments below 1400 or below 1600 rating (but 3 rounds a day mostly!) or you might just say, play the open and improve- that's what I did as a kid! Many talents have come out from these open tournaments. However, one needs to understand that not every kid is a Pragg or Nihal or Gukesh. Many kids are talented in general but need some special motivation to keep them glued to chess. When I was a kid, what worked for me was that I was better than the rest and that motivated me to enjoy chess more! I feel the Under-13 section of the tournament is a great platform for aspiring kids- awesome prizes, one round a day, presence of the cream of Indian chess youngsters, international hall and standards!

Another great move made this year was-

The Indian non-titled players were strictly restricted below 2100. Foreign players were allowed as it helps in norm possibilities.

 The above was my comment to the ChessBase India article of Praful on the tournament and it clearly suggests itself. We did have some cut off tournaments in India on paper but most of them were not strictly speaking cutoff, often allowing a lot of exceptions!

I was really looking forward to the tournament and the above is my facebook post prior to the start of the event. I am known to be very honest and straight forward and most of the Indian organisers have friendly relations with me. So I am sure many would have thought why I consider this tournament to be the strongest. I can explain this. The lower limit cut off to 2100 combined with a total number of entry as only 120 in the Grandmasters' section is a dream for me for any tournament! For someone new to the chess world, this might sound strange. Aren't we supposed to measure a tournament's success by the number of players? I would say a clear no! Yes, on a broader level we want chess to spread, we want every Indian and every human in the world to be able to play chess and appreciate it but we do not want a fish market in a tournament! The lesser the players (and specially with lower limit cut-off), the stronger is the tournament. With lesser players, one tends to meet strong opposition everyday and even if one loses one round, one can win the next and make up for the rating loss and be back in the race. When there are hundreds of players, you lose a game and then you keep paying a big price for the next 3-4 rounds till you get back stronger opposition again!

The tournament had a new venue this year - the World Trade Centre with 25,000 square feet area- which meant good space for players and also for the guardians to wait while their little ones make the right moves! There was an Open Event going parallel to our GM event and I was surprised to see so many young girls taking part in it! It is very nice to see that chess is becoming a very important sport in Mumbai!

This year there were four events held in the "Mumbai festival"- Under 13, GM, Open and a blitz. India's pride,our one and only Vishwanathan Anand, is the patron of the event and the simul by Anand on the last day to the youngsters adds a special colour to the event! Next year there is going to be an extra addition, a women's event, as told by Praful and we will really look forward to the event!

The lucky few who got to play a simul with Anand! (Photo courtesy the facebook page of the organisers)

What could be improved for the next edition? Probably the addition of a wall clock somewhere in the tournament hall :) Watches and cell phones are not allowed in chess tournaments, so a wall clock is a necessity!

What was my kuch bhi ho sakta hai moment in the tournament? I guess I was leading among the women after the penultimate round but lost the last round to GM Atilia Czebe of Hungary. I was sad that I lost the first women prize of Rs.75,000 and will end up getting no prize! I thought that the loss had pushed me far behind in the ranking. Later my good friend Mrs. Bhagyashree Thipsay gave me the good news that I won the 3rd prize among women. I was richer by Rs.25,000/-. Another reason to thank the prize structure!

The best women prize winners (photo taken from the facebook page of the organisers). WIM Varshini played an excellent tournament, made a WGM norm and deservingly won the best woman prize. My good friend WGM Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva of Uzbekistan won the second prize and yours faithfully, the third! We are with the pillars of Indian chess by our sides, Sri Bharat Singh Chauhan and Sri DV Sundar. Both of them have worked very hard to make chess and chess players reach where they are today.

IM Rishi Sardana from Australia won the GM event, although, I do not intend to write a tournament report here. My intention is to write what I like about this event. I am hoping that more organisers in India conduct such tournaments for us with a rating cut-off and with a limit to the total number of players. If we have many such tournaments in India, it will save a couple of lacs of my bank balance which I spend in trips abroad every year!

I am back in my house in Kolkata but I miss the warm Mumbai and the warmth of the people there! I look forward to the next edition of the tournament in December this year with even greater participation of our top women players!