I've often seen the recommendation to study historical games in order to understand how certain concepts have developed. Sometimes this can be a good idea, but only if the games concerned contain particular instructional value. Top tournaments in, say, the 19th century had a wide mix of playing strengths with many games being decided by quite elementary mistakes. There were some brilliant and instructive games but these were the exception rather than the rule.
Can historical games help us learn particular openings? The same guidance applies, that some historical games will be useful but certainly not all of them. How do you find the ones that are helpful? One of the jobs of books and video authors is to sort this out for us and the best authors will generally do a good job. Personally speaking I would not want a lot of games included that have purely historical interest, I'd much rather have games that clarified the ideas and concepts.
Are there some good examples of such books and videos? Yes, there certainly are, and I recently acquired The Modernized Italian Game for White by Alexander Kalinin and Nikolai Kalinichenko which is an excellent example. The authors include a large number of examples which illustrate the ideas and plans, many of which come from the strategically similar Ruy Lopez. I'm looking forward to reading it.
Vimeo Closing Its Video On Demand
Unfortunately Vimeo is closing its Video On Demand service in November, so I'll no longer be offering any titles through them. Those who have purchased one of my videos on this platform will be able get access to the materials at Tiger Chess by the time Vimeo closes this service. Please send me your receipts which are available here when you are logged onto your Vimeo account.
Sam's Youtube Chanel
My son Sam runs a Youtube channel in which he streams his live games on chess.com. This shows considerably more bravery than I'm able to muster, so please check it out and subscribe. I think he's doing a nice job.
Upcoming Events
This is how things look right now, with nothing in particular planned after November. If I'm invited I'll play in Nova Gorica (Slovenia) in January next year and then Maya (Portugal) in August:
October 23-25: Scarborough Congress
I've now entered this one and booked my hotel. Details can be found here.
November 2-13: European Youth Championships, Crete
I've been appointed as one of the coaches for this event, which basically rules out the English Senior Championships because the two events only have a day's break between them.
Tiger Chess Themed Training Tournaments are organized on a weekly basis at Lichess, featuring selected opening variations. You can check out what's coming up here.
Have a good weekend.
Nigel
