Category Archives: NEWS

NEWS, PSYCHOLOGY, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

TEAM EVENTS

I came home from Poland last Monday, after my team won Gold in the European Senior Championships. I also got a silver for my board with 3 wins and 4 draws, 3 of the draws being against the German Grandmaster Raj Tischbierek. The 50+ event only attracted 8 teams, which led to there being an unusual schedule of an 8 team all-play all followed by a 2 round play-off in which the first two teams played each other, then 3 and 4, 5 and 6 etc.

This may be my last outing in Senior Teams chess as there might not be funding and I might not be selected. If so then I'll leave it with a solid track record of 15 wins, 20 draws and no losses. When I've played for the first team we always won a medal and I was always in the top 3 for my board.

Team events are not for everyone but I seem to do quite well in them. There's additional pressure, especially if you represent your country, and some players struggle to cope with this. You also need to play for the team, rather than yourself, and this may include forgoing personal ambitions in order to ensure the team does well. In the 2024 European Senior Championships I offered a draw vs Chris Duncan in a winning position so as to bring the team gold, and this time I saw my job as just to neutralise Tischbierek when beating him would have given me gold for my board. This too helped ensure that England won gold as the Germans needed to beat us heavily in order to snatch the title.

There are also some positive aspects of playing for a team in the camararderie and shared purpose. When I was pursuing the Grandmaster title in the 1990s, I often found myself eating alone for the entire tournament.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments return to the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, which is my main recommendation for White in the White 1.d4 Repertoire course

Sunday April 20th at 5pm UK Time: QGD Exchange with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nc3 c6

Sunday April 20th at 6.15pm UK Time: QGD Exchange with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nc3 c6 6.Qc2 Be7 7.Bg5 Nbd7 8.e3 0-0 9.Bd3 Re8

My Upcoming Events

I've now received an invitation to the English Senior Championships, which is something I wanted to play in. I'm still hoping to invited to Maia in August but I've yet to hear back.

Here is how things look right now:

April 24-28 2025: English Senior Championships

I've been invited to these and will play in the 50+ event. You can find details here. 

May 10 - 11 2025: Nottingham Congress

I've entered this one because they offer free entry for GMs, plus if I take a bye in the first round I can get away with one night in a hotel. You can find details here.

June 21-22 2025: Ilkley Congress

As with Nottingham this is just two days, I was given a free entry and I can take a first round bye. So I'll manage to keep my costs down to one night in a hotel and petrol for getting there, this stuff is important. You can find details here.

July 31 - August 10 2025: British Championships
As mentioned above I've entered without an invite. I've also gone for the Championship itself rather than one of the old folks sections. Obviously this will be full of underrated juniors, I'll just have to play better against them this time! You can find details here.

August 21 - 30 2025: Maia Chess Festival (?)

I've played in the last couple of events and I'm hopeful that I'll be asked back. The dates are now out.

September 5-7: Hull 4NCL Congress

I'm a big fan of 4NCL Congresses because they are played in nice venues, they're invariably well organized and they offer free entry and accommodation to GMs. You can find details here:

I'll be looking for things after September, not sure when or where!

Twitch Channel

My new Twitch channel will have new shows every Monday ('Chess Questions Answered), the Webinar on training tournaments and games is up on Fridays. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area, even when they are no longer available on Twitch.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

NEWS

WORLD SENIOR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS

The World Senior Team Championships ended with England retaining their 65+ title but missing out on a medal in the 50+. They needed to beat Kazakhstan in the last round to get bronze, but finished with a 2-2 draw. This meant that England 2, where I was playing board 1, even caught them on match points.

I personally managed to score and unbeaten 7/9, gaining around 15 rating points. My improved performance was largely down to concentration and calculation training, the unexpected part of which is solving Shogi Tsume puzzles. The concentration required with these seems to have jolted my brain out of atrophy, I found myself calculating surprisingly well and gained confidence as a result.

In last week's newsletter I suggested that the powerful US team were favourites, and in the end they managed to pip Italy at the post to get gold. Meanwhile the Kazakhstan team got bronze, had they beaten England 1 in the last round they would have been the champions.

There has been some controversy over the selections for the 50+ first team, but I think they made sense at the time and the team played pretty well. Note that the powerful Iceland team also faltered, despite excellent previous results in these events.
 

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments feature another two lines from the Building an Opening Repertoire course, this time from White's perspective:

Sunday March 2nd at 5pm UK Time: Colle vs KID with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.e3 d6

Sunday March 2nd at 6.15pm UK Time: Colle vs Gruenfeld with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.e3 d5

My Upcoming Events

Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day:

April 4-14 2025: European Senior Team Championship

I finally got confirmation that I'll be in the 50+ 1st team, apparently on board 3 of a team that includes Michael Adams, John Emms, myself, Steve Dishman and Graeme Buckley.

April 24-28 2025: English Senior Championships

I'm hoping to be invited to these and may now be eligible for either section. You can find details here. 

July 31st - 10th August 2025: British Championships
These have now been confirmed for Liverpool on these dates, you can find details here. If I get invited to play in the main Championships, I'll probably accept. Otherwise I'm eligible for both the 50+ and 65+ sections, and should have a chance of doing well in either.

There will probably be one or two events between April and the end of July, it's important to keep playing in order to maintain good form.

Twitch Channel

My new Twitch channel has new shows every Monday ('Chess Questions Answered), the Webinar on training tournaments and games is up on Fridays and another weekly coming soon. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area, even when they are no longer available on Twitch.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

CLINIC, NEWS, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

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

CLINIC, NEWS, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED

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

CLINIC, NEWS, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED

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

CLINIC, FRENCH DEFENCE, NEWS, OPENINGS, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS

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

CLINIC, NEWS, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS

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

CLINIC, NEWS

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

ARTICLES, NEWS, OPENINGS

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

CLINIC, NEWS, OPENINGS, PATTERN RECOGNITION, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TIGER CHESS WEBINARS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

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