Category Archives: POSITIONAL PLAY

OPENINGS, POSITIONAL PLAY, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

OPPOSITE COLOUR BISHOPS

The former World Champion, Boris Spassky, once described his marriage to his first wife Larissa as 'like opposite colour bishops'. In the chess World this picturesque metaphor became a way of describing marital estrangement, the opposite colour bishops move on different colour squares and in no way interact.

From the perspective of chess strategy, opposite colour bishops have some interesting features. Pure pawn endgames are notoriously drawish because opposite colour bishops can help blockade otherwise dangerous passed pawns. Yet when you start to add more pieces, such bishops tend to favour the side with the initiative because they help a player attack things that cannot be defended.

In a tournament in Budapest, in 1987, I witnessed a game between Stefan Kindermann and Mikhail Gurevich which made a deep impression on me. At first sight it seemed that White had the better game, but then Black brought his pieces to bear on the vulnerable f2 pawn and eventually even won. At the time of this game Gurevich was not widely known, but within a few years he became recognized as one of the best players in the World.

This and two other opposite colour bishop games were included in this week's webinar, which can be viewed by Tiger Chess standard and premium members. Premium members also get access to the complete archive.

Training Tournaments

Richard is doing a great job of running these, introducing a slightly longer time limit and starting some of them from the initial position or just a single first move. Here are the ones that are currently scheduled:

Sunday January 25th, 5pm UK Time King's Indian Attack French

Sunday January 25th, 6.15pm UK Time: French Classical

Sunday February 1st, 5pm UK Time Colle System

Sunday February 1st, 6.15pm UK Time: Torre Attack

Video Discounts

This week's discount is 40% off Learning from the Greats: Mikhail Botvinnik using the code 'jan23to31'. Botvinnik was a great master of the endgame and introduced a number of new methods including deep research into different opening systems. These insights would later to transmitted to one of his students, the formidable Garry Kasparov.

Last week's discount was 40% off Learning from the Greats: Anatoly Karpov using the code 'jan16to24', which is still valid until tomorrow. Anatoly Karpov is widely acknowledged as having been one of the greatest players in history, in this series of videos I examine Karpov's style and strengths, showing what can be learned from him.

Upcoming Events

I'm currently playing in Nova Gorica, in Slovenia shortly, one of my favourite tournaments in one of my favourite countries. I've also signed up for a 4NCL Congress over Easter, and now understand that I'll be playing for the England 50+ first team in the World Senior Team Championships in April. I might look for another weekend event in February or March.

January 23-30: Nova Gorica

A very nice and well organized event that starts today! Details can be found here.

April 3 - 6: 4NCL Easter Congress, Daventry

I try to make most of the 4NCL Congresses because I like them so much. This one is 7 rounds, and played over Easter weekend.

April 18 - 29: World Senior Team Championships, Durres, Albania
I've had confirmation that I'll be in the 50+ first team for this one.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

BUILDING AN OPENING REPERTOIRE, OPENINGS, POSITIONAL PLAY, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

STUDYING OPENINGS WITHOUT DATABASES

This week's Chess Questions Answered video explained an alternative way to use HIARCS Chess Explorer without recourse to a database of games. By using an online book and an engine, you already have enough to build your opening repertoire, and I understand that this kind of approach is the way things are heading amongst professional players. I did add that databases of correspondence games can be a useful addition, provided these games were played with the use of engines.

So is there any use at all for games databases? Most definitely there is, but mainly selecting some well played games and going through them to understand middlegame strategy. One thing that I've often done is to print out a bunch of games in an opening I wanted to play, and then play through them using an actual chess set. This makes the experience far more memorable than playing through them using the right hand arrow button in a computer database.

Are databases the only way to select such games? Certainly they make it easy to find interesting games in a particular opening, but chess books (the kind made of paper) have their advantages too. One of the biggest ones is that they will often have been annotated by famous players, and as a labour of love.

Training Tournaments

Sunday's training tournaments are in the Catalan (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7) and King's Indian Attack (1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 e6 4.0-0 Be7), this King's Indian Attack set-up also having the potential to reach a Catalan. These lines were covered from Black's perspective in the Building an Opening Repertoire course and the Black Queen's Gambit Declined Repertoire.

Sunday December 14th at 5pm UK Time: Catalan

Sunday December 14th at 6.15pm UK Time: King's Indian Attack
 

Video Discounts

This week's discount is 40% off Mastering Key Pawn Structures: ZOOM Formations, using the code 'dec19to27'. This video series will consider ZOOM formations, which typically arise from the Gruenfeld Defence and Catalan Opening, and which were covered by Stefan Zeuthen and Bent Larsen in the classic book 'ZOOM 001: Zero Hour for Operative Opening Models'.

Last week's discount was 40% off buying the Black Queen's Gambit Declined Repertoire using the code 'dec12to20' on checkout, and it is still valid until tomorrow. This is an advanced, stand-alone opening course based around the Tartakower Variaton (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nf3 h6 6.Bh4 0-0 7.e3 b6) and the Semi-Tarrasch Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 c5 or 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 c5). It features 14 hours of video which explain key games, and has a pgn (portable game notation) file of recommended variations that can be built upon and extended.

My Upcoming Events

I'll be playing in Nova Gorica, in Slovenia next month, one of my favourite tournaments in one of my favourite countries. I'm also hoping to play in the World Senior Team Championships in April, but would need to be invited!

January 23-30: Nova Gorica

A very nice and well organized event, details can be found here.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

HOW TO, OPENINGS, PAWN LEVERS, POSITIONAL PLAY, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

GUESSING THE MOVE WITH SOFTWARE

One of the best known training techniques is to try guessing the move of one of the players in well played games. In my youth I did a lot of this, using books and then covering up the next move. It's a way to engage with going through a game, rather than just playing through the moves.

Can this be done more easily with chess software? I believe that it can, though there's a danger that you can end up making superficial guesses to get the task over with quickly. Perhaps some people might be disciplined enough to slow down on purpose, others might need some assistance, for example by writing their moves and reasoning down. If you can slow down then the use of software can have distinct advantages, for example you can use an engine to guage the strength of your guess vs the one that was actually played.

Which software is best? Personally I'm a big fan of HIARCS Chess Explorer, and both the regular and pro versions are great for this kind of training. There's other software too, for example I understand that Fritz allows this kind of training as do various web sites (Chess Tempo and Chess Games, for example). I have not tested them myself, but perhaps they will work for you.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments are in slightly less usual lines of the Carlsbad structure, after 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nc3 they will start from the positions after 5...Bb4 and 5...a6. This position type is covered in Mastering Key Pawn Structures: The Carlsbad Formation as well as the White 1.d4 Repertoire.

Sunday October 12th at 5pm UK Time: QGD Ragozin with 5...Bb4

Sunday October 12th at 6.15pm UK Time: QGD Janowsky with 5...a6
 

Video Discounts

This week's discount iss 40% off buying Mastering Key Pawn: The Carlsbad Formation, using the code 'oct10to18'. This structure can be seen as a touchstone for understanding planning and strategy, so learning more about it has great value.

Last week's discount is 40% off buying the Crafting Your Own Opening Repertoire series, using the code 'oct3to11. In the four parts I include coverage of opening selection, choosing sources and assembling your lines. 

My Upcoming Events

After Tenerife cancellation, I've accepted an invitation to the Scarborough congress, largely because my wife enjoyed going there last year. This is the only thing I have planeed right now, though I might also play in the Bolton Rapidplay in December.

October 24-26: Scarborough Congress
I played in this last year and it's a popular event. Details can be found here.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

BUILDING AN OPENING REPERTOIRE, OPENINGS, POSITIONAL PLAY, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

THINGS ARE DIFFERENT AT CLUB LEVEL

One of the problems with many chess products is that they are pitched at the wrong level for the intended audience. Club players, for example, fall largely in the 1400 to 2000 bracket, with some outliers on either side of this. The authors, on the other hand, fall largely in the 2300 to 2700 bracket, again with some outliers on either side. This kind of gulf is obviously going to be a problem unless the authors have a very good understanding of what their audience needs. It should be clear that it isn't 30 moves of theory, but all too often that's what their books and videos contain.

I am also guilty, at least to some extent. When commissioned to write books, for example, I've often gone beyond what the target audience needs. Yes I try to provide explanations and present simpler lines where possible, but I know only too well that I'm not addressing the lines that club players will face in their games. In the Sicilian, for example, it's rare for club players to play the open lines with 2.Nf3 and 3.d4. Far more likely is the Grand Prix Attack, with 2.Nc3 and 3.f4, or maybe the Alapin with 2.c3. The 3.Bb5 lines have received a lot of coverage in different opening repertoires, so these are also played quite a lot.

What will you find in the books? Well my new book on the Accelerated Dragon (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6) was devoted mainly to the open lines (2.Nf3 and 3.d4) but just a few pages to 2.Nc3 and 3.f4 and the other sidelines. What's my excuse for this imbalance? Well actually it's unusual to devote any space to sidelines, readers will usually be directed to another book. I'm also guilty of presenting some long variations in my section on the Maroczy Bind (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.c4), but I'd argue that Black's best defence demands this level of coverage. Not that any of this will happen in club games.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments are in the French Defence, one of the most solid defences to 1.e4 which also offers chances of counterplay:

Sunday June 1st at 5pm UK Time: QGD 5.Bg5 Be7

Sunday June 1st at 6.15pm UK Time: Meran 5.e3 Bd6

My Upcoming Events

There's nothing new from last week.I'm still thinking about playing in the World Senior Championships in Gallipoli in October, if I win enough money to fund it.

Here is how things look now:

June 13-15 2025: South Lakes Congress
I've added this one to my schedule, mainly as a warm-up for Cesme. You can find details here.

June 23-29 2025: 11th Cesme International Open
This strong open event, in Izmir in Turkey, promises to be a real challenge. I'll be going a couple of days early because I can get a cheap flight, but the city looks very interesting and well worth a visit.

July 31 - August 10 2025: British Championships
As mentioned I've 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 23 - 30 2025: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife
This looks like a great event and I'm really looking forward to it. Travelling back is a bit tricky because the direct flights were very expensive, finally I found a flight back to Glasgow from where I can take a train!

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

ARTICLES, COACHING, FRENCH DEFENCE, POSITIONAL PLAY, PSYCHOLOGY, TRAINING

HOW TO BEAT GEN CHESSABLE

One of the most dramatic changes in chess has been the advent of Gen Chessable, by which I mean the generation of players who are learning openings by repeating moves from Chessable courses. For those who have the stomach for this kind of work this can be a fast track to having very good opening play. At the same time I believe it leaves some serious weaknesses in its wake.

The major issue is that rote memorization of computer generated lines does not particularly foster a deep understanding. So if an opponent varies, players relying mainly on memorization may not be able to improvise effectively. This means that their opponents might do well to steer clear of big forcing lines in which there are long series of 'best' moves, instead they might go for less charted territory in which there are plenty of playable options.

There are quite a few suitable vehicles for this approach, mainly closed openings in which manoeuvres take place behind lines of pawns. One good example is the Eastern Clamp Sicilian in which White meets 1.e4 c5 with 2.d3 followed by 3.f4. Another is the Old Indian Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6), which hands White some space but is almost entirely reliant on plans and understanding. Almost all the Flank Openings are eminently suitable, and I would recommend 1.g3, for example.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments return to the Eastern Clamp Sicilian, which is an excellent line for those wishing to avoid theory. The two tournaments feature the following move orders:

Sunday March 16th at 5pm UK Time: Eastern Clamp with 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 d5

Sunday March 16th at 6.15pm UK Time: Eastern Clamp with 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 g6

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'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. Hopefully I can continue the good form from the World Senior Team Championships and help the team to one of the top places.

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

MIDDLEGAMES, OPENINGS, POSITIONAL PLAY, TIGER CHESS THEMED TRAINING TOURNAMENTS, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING

THE EASTERN CLAMP ANTI-SICILIAN

This week I published a first series of videos on of a new set of 1.e4 openings for White. I had previously balked at the idea of doing so as I felt that 1.e4 was too chaotic to allow the assimilation of positional ideas and too theoretical for amateurs to play with confidence. I changed my mind after discovering 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4, which I've dubbed The Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian. 

What's the idea behind this line? There are several. In the late 1980s I used to play 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.g3 in order to get a Closed Sicilian but without White's knight on c3. However I struggled against 3...d5 4.Nd2 Nf6 5.Bg2 e5 6.Ngf3 Be7; White's position is playable here but he's certainly not better. Reluctantly I gave it up and started using 1.d4 and Flank Openings instead, but I wish I'd taken a closer look at 3.f4. Yuri Balashov, a Closed Sicilian aficionado, was already playing this in the 1980s and it was also being advocated by Mikhail Shereshevsky, a famous coach. White takes central space, and the onus is on Black to try and offset this somehow.

From an amateur's perspective the advantage of this line is that it does not require a lot of theoretical knowledge, or any updates of such knowledge on an ongoing basis. It can be played mainly with ideas and plans, and the one sharp line looks rather dubious for Black. There are other low maintainance lines with 1.e4 and I will be covering more of these over the coming months. As an example, the Caro-Kann (1.e4 c6 2.d3 d5) can be met with 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3, the strategically clear Exchange Variation.
 

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments feature the Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian, with two major branches from Black:

Sunday February 16th at 5pm UK Time: Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian with 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 d5

Sunday February 16th at 6.15pm UK Time: Eastern Clamp Anti-Sicilian with 1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4 g6

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:

February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.

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, POSITIONAL PLAY

SEPTEMBER 2022 CLINIC

In the September clinic there are games from the Kasparov line of the Rubinstein French (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 and now 7.c3) and the Semi-Tarrasch (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c5). As usual, the games were taken from the Tiger Chess Themed Training Tournaments on Lichess, which are unrated and offer a chance to practice some key opening positions from Tiger Chess opening repertoires.

Here's a position from one of the games, Black has just played 22...e6-e5, a positional mistake which White now exploited. What would you do (see diagram)?

White played 23.g4!, sealing Black's pawns on dark squares so he could later penetrate with his king on the light squares. The game continued 23... Rh8 24.Bd2 h5 25.Rh3 h4 26.Rf3 f6 27.c4 Rd8 28.Rd3 b5 29.cxb5+ axb5 30.Rxd8 Bxd8 31.Kd3 Kd5 32.f3 h3 33.a4 bxa4 34.bxa4 Bc7 35.Be3 Ba5 36.Bf2 Bc7 37.Be1 Bb6 38.a5 Ba7 39.a6 Bb6 40.Bd2 Kc6 41.Be3 e4+ 42.Kxe4 Bc7 43.f4 Bd6 44.Kf3 Bb8 45.a7 1-0, which was a nice and strategically consistent win.

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

BUILDING AN OPENING REPERTOIRE, FRENCH DEFENCE, POSITIONAL PLAY

FEBRUARY 2019 CLINIC: POSITIONAL PLAY

Positional play is a major focus here at Tiger Chess. When I started teaching chess to club players in the 1990s, this was one of the areas which I felt was least developed, so I set about creating a course which focused heavily on this aspect of chess. Originally I sent this out as a correspondence course over a two year period, and a cut down version of this was later published as The Power Chess Program in a two book form. Its latest incarnation is the Tiger Chess Strategy Course which is available to members with 160 weekly lessons.

This work was later supplemented by opening repertoires which helped players use some of the strategic themes presented, including the Building an Opening Repertoire course for both Black and White, and more recently a specialist course on the French Defence. This summer I will be bringing out another course, this time for White, which will present an economical 1.d4, 2.Nf3 and 3.c4 repertoire in which the focus will be on strategy rather than computer generated variations which are very difficult for players to remember.

The February clinic was devoted to positional play in which five games were presented, four by members together with one of my own. Positional play is often misunderstood at club level and is perhaps best thought of as operations with the pawns. The following position provided a good illustration:

N.C. versus . N. Other

White to play used a thematic pawn lever with 36.a5!, undermining the pawn on b6. Black's position collapsed quite quickly after this, the game finishing with the moves 36...Ke8 37.axb6 Rxb6 38.Rxb6 Rxb6 39.Rxb6 Nxb6 40.Ba5 1-0. Black's resignation may seem premature but he is defenceless against an invasion of White's queen along the b-file.

This shows the power of good positional play, White simply levered open a file and his opponent's position was hopeless; no fireworks or calculation was required.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, ENDGAMES, POSITIONAL PLAY

JANUARY CLINIC ON BEST GAMES

The January 2019 clinic is now out and features members' best games. There was quite a mix sent in, from a violent tactical game to several purely positional games.

The following position was reached in one of the positional games in which U. S. had established a stranglehold on the position after getting a pawn duo on e4 and d4 in the Colle and then turning this into an e4/d5 wedge. He closed in for the kill:

U.S. versus A. N. Other

White now played 37.Qc6!, with the game ending with the moves 37...f6 38.Rc8 Qxc6 39.dxc6 1-0. Black's knight has no squares so he must lose a piece.

I like to focus on positional play and endgames at Tiger Chess because this is where many players at club level can improve. Brilliant tactical ability tends to be more dependent on innate gifts rather than methodical learning.

Nigel Davies