My old laptop has the ancient Master Chess 8000 on it. The program was distributed by Chess4Less
which is owned and operated by an old friend, Paul Azzurro. Also on my laptop are ChessOK Aquarium 2014, Aquarium 2020, Chess Assistant, ChessBase 16, Fritz 12 and my “go to” program Fritz 17.
Most of my chess books were either given away or destroyed when our house flooded. One book that remains is Al Horowitz’ Golden Treasury of Chess that was first published in 1943. I no longer have the original edition, but the one that was reprinted in 1971. It has 322 games in descriptive notation up to 1966. The games themselves have a brief and glowing introduction describing how delightful the games is. A lot of the games won’t be found elsewhere...many of them are long forgotten gems that are just fun to play over.
The book has an interesting history that was given by chess historian Edward Winter in an article titled The Horowitz-Wellmuth Affair.
Let’s take a look at a game chosen more or less at random...Joel Fridlizius vs. Alexander Alekhine (the loser!) from the tournament Stockholm 1912; the game won the brilliancy prize. Stockholm 1912 was Alekhine's first victory in an international tournament.
Joel Fridlizius (December 3, 1869 – January 6, 1963) was a Swedish master and a correspondence player. He won the first correspondence tournament in Sweden that was played from1897 to 1900. He then won the 1st Nordic correspondence tournament (1900-1902).
Fridlizius' best OTB resulte was second place at the 3rd Nordic Championship in Gothenburg 1901. Fridlizius was editor of the chess column in the newspaper Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfarts-Tidning.
In later years he lived in Skara, Sweden, a town of about 18,500 inhabitants that is located about 220 miles west of Stockholm. He won the club championship there in 1954 at the age of 85.
Joel Fridlizius–Alexander Alekhine1–0C77Stockholm3Stockholm SWE27.06.1912Stockfish 16
C77: Ruy Lopez 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.b5 a6 4.a4 f6 5.c3 c5 6.0-0 b5 7.b3 d6 8.d3 g4 9.e3 This is the standard move, but engines prefer 9.h3 9.h3 e6 10.e3 d4 11.xd4 xd4 12.xd4 exd4 13.e2 Draw agreed.
Mamedov,N (2405)-Mamedyarov,S (2503) Oropesa del Mar ESP 2001 9.g5 d4 10.d5 c6 11.e3 xf3+ 12.gxf3 Black is better. Klundt,K (2325)-Gergel,V (2202)
Katerini GRE 2014 9...d4= 10.xd4 xd4 11.h3 Black should now play
11...Bx3 or first 11...Bxc3 or even 11...Bh5 is OK. Instead, Alekhine bluffs
his opponent with an unsound B offer. h5 12.e2 12.hxg4 wins as blacj
really has no good way of following up the sacrifice. hxg4 13.xd4 exd4 14.e2 d7 to open a line for the Q. 15.g3 h4 16.e1 e5 17.c3 dxc3 18.bxc3 0-0-0 19.d4 g6 20.d2 Black has no attack. 12...d7 Strange...now
if the B is taken white has no advantage anbd the chances would be equal! 13.d1 13.hxg4 hxg4 14.xd4 h4 mates as follows... 15.xf7+ xf7 16.f4 g3 17.fxe5+ g8 18.f8+ xf8 19.h5 xh5 20.any Qh1$ 13.a4 is quite
satisfactory because after b8 14.axb5 axb5 15.hxg4 Also good is 15.Nd5 hxg4 16.g3 He can't allow ...Qh4 xc3 17.bxc3 gxf3 18.xf3 the game is
completely even. 13...f8 13...f6 After this white should avoid taking
the B. 14.hxg4 14.c3 b6 15.d5 b8 16.c6 with equak chances 14...hxg4 15.e1 gxf3 16.xf3 xf3 17.gxf3 Black is better, 14.c3 14.hxg4
leads to more than equality after hxg4 15.g3 gxf3 16.xf3 14...a7 15.e3 This is better than taking the B which was possible, but it would lead to no
more thanb equal chances. After the text white gains the advantage. 15.hxg4?! hxg4 16.g3 gxf3 17.xf3 15...d7 the either had to reteat of capture
on f3. 16.d4 Fridlizius' restraint in not taking the B has lead to his
gaining the initiative thanks to Alekhine's loss of time with his Bs having
been driven back. g6 17.d2 17.ad1 was a bit more precise. exd4 18.xd4 f8 18...g5 19.d5 c8 20.e5 and white should win. 19.h1 xd4 20.cxd4 f4 21.f3 h4 22.e5 d8 23.c1 with a clear advantage. 17...c6 18.d5 c8 19.ad1 0-0 20.h2 20.dxe5 was even better. xe5 21.f4 xf3+ 22.gxf3 xd5 23.xd5 with a dangerous attack. 20...b7 21.g1
The indicates the point of white's last move...he wants to play g4, but the
plan is not feasible. 21.dxe5 offered better chances. Even then, black can
still defend quite strongly. dxe5 22.c1 c5 23.c4 23.f4 b6 24.d5 d8 23...b8 24.g3 21...c6 22.e3 f6 23.f5 d5 At this point,
thanks to a few not quite precise moves by Fridlizius, Alekhine has managed to
achieve equality. 24.g3 h4 25.h5 d6 26.g5 exd4+ 27.e5 e6 But this
moves allows white the opportunity to set up a very strong attack. 27...d8 offering the exchange of Qs blunts the force of white;s attack and keeps the
chances equal. 28.xd8 fxd8 29.cxd4 c5 is equal. 27...d8 28.f5
Avoiding the exchange if Qs also allows black to solidify his position as
follows... d3 29.xd3 c7 30.c2 ce8 and black;s defense will hold. 28.cxd4 c5 Again, offering to trade Qs (28...Qe7) would have been a little
better. 29.xh4 cxd4 29...e7 runs into 30.f6+ gxf6 31.exf6 d6+ 32.g3 c6 33.xg6 and wins because black cannot play fxg6 34.xg6+ h8 35.g7# 30.ge1 b8 30...e7 loses to 31.f6+ Again. gxf6 32.exf6
as in the previous note... 31.f4 e7 Guess what's coming. 32.f6+
Not unpredictable, but still beautiful. gxf6 33.exf6 xf4+ 34.xf4 xe1? 35.xg6 e4 36.e7+ White mates in 8 moves at most. h8 37.xd4 h7 37...xf4+ leads to a pretty mate. 38.xf4 c4 39.xc4 dxc4 40.h4# 38.h4 c4 39.xc4 dxc4 40.xh7+ xh7 41.h4# A memorable
performance by Ffidlizius! 1–0
There is an easy way to study old books with computer aid. Go to bilwallchess.com. At the utter right column, scroll down about half a mile (:) and you'll see Ebook pgn's. These contain the seperate positions of particular books. These you can download. So you can read a physical book and use your computer to present all diagrams/positions contained in that book.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite program to use with these files is "Chess Hero" at http://www.innokuo.altervista.org/chesshero.html .
That program enables you to feed you sequentially or at random, all positions from a pgn file, check your answers with an engine and keep track of how well you did so you can (spaced repetition) make a seperate pgn of all your failures to leaf through them again. Ideal fot study and all free.
Another great use of Chess Hero is to use pgn files of your favorite opening variation, where White has 200 or more Elo points than Black (or vice versa). If you command Chess Hero to present you with positions just after the opening phase , you will be trained in the positions where the weaker player went wrong.
Thanks for the in formation. Bill Wall's site is fantastic plus it's a great resource.
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