Category Archives: UPDATES

COACHING, OPENINGS, QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED, TOURNAMENTS, TRAINING, UPDATES, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

PUBLIC RELATIONS

This is not often talked about with regard to chess achievement, but being well thought of can be as important for a chess career as in more orthodox fields. There are countless examples of players being overlooked because they were thought to have the potential to misbehave, for example in the former USSR there were a number of very talented players who never got to play abroad because they indulged in the national passtime of drinking to excess. As a more recent example I think that Hans Niemann's lack of invitations is not because of the false accusations of cheating, it may stem from things he's said and done, for example trashing a hotel room. I think that Christopher Yoo will have similar difficulties when his ban has ended.

It's important, therefore, to present yourself well so as to avoid being thought of as a potential liability. Some players are very good at this and they tend to get a disproportionate number of invites, others are not so good and will tend to get sidelined. Sometimes someone is just so good that they can't be ignored, and Bobby Fischer was a prime example of this. When you're the best in the World at something you can get away with things that mere mortals can not, though even then it's probably better not to test the boundaries too much. 

What should someone do if they have a bad rep? Basically they need to get their act together and then keep it together through thick and thin. If I had to advise Niemann I'd suggest that he should consider learning some form of anger management and then think very carefully about how he interfaces with chess authorities, the media and social media. He's clearly a very talented and passionate player, and his work ethic looks like something that could take him to the top. But it would help him a lot if his PR was better.

Training Tournaments

This week's training tournaments are in the Colle, which features in two of my courses, the White 1.d4 Repertoire and Building an Opening Repertoire. White can basically opt for two different set-ups, the Zukertort set-up (including b2-b3) or the Koltanowski set-up (without b2-b3):

Sunday March 30th at 5pm UK Time: Colle with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 d5

Sunday March 31st at 6.15pm UK Time: Colle with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 b6

My Upcoming Events

I try to plan tournaments in advance but sometimes it's difficult.The most recent development is that I've stopped waiting for invitations from the ECF, for example to the British Championships or English Senior Championships. I don't think it's because of poor PR, or that my relations with chess authorities have been bad, it might be more a case that the ECF are strapped for cash. So I've entered the British Championships anyway, as I can travel to Liverpool from home, the English Seniors is not something I want to do without getting the standard GM arrangement of the hotel being paid for.

This is how things look right now:

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.

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 31st - 10th August 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 2025: Maia Chess Festival (?)

I've played in the last couple of events and I'm hopeful that I'll be asked back. There are no details as yet, but I'll definitely play if I get invited.

This should be enough to stay 'match fit' through to September, though trying to play seriously also involves quite a lot of time and expense on training.

Twitch Channel

My new Twitch channel will in theory have 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, OPENINGS, UPDATES, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

SEPTEMBER 2020 CLINIC: EVEN MORE INTERNET GAMES

The latest clinic is now online, featuring even more internet games. There are some signs that face to face competitive chess is returning, at least in countries with a low transmission rate. Hopefully this will soon extend to the rest of us.

The highlights this time were the two games sent in by J. P. using the new White d2-d4 Repertoire. He won both games in fine style, one of them featuring a nice tactic at the end. In the position below it is White to play (see diagram):

JP vs. NN

White played 24.Nxd5! which has devastating consequences; if Black captures the knight with 24...exd5 then 25.Bxd5+ followed by capturing on c4 will leave White two pawns up. The knight on c4 is threatened anyway, and so is the rook on c7, so Black chose instead to resign (1-0).

It's good to see this repertoire working for people; founded upon logical plans it aims to minimise the number of variations people have to learn rather than present them with reams of unfathomable computer analysis.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, OPENINGS, UPDATES, WHITE 1.d2-d4 REPERTOIRE

AUGUST 2020 CLINIC: EVEN MORE INTERNET GAMES

Many of us are still shielding and over-the-board tournaments are only just starting up again. So once again the clinic is devoted largely to internet games, with all their 'variability'. I think that one of the main issues with such games is their low value, if you lose you can easily find another opponent and may have better luck. Inevitably this means that playing standards will be highly variable.

This month's clinic featured a cross section of such games together with some interesting points. It was also gratifying to see a win for White using the White 1.d2-d4 Repertoire Course, a game by M. L. reaching the following position after the moves 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 O-O 8. Be2 c5 9. O-O Nc6 10. Be3 Bg4:

ML vs. NN; White to Play

Despite the fact that all his moves look 'natural', Black had in fact played inaccurately with the nonchalent 7...0-0 instead of 7...c5 8.Be3 Qa5!. This now gave White the opportunity to play 11. d5 and after 11...Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Ne5 13. Rc1 b6?! 14. Be2 e6 15. c4 exd5 16. cxd5 Re8?! 17. f4 Nd7 18. e5, White had obtained a crushing position and soon went on to win.

This is one of the issues with the Gruenfeld, it needs Black to play very accurately. And this in turn is why I tend to recommend the Queen's Gambit Declined for Black, it's much more forgiving if you play it inaccurately.

Nigel Davies

CLINIC, UPDATES

OCTOBER 2019 CLINIC: BEST GAMES

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:

M. G. vs. N. N. White to play.

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, OPENINGS, UPDATES

AUGUST 2019 CLINIC: BEST GAMES

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:

Position after White's 12.Nc4.

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, UPDATES

MORE BEST GAMES: MAY 2019 CLINIC

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:

Blackburn - Davies; Black to play

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, ITALIAN GAME, OPENINGS, TACTICS, UPDATES

LLANDUDNO SIMUL

On August 22nd I visited the ICCF Congress in Llandudno to give a simultaneous display. It went quite well despite my lack of tournament practice with 15 wins and 3 draws against a field which included two ICCF Grandmasters, two Senior International Masters and some young Welsh stars. I confess that I have been playing a lot of blitz (5 minutes with a 3 second increment) against my son Sam and it does seem to have sharpened us both up. There were several moments where I found some strong tactical sequences, such as this one:

Here I sacrificed a knight with 23.Nxf7! Kxf7 24.Ng5+, seeing that after 24...Kg8 I had 25.Re8+! and that after 24...Kf6 I had at least a draw with 25.Nh7+. When my opponent did play 24...Kf6 I found 25.Qf4! threatening 26.Re6 mate, and when my opponent failed to find a defence he graciously asked me whether I would prefer him to take the queen or allow the mate. I plumped for the latter and the game ended with 25...Nxf4 26.Nh7#.

The opening is worth noting as I think that the quiet Italian Game (the game started with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3) is an excellent option for those who open with 1.e4 but prefer to learn strategy rather than opening analysis. For members interested in the complete game I have included it in the August 2018 members clinic. If you are not a member but would like to join you can do so here.

It was also interesting to play over the board games against very strong correspondence players, not least because I have suffered against them when playing them at their own time limit. For many years I have used secret correspondence games to test openings, a practice I believe other over-the-board GMs use as well. My impression was that they have a good understanding of chess and better openings than players of a similar strength who just play over-the-board. At the same time they might benefit from faster time controls where fast reactions and tactical awareness are at a premium.

Nigel Davies