During my chess career I've experienced a number of revelations, as things gradually became clear to me. One of these was an understanding of Anatoly Karpov's playing style, which at one time I didn't understand at all. Eventually I started to see that one of his main strengths was a very subtle handling of pawn structures, gradually gaining the better position despite his opponents' apparent activity.
One of the moments of revelation was when I was watching his Candidates final game against Andrei Sokolov back in 1987. I was amazed at how he allowed Sokolov to get his pieces so active whilst gradually building the better pawn structure. Finally it became clear that Karpov's position was clearly better and he went on to win.
After this I took a renewed look at his games with just pawn structure in mind, and found that this was highly characteristic of his play. At first sight it would seem that he was doing very little, but as the game progressed he would achieve the better structure. This would then be converted in the late middlegame or endgame.
I was not very successful in implementing such techniques myself, I think I came to them rather too late. Having said that, Karpov's example helped me become more patient and at least try to play for long term advantages. I also started to realize when my opponents were doing this to me.
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 18th, 5pm UK Time: Slav 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6
Sunday January 18th, 6.15pm UK Time: 1.e4 Only
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: Anatoly Karpov using the code 'jan16to24'. 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.
Last week's discount is 40% off buying my flagship Building an Opening Repertoire course using the code 'jan9to17'. This course is built around using the moves 1.d4, 2.Nf3 and 3.e3 as White together with a similar formation as Black against pretty much everything. Whilst the early moves are quite simple there is still the opportunity for an interesting game, and a great many plans and ideas.
Upcoming Events
I'm playing in Nova Gorica, in Slovenia shortly, 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 selected. Apart from that I might take part in a few local weekend events.
January 23-30: Nova Gorica
A very nice and well organized event, details can be found here.
Have a good weekend.
Nigel
