Reports by Eric van Reem
Coffeehouse chess leads to draw in final game
The last game of the match between the Dutch Grandmasters Erwin l’Ami and Daniel Stellwagen was interesting for the audience. Once again they played the Two Knights Defense with the “beginners move” 4.Ng5. On Wednesday we already noticed that this move is more attractive than 4.d4 and leads to interesting play.
In the fourth game we saw some romantic coffeehouse chess by the young Dutchmen in the opening. Both players, who were well prepared for the mind-boggling complications, analyzed some wild variants with the engines, but soon it became clear that despite the unclear position on the board (for humans only!) the engines kept their cool and showed an equal score.
The critical move in the game was 23.d4, in which Daniel invested more than 50 minutes. However, Erwin could easily equalize and after 36 moves the fourth and last game of the match ended in a draw, just like the other three games. The final result of the match is 2-2. Next year we will a new match will be organized with the same players, but with a different romantic opening!
A few possibilities after 4.Ng5
Czech problemist Karel Traxler played 4...Bc5!? in Reinisch–Traxler, Prague 1896. Marshall later analyzed the variation and named it after the town Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, so today 4...Bc5 is known as both the Traxler Variation and the Wilkes-Barre Variation. This bold move ignores White's attack on f7 and leads to wild play where some long variations have been analyzed to a draw by perpetual check.
White can play 5.d4, 5.Nxf7, or 5.Bxf7+. After 5.d4 d5!, White's best is to go into an equal endgame after 6.dxc5 dxc4 7.Qxd8+. Other sixth moves have scored very badly for White. The usual move used to be 5.Nxf7, but this is very complicated after 5...Bxf2+. White's best try for an advantage is probably 5.Bxf7+ Ke7 6.Bd5 as played by Anand. No grandmasters regularly adopt the Wilkes-Barre as Black, but Beliavsky and Shirov have played it occasionally even in top competition.
More common is 4...d5 5.exd5, as was played in the third and fourth game of the match in Maastricht. The Black recapture 5...Nxd5?! is very risky. Pinkus tried to bolster this move with analysis in 1943 and 1944 issues of Chess Review, but White gets a strong attack with either the safe Lolli Variation 6.d4! or the sacrificial Fried Liver (or Fegatello) Attack 6.Nxf7!? Kxf7 7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3.
These variations are usually considered too difficult for Black to defend over the board, but they are sometimes used in correspondence play and in Complete Chess. Instead Black usually chooses to make the opening a gambit by playing either 5...Na5 (main line), 5...Nd4 or 5...b5. After 5...Na5, Morphy would hold on to the gambit pawn as White with 6.d3. The Morphy Variation has not been popular, since it has long been known that Black obtains good chances for the pawn.
Two Knighs: further reading and watching
If you have become more interested in Two Knights Defense, we recommend the articles written by Tim Harding on the Chess Café: www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz58.pdf. The press team in Maastricht also discovered a few hilarious videos about the “Two Knights”, if you want to learn the opening from Igor and Gleb go to http://raychess.blogspot.com/2007/10/two-knights-defense.html.
Report 3rd game
Exciting game with a “duffer’s move”
As planned, the young grandmasters have to deal with a real “duffer’s move” (Tarrasch) in the last two games of the Complete Chess Match. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 the move 4.Ng5 is going to be in the centre of discussion on Wednesday and Thursday. The players are happy that they do not have to play the move 4.d4 anymore.
“It is a well analysed opening and it is almost impossible to find something new and interesting”, Stellwagen said after the game. “But I think that the games were pretty good, I have analyzed the games again and think that the level of the games was very high.”
Both players were really looking forward to the games with 4.Ng5 and even after seeing the movie “The Other Boleyn Girl” on Tuesday, there were about to go through some variants before going to sleep, instead of analyzing the performance of the wonderful actresses Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson in the movie!
Exciting draw
So, after a good sleep (did they dream of Natalie or Scarlett?), the players were ready for their third game of the match, which turned out to be the most exciting one so far. Black had a very promising position with good attacking possibilities and Erwin, playing with white, had lots of difficulties to keep his position together. “Without a computer I would have lost it, but with the support of the engines I was able to keep the position somehow. But I had to defend all the time, although I was playing white!”
Obviously, Daniel was a bit disappointed after the game. With anger in his movements he showed some very nice variations after the game in the analyses room, in which our guests for today, Albert Vasse and Peter van den Ploeg from DGT Projects breathlessly followed the flood of spectacular moves that never were played on the board.
It is a pity that in Complete Chess the most spectacular moves only occur on the computer screen. If we get the permission from the players, we will publish some of their analyses on the website. After a difficult middle game, Erwin made it into an endgame that he could easily save. Check the position with your tablebases! Tomorrow the last game will be played with the same variation.
Gambit Match
The Chess Events Maastricht Foundation organized a Gambit Match from 2005-2007, in which six daring openings were tested in an encounter between the former world champions of correspondence chess, Mikhail Umansky and Gert Jan Timmerman. The selection has become a mix of real gambits and sharp openings. The Two Knights was also played in this Gambit Match. In correspondence chess, gambits are still very popular. If you want to take a look at games of this match, surf to www.iccf-webchess.com.
Report 2nd game
Two Knights Defense…or Attack?
In the second game of the Gambit match between Stellwagen and L’Ami the well-known move sequence 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 was played again. The move 3… Nf6 is more aggresive than the well-known move 3…Bc5. First recorded by the Italian chessplayer Giulio Cesare Polerio (1548–1612) in the late 16th Century, this line of the Italian Game was extensively developed in the 19th Century.
Black's third move is a more aggressive defense than the Giuoco Piano which would result from 3...Bc5. In fact, Bronstein suggested that the term "defense" does not fit, and that the name "Chigorin Counterattack" would be more appropriate.
The Two Knights has been adopted as Black by many aggressive players including Chigorin and Keres, and World Champions Tal and Boris Spassky. The theory of this opening has been explored extensively in correspondence chess by players such as Berliner and Estrin.
Another draw in second game
In the second game of the match L’Ami, with the white pieces, chose a different set-up than Stellwagen yesterday, but it is very difficult to get an advantage in this well-analysed old opening. Soon an equal endgame arose and under the eyes of the arbiter Geurt Gijssen, the Pierluigi Collina of chess, a draw was agreed on the 43th move. The score after two games is 1-1.
“It is almost impossible to get an advantage with the Euwe Gambit, and I am looking forward to play 4.Ng5 tomorrow”, L’Ami said after the game. He continued: ”I wanted to offer a draw earlier in the game, but the chess engines still thought that white has an advantage, so I kept on playing.”
“Primitive move” in games three and four
In the two remaining games of the match the three first moves 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 have to be played again, but the youngsters will play 4. Ng5 on the fourth move instead of 4.d4, the Euwe Gambit.
4. Ng5 is an interesting and sharp move, but Siegbert Tarrasch called 4.Ng5 a "duffer's move". Vasily Panov called it "primitive", but this attack on f7 practically wins a pawn by force. Despite Tarrasch's criticism, many players consider 4.Ng5 to be White's best chance for an advantage and it has been played by World Champions Steinitz, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, and Anand. We can look forward to an interesting second part of the match!
Report 1st game
Euwe’s name revived in Gambit Match in Maastricht
Machgielis (Max) Euwe (last name is pronounced /ø:w?/) (May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess Grandmaster, Mathematician, and author. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion (1935–1937). Euwe also served as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, from 1970 to 1978.
Euwe was also a highly-regarded chess writer. He wrote over 70 chess books, far more than any other World Champion; some of the best-known are "The Road to Chess Mastery", "Judgement and Planning in Chess", "The Logical Approach to Chess" and "Strategy and Tactics in Chess Play". Former Soviet grandmaster Gennadi Sosonko used Euwe's "Practical Chess Lessons" ("Practische schaaklessen") as a textbook when teaching in the Leningrad House of Pioneers, and considers it "one of the best chess books ever".
He also wrote many opening books and played numerous novelties in his career but there is no opening or variation that has the name “Euwe” in it. But finally, more than 27 years after his death, this historic mistake has been restored: in the Complete Chess Match between the young two Dutch Grandmasters Daniel Stellwagen and Erwin L’ Ami the “Euwe Gambit” was introduced. Max Euwe would be proud.
The Euwe gambit
After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 4. Bc4 Nf6 , which are obliged in the four games this week, Euwe often played 4. d4 in his career and mentioned it as main line of the Two Knights Defense in an openings book. The aim of 4.d4 is to develop rapidly: after 4. exd4 5.0-0. Black can equalize by eliminating White's last center pawn with 5...Nxe4, after which White regains the material with 6.Re1 d5 7.Bxd5 Qxd5 8.Nc3 but Black has a comfortable position after 8...Qa5 or 8...Qh5, or obtain good chances with the complex Max Lange Attack after 5...Bc5 6.e5 d5.
The extensively analyzed Max Lange can also arise from the Giuoco Piano or Scotch Game. White can choose to avoid these lines by playing 5.e5, a line often adopted by Sveshnikov. After 5.e5, either 5...Ne4 or 5...Ng4 is a playable reply, but most common and natural is 5...d5 6.Bb5 Ne4 7.Nxd4 Bc5, with sharp play.
First game: draw
The first game ended in a draw after 43 moves. White seemed a slight advantage in the game but L’Ami defended well. After the game the players criticised the computer programs. “The computer has problems in this middle game”, L’Ami said. Stellwagen agreed: “The computer sometimes showed some very odd moves, and the evaluation of the engines was not very accurate.”
Opening by Jaap van den Herik
The match was opened by Prof. Dr. Jaap van den Herik, a renowned name not only in the Dutch chess world. In his opening speech, the Dutch professor paid tribute to Max Euwe and told some stories about his encounters with the Dutch chess legend. Van den Herik was particularly happy that two Dutch Grandmasters came to Maastricht to play the Match and after his speech he baptized the “Euwe Gambit” by playing 4.d4 on the board.
The players are allowed to use computers during the match. The combination between the classical time control and Advanced Chess is called Complete Chess. Both players have been in Maastricht to play in an event, organized by the Chess Events Maastricht Foundation. Daniel Stellwagen played the first Complete Chess Match in 2004 against David Baramidze and one year later against the Dutch number one, Loek van Wely. He won both matches. Erwin L’Ami debuted last year in Maastricht. He played two games against the computer chess program Zappa.