JANUARY 2020 CLINIC: KNIGHT MANOEUVRES

February 9, 2020 NigelD

The latest clinic looks at knight manoeuvres and can be access by full members here. The knight tends to be a tricky piece to manage because of its short step and need for outposts, and this is why I devote 5 lessons to the knight in the Tiger Chess strategy course.

Here's a position from one of the clinic games in which L. J. had successfully weakened White's kingside with ...Ng4, provoking g2-g3, and now commenced a powerful attack. Here's the position after White's 22nd move, Be2-g4:

Black uncorked 22... f5!, the point of which is to meet 23.Bxf5 with 23...Rxf5!. Instead the game went 23.Nc7 Qd6 24.Nxa8 fxg4 25.Nb6 Nb4 26.Qd2 Bxe4+ 27.Kh2 Bg1+ 0-1, a nice finish.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, NEWS

DECEMBER 2019 CLINIC: BEST GAMES

January 10, 2020 NigelD

The December 2019 clinic is now online and features members' best games. With 'best' games beauty tends to be in the eye of the beholder, with some liking games which feature ferocious attacks and others preferring strategic performances. Both these types are featured as well as games which combine tactics and strategy.

One of the games featured K. A. as White, and after 19 moves the following position was reached with White to play:

Here White uncorked the brilliant and crushing 20.Nd5!, and this led to a rapid victory after 20...exd5 21.Rxe8 Ne4 (21...Nxe8 22.Bxd5+ Kf6 23.Qh5! is even more crushing than 23.Qxe8) 22.Rxf8+ Kxf8 23.cxd5. Although White has only won a pawn, his position is so strong that further gains are inevitable.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, DEFENCE, MIDDLEGAMES

NOVEMBER 2019 CLINIC: GOOD DEFENCE

December 11, 2019 NigelD

The November clinic was devoted to the topic of good defence, which tends to be quite rare at amateur level. The top requirements include calculating ability, objectivity and a refusal to give in without making the best possible fight of it. There's also a need to counterattack wherever possible, which is not always easy after having been under pressure.

The following position was reached in one of the submissions, with White having just played 25.Nf3-d4 (see diagram below). What should Black now do?

The answer was the brilliant 25...g5!, which undermined White's central wedge and brought the bishop on g7 to life. After 26.Qxe4 gxf4 27.Qxf4 Ng6 28.Qe4 Qxe5 Black had broken the attack and stood better, though he narrowly failed to win.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, UPDATES

OCTOBER 2019 CLINIC: BEST GAMES

November 9, 2019 NigelD

The latest Tiger Chess clinic is now online and devoted to best games. What defines a 'good game' is largely subjective, and as always a variety of submissions was sent in. The following position was taken from the one that I liked most, with White about to play a crushing move:

White to play uncorked the devastating 23.Nxe6+. Black saw that when he takes the knight he is mated by 24.Qg6+ followed by Qh7 mate, and if he doesn't take the knight he loses his queen. For this reason Black resigned, and nobody could really blame him.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, ENDGAMES

SEPTEMBER 2019 CLINIC: ENDGAMES

October 10, 2019 NigelD

Those who understand my teaching approach will be aware of the emphasis I put on endgames. The September clinic was devoted to this phase of the game and I found the following position particularly interesting (see diagram):

In the game Black played 40...Nc5 after which 41.Kd2 Nxa4 42.Kd3 Nc5+ 43.Kc4 a6 44.bxa6 Nxa6 45.Kb5 Nc7+ 46.Kc6 Ne8 47.Kxb6 led to a draw because White can sacrifice his bishop for Black's remaining pawn. Accordingly I think that Black has better chances by trying to keep the queenside pawns on the board and force White's f-pawn to move to a light square; my line is 40...Nc3 after which 41.Kd2 Nd5 42.f5 Nf6 43.Bh3 g5 gives Black definite winning chances.

I should repeat my recommendation that nobody can go far wrong by spending some time studying endgames, and Tiger Chess has a 160 week course on this with many hours of video lessons on the endgame.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, OPENINGS, UPDATES

AUGUST 2019 CLINIC: BEST GAMES

September 8, 2019 NigelD

The August clinic is now out and can be viewed here by current full members. Amongst the games played was one in which a Tiger Chess member played the Colle System, the game starting out with the moves 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Nbd2 Bd6 7.O-O O-O 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.e4.

At club level almost nobody seems to know what to do for Black in this position, with many players opting for 9...e5. Instead of this Black played 9...Bd6 10.Re1 e5? and after 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Nc4 reached the position below:

Black is already losing a pawn because 12...f6 loses a piece after 13.Be4. Instead he opted for 12...Be7 (having used a full 40 minutes on the clock), White captured on e5 and eventually won the game.

It is games like this that have convinced me that simple and sound openings, such as the Colle System, are ideal for club players who have relatively little time to study and want to build an opening repertoire. White can also expand out into lines in which he plays c2-c4, and I'm currently working on a new openings course which will demonstrate exactly how to do this.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, NEWS

JULY 2019 CLINIC: OPEN FILES

August 9, 2019 NigelD

The July clinic is looks at open files and members can access it here. All the games involve open files in some way, either direct use of them or levering them open.

Having started playing again I used one of my own games from the South Wales International against Tim Spanton. In the position we reached after 21 moves I had managed to gain a strong position but did not see how to win:

Eventually I came up with 22.b6!?, which led to my gaining a half open b-file after 22...axb6 23.Nxb6. The point is that unlike the open d-file, this one has a nice target on b7. The game proceeded with the moves 23...Na6 24.Nd5 Qd6 25.Rab1 c4 26.Qxc4 Qxa3 27.Rxb7 Rc8 28.Nf6+ and Black resigned (1-0).

Playing for open files can be subtle, which is why the Tiger Chess Strategy Course has so many lessons devoted to it.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, ENDGAMES, NEWS

JUNE 2019 CLINIC: ENDGAMES

July 5, 2019 NigelD

The June's endgame clinic is now out and can be accessed here by full members. The endgame is one of the most important aspects of the game for those who want to improve, which is why I give it so much attention here at Tiger Chess. Not only do endgames help players to save losing positions and win drawn ones, they also benefit other aspects of our game such as calculation technique and positional play. It's no accident that several World Champions have highlighted their importance to those who want to improve.

One of the examples given was a great example of how a bishop can dominate a knight in the endgame. After 46 moves the following position had been reached:

At first it seems as if the position must be good for White due to his active king and outside passed pawn, yet due to the poor position of his knight the best he has is 47.gxf5 exf5 48.Kd5 Bb6 followed by ...g4 with a draw. In the game he tried for more with 47.f3?, but after 47...fxg4 48.fxg4 e5 found that his knight was completely boxed in. The final moves were 49.Kd5 Ka7 50.Ke4 Kxa6 51.Kf5 Kb5 52.Kg6 e4 53.Kxh6 Be3 54.Kg6 Kc4 55.Kf6 Kd5 56.Nxg5 Bxg5+ 57.Kxg5 e3 58.Kf4 e2 59.Kf5 and White resigned (0-1). Tragic but also very instructive.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, NEWS, UPDATES

MORE BEST GAMES: MAY 2019 CLINIC

June 7, 2019 NigelD

The May clinic is now online and members can access it here. Besides some excellent members games (especially by L. J.) I was asked to show a couple of my own from my recent 'comeback tournaments' in Rhyl and Crewe. Crewe was particularly successful because I managed to win the tournament with 7 straight wins and a 2850 rating performance!

Here's a position from one of the games against FIDE Master and Welsh International Jonathan Blackburn. He enterprisingly sacrificed two pieces early on, though I managed to get my king to safety by returning one of them and then took the initiative on the kingside. In the position in the diagram White had just played 22.Bc1-g5:

Here I saw that I could force mate with 22... Qxg5+ 23.Nxg5 Rxg5+ 24.Kh2 Bf2# 0-1, which my opponent was kind enough to allow.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, TACTICS

APRIL 2019 CLINIC: BEST GAMES

May 10, 2019 NigelD

The April clinic is now online here and features members 'best games'. There were quite a few submissions this time round so the May clinic will also be on the 'best games' theme.

Here is an episode from one of them which featured my son Sam playing Black. White had just played 26.Bg2-h3 to reach the following position:

Rather than move his rook, Sam played 26...Qc6 here so that after 27.Bxf5 Nxf5 he will get the knight on f3 when White moves his queen. This puts White in serious trouble after which the game continued 27.Re4 R5f7 28.Kh2 Qb6 29.Ree1 Bxf3 30.Qxf3 Bg5! 31.Re4 Bxf4+ 32.Rxf4 Rxf4 33.Bxf4 Nd5! 34.Rg1 Nxf4 35.Qg3 Qc7 36.Qg5 Kh8 37.Qg3 Ne2 0-1. This was one of his best games of the year so far with the sharp tactical finish crowning some good play earlier in the game.

Nigel Davies