New answers tagged middlegame
5
2) In this game Capa played h6 I think to prevent Ng5 but according to
Alekhine this was not a good move. I don't understand why play another
move and invite the Knight to g5?
This position comes from the famous game in which Richard Reti defeated the reigning world champion, Jose Raul Capablanca, in New York in 1924.
[fen ""]
[title "Reti vs ...
4
If the game goes 1..c5 2.b5 the engine shows white slightly better but
if 1..a5 2.b5 then the engine shows black slightly better.Why is
that??
[fen "r2qr1k/pbpn1pbp/1p1p1np1/4p3/1PP5/3P1NP1/PBQNPPBP/R2R2K1 b - - 1 1"]
1... c5 (1... a5 2. b5) 2. b5
After 1..c5 2.b5 the a7 pawn is weak and after 1..a5 2.b5 the c7 pawn is weak. The difference between the ...
1
Not trying to belittle this achievement, but I think the hardest part is to speak as quickly as Hikaru does.
I do think that it is impressive but not to the extent that the other answers suggest. Reasons:
black's position is clearly won by a variety of ways, in fact the cleanest and fastest way would be 1. Ne7 instead of Bf1
the sequence that Hikaru ...
3
As was pointed out before me, that level of calculation is extremely impressive. You are at the end of the day looking at one of the top chess players in the world and, arguably, in history to this day.
Apart from that note, you should know that visualization is a matter of practice, and the acquisition of such skill is not different to that of arithmetic ...
3
Okay, this sequence is very impressive and Nakamura is a "beast". So I don't want to be too pessimistic but I'm afraid that this kind of performance, which consists in calculating at the speed of light a sequence of movements without error, is only possible for the highest rated players.
There is, however, a (little) hope. In the excellent perpetual chess ...
9
I'm not familiar with the book itself, but for learning pawn structures it isn't important to memorize every single thing. The key is to understand the general ideas behind each structure. E.g.: what are the main plans, which pawns are weaknesses, what squares work well as outposts for pieces, can the structure be changed as the game goes on, etc.
Knowing ...
3
The main tips are:
1) A pawn on e5 helps. Not only does it prevent ...Nf6, but it also takes away the f6-square from Black's king once it comes to g6 (via ...Kxh7-...Kg6).
2) The greek gift is usually followed up with Ng5+. So if the g5-square is defended by Black, or if you don't have a knight on f3, this idea won't work. In some cases perhaps you could ...
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