Category Archives: NEWS

NOVEMBER 2022 CLINIC

The November clinic featured some more games in the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, this time starting after the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5. It also featured an interesting duel between two of the regular participants in these events.

Most of the games were very hard fought, but in one of them White demonstrated some neat twists in the opening and found a devastating shot from the following position (see diagram):

OldSpeckledHen - DanStaples, White to play

White uncorked the brilliant 17.Bxg6! after which 17...hxg6 18.Qxg6 Bf8 19.exf6 Re6 20.Bxg7 forced resignation (1-0), not a difficult sacrifice but a very instructive one.

Tigerchess.com Themed Training events are a great opportunity to practice key positions from regular openings, and are open to everyone who joins the Tiger Chess Team. Participating in these events helps players develop an insight into the openings played, above and beyond looking at them in a book or on a video.

Nigel Davies

JULY 2022 CLINIC

There were more Queen's Gambits in the July clinic because games from the Tiger Chess Themed Training Tournaments on Lichess featured games from the Tartakower Variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 0-0 7.e3 b6) and the 6.Bxf6 alternative. These lines feature in Tiger Chess opening repertoire and the training tournaments give students the opportunity to practice the positions and investigate the alternatives more deeply.

In the following position HerbertChapman has been exerting some pressure, but after 21...Rad8 has the opportunity to convert this into something real. What should he play here (see diagram)?

HerbertChapman - NN, White to play.

White played 22.Nxb7!, winning an important pawn because 22...Rxb7 is met by 23.Rxd8. White showed good technique and went on to win, despite the fast time limit (1-0).

The Tigerchess.com Themed Training events are a great opportunity to practice key positions from regular openings, and are open to everyone who joins the Tiger Chess Team. Participating in these events helps players develop real insight into the openings played, above and beyond looking at them in a book or on a video.

Nigel Davies

JUNE 2022 CLINIC

June's clinic featured more games from the Tiger Chess Themed Training Tournaments on Lichess, in two different Queen's Gambit Declined lines. The starting positions were from the Tartakower Variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 0-0 7.e3 b6) and the Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with an early Nf3 by White (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nc3 c6 6.Qc2 Be7). Both of these lines feature in Tiger Chess opening repertoires, the training tournaments give students the opportunity to practice the positions.

As with last month's featured position, Dandanmian as White was conducting a minority attack as White. When the following position arose he showed good understanding in first safeguarding his king (see diagram):

Dandanmian - NN, White to play.

White's move was 18.Bf5!, which forces the exchange of light square bishops and makes it very difficult for Black to drum up kingside counter-play. The game had further ups and downs after this, but White was always better and eventually went on to win (1-0).

The Tigerchess.com Themed Training events are a great opportunity to practice key positions from regular openings, and are open to everyone who joins the Tiger Chess Team. Participating in these events helps players develop real insight into the openings played, above and beyond looking at them in a book or on a video.

Nigel Davies

MARCH 2022 CLINIC

The March Clinic is now out, featuring games with the Exchange Variation of the French Defence (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5) from two of the Tigerchess.com Themed Training team tournaments. Although this line has a drawish reputation both sides have fighting chances, and there are also a number of trappy ideas that both sides can fall into.

The following position shows one of the classic dangers for Black, that he plays ...Bc8-g4 and then has his bishop driven back with h2-h3 and g2-g4. His last move was the natural 13...c6, what did White do next (see diagram)?

Dandanmian - BalthasarII, White to play

White played 14.f4!, which is actually quite devastating because of the threat of 15.f5. Black cannot save his bishop with 14...Be4 because then 15.g5 would undermine the bishop's defender. In the game he tried 14...h6, but as the f-pawn is pinned just 15.Nxg6 won a piece and the game.

Nigel Davies

JANUARY 2022 CLINIC

A main line of the Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nc3 Be7 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.e3 O-O 8.Bd3 c6 9.Qc2 Re8 10.O-O Nf8) features in the January clinic. There were training events in this line between members of the Tigerchess.com Themed Training team which provided the material to be used

Here's a position from one of them in which it was White to play (see diagram):

Dandanmian - Aleksandr Ivanovich. White to play.

White played 19.Rxf6!, which gave him a strong attack after 19...Qxf6 20.Rf1. The game ended with the moves 20...Qg5 21.Rxf7+ Kg8 22.Rxb7 Re6 23.Ne2 Bd6 24.Nf4 Rf6 25.Nexg6 Re8 26.Ne5 Qg3 27.Qh7+ Kf8 28.Qh8+ Qg8 29.Qxf6+ 1-0.

The Tigerchess.com Themed Training events offer a valuable opportunity to practice key positions from my syllabus, and are open to everyone, not just subscribers. Those who participate in them find that the experience helps trigger valuable insights into the topic concerned, much more so than just playing through some lines in a book.

Nigel Davies

DECEMBER 2021 CLINIC

The topic for the December Clinic is the 8.Be3 Exchange Gruenfeld (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 c5 8.Be3 Qa5), the line which Vladimir Kramnik used successfully during his match against Garry Kasparov. There were training events in this line between members of the Tigerchess.com Themed Training team on the 2nd and 5th of January with a good selection of well fought games being played.

Here's a position from one of them in which it was White to play (see diagram):

Dandanmian - NN; White to play

White's move was 22.Bxc5!, which exploits the fact that the b6 pawn is pinned against the rook on b8. Black sportingly resigned at this point (1-0) because his position is hopeless.

The Tigerchess.com Themed Training events offer a valuable opportunity to practice key positions from my syllabus, and are open to everyone, not just subscribers. Those who participate in them find that the experience helps trigger valuable insights into the topic concerned, much more so than just playing through some lines in a book.

Nigel Davies

Lessons from the World Championship

I did not follow the recent World Championship match very closely but looked in from time to time to see if there was anything useful for myself or my students. I did find some interesting elements from a psychological point of view, particularly the opening choices and Jan Nepomniachtchi's reaction to game six. In the first five games it had looked quite evenly balanced but then the sixth was 7 hour 47 minutes/136 move win for Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen remarked: "I thought I should make the game as long as possible so that we would both be as tired as possible when the critical moment came."

After this there followed three wins for Carlsen and two draws, with Nepomniachtchi playing well below his best. It could reasonable be described as a collapse, and these are the lessons that I think can be learned:

1) Lengthening a game to break an opponent down psychologically is a well known approach. Many players have used it in the past but for Carlsen it appears to be his special weapon.

2) Nepomniachtchi seemed well aware that stamina could be important in long games, coming to the event looking slim and fit. Whether he was psychologically prepared for marathon torture sessions is another matter.

3) Carlsen's opening preparation vs 1.e4 was very astute; Nepomniachtchi loves the initiative which Carlsen denied him by being prepared to sacrifice a pawn with the Marshall Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6). This was probably a big surprise as Carlsen had never played that way before, and indeed the reigning Champion had evidently decided that he should keep the initiative in other positions too.

4) Nepomniachtchi's opening preparation as Black looked very professional on a technical level, but he found himself in positions that suited his opponent more than they suited him. This made me wonder if he should have eschewed his usual choices of the Gruenfeld (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5) and Sicilian (1.e4 c5), notwithstanding the fact that Carlsen would have been ready for them.

5) It could probably have been predicted that Carlsen would have something good ready for the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5), and this suggests that having an alternative weapon ready might have been useful. Indeed Garry Kasparov sidestepped Anatoly Karpov's preparation for the Ruy by using the Scotch (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4) in a number of their games.

What now for Jan Nepomniachtchi? He certainly gained many supporters with his graceful comportment during defeat, but he will need to do much more if wants to revisit the highest arena. Being able to handle events like game six seem vital when playing against Carlsen, and adding a psychological element to his opening choices would also make sense. Most of all it would make sense for him to work on the technical side of his game, Carlsen evidently felt he was stronger in positions where Nepomniachtchi was deprived of the initiative, and this gave him a clear plan of how to play the match.

Nigel Davies

SEPTEMBER 2021 CLINIC

I recently took the decision to change the clinic content so that it covers the Tiger Chess Themed Training events on Lichess. I set these events up so that students could practice important position types rather than waste time on the random mayhem that usually occurs in online games. The results have been very promising in that several people have reported increased engagement and interest in the problems after having wrestled with them in a series of games.

The first position to have been played is a key position in the Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation, arising after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e3 Be7 7.Bd3 O-O 8.Qc2 c6 9.Nf3 Re8 10.O-O Nf8. This is a very useful position from which to learn strategy because of the clarity of the pawn structure and the ease with which the different plans and ideas can be explained. Nonetheless it can prove very challenging to master as these plans come into conflict, and I am devoting the current series of webinars to its mastery.

Queen's Gambit Declined: Key Position

I will not show any highlights this time but instead list the forthcoming practice events, which are held at 8pm London (UK) time on Wednesdays and 6pm London (UK) time on Sundays:

October 10th (6pm): QGD Exchange Training

October 13th (8pm): QGD Exchange Training

October 17th (6pm): QGD Exchange Training

October 20th (8pm): QGD Exchange Training

October 24th (6pm): QGD Exchange Training

After this series the webinars will cover a new topic and new positions will be used for the training events. It will take more practice than this to get in tune with these position types, but this is at least a start.

Nigel Davies

AUGUST 2021 CLINIC

Continuing the trend of a return to 'normality', almost all of the August clinic games were played over-the-board. As always there was a lot of variety but it was good to see some excellent results for the strategic themes and openings I recommend.

Here's an example,  the following position arising after White's 28th move in a game of M. B.. Black to play continued with a plan that I use to show the value of pawn levers, the minority attack (see diagram).

NN - MB: Black to play

Black continued with 28... b4!, which leaves White with serious weaknesses regardless of what he does. The game continued 29.axb4 axb4 30.Rac1 Ra2 31.cxb4 Rxc1 32.Rxc1 Rxb2 33.Rd1 Rxb4 34.g3 Kf6! 35.Kg2 Kf5 36.f3 Rb2+ 37.Kg1 g5 38.hxg5 hxg5 39.Rd3 f6 40.Kf1 e5 41.dxe5 Kxe5 42.Kg1 d4 43.Ra3 Kd5 44.Ra5+ Kc4 45.Ra6 d3 0-1.

Although this is a standard plan, being able to implement it with confidence is important, much more so than the rote memorization of opening moves.

Nigel Davies

JULY 2021 CLINIC

The July clinic featured over the board games, which was a pleasant change after the the previous 16 months. Online chess is a poor substitute for the real thing, and not least because engine use is far more widespread that anyone wants to admit. Those who are caught are just the visible part of the iceberg and those who are named suffer humiliation and potential career damage.

The first four games were endgames, something that is encouraged here because it good endgame play is such a fundamental skill. The fifth game was a nice win by M. B. who successfully exploited the weaknesses in his opponent's kingside (see diagram).

M. B. - A. N. Other; White to play

White to play commenced his attack with 21.Ng4!, threatening a fork on f6. The game proceeded with the moves 21...Rf8 22.Qe5! Qb7 23.Nf6+ Kh8 24.Nd7+ ( 24.Rd7 Qb6 25.Nd5+ was crushing, but the move played is quite enough) 24...Kg8 25.Nxf8 Rxf8 26.Qxc5 1-0

Nigel Davies