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Bumper-size update no.15, December 2000

Announcement

Bonus Brainteaser

Puzzle Solution

Birthday Game

Thanks

Dedication

New Highlights

M.O. Moves

Rewind Reward

Hero of the Month

Hero Puzzle

Hero Puzzle Solution

Motto of the Month

Index of New Games

New Index of Players

New Index of Openings

Introducing "Y.E.S. P.L.E.A.S.E."

Dear Readers,

To specially reward those of you who really value my e4-e5 site by subscribing to it, I have introduced another new feature. Subscribers are hereby invited to send me at any time their own particular requests regarding opening lines (stemming from 1 e4 e5) which they would like to see analysed in extra detail on this site. From the subscribers' requests which come in by e-mail to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com, I'll choose (at least) one every month and do a special feature on it. That's what Y.E.S. P.L.E.A.S.E. is all about: Your Extra-Special Pet Lines Extensively Analysed. Super-Effective!! For example, game G12.21 is dedicated to Rob Shultz, who is a really big fan of the wild and wonderful Wilkes-Barre Traxler variation in the Two Knights Defence.

Clearly, I may not be able to answer all requests immediately, but I can promise you that none of them will be ignored. All subscriber requests will be answered as quickly as possible to the very best of my ability.

I look forward to receiving your topics by e-mail, and I thank you for your continued interest in this site. Before the next 'monthly update' comes out at the end of January 2001, I hope you have a wonderful happy Christmas and New Year.

With Very Best Wishes,
Paul Motwani.

Announcement

The e-pawn emperor's next e4-e5 'monthly update' will be posted on this Internet site towards the end of January 2001, and in the meantime he will, as always, reply personally to as many e-mail messages as possible which come to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com. Right now, though, there's a tasty new collection of fresh games, puzzles, and other treats to bring you endless hours of enjoyment in a mega bumper-size December update. So let's swiftly move up a gear or two to tackle the first challenge coming rapidly towards us...

Mr Mo's December 2000 Bonus Brainteaser

The opening of the game H.Berliner-L.Friedman at the 1946 USA Junior Championship was the same line of the Two Knights Defence that featured in game G12.6. After 12 moves, the following position was reached:










White then played 13 g3?, allowing Black to win in a way which you are invited to find.

Announcement

Bonus Brainteaser

Puzzle Solution

Birthday Game

Thanks

Dedication

New Highlights

M.O. Moves

Rewind Reward

Hero of the Month

Hero Puzzle

Hero Puzzle Solution

Motto of the Month

Index of New Games

New Index of Players

New Index of Openings

Solution to Mr Mo's November 2000 Bonus Brainteaser

The brainteaser was as follows:

The super-GM clash between Michael Adams and Jeroen Piket at Wijk aan Zee 1991 opened with the Siesta variation of the Ruy Lopez: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 d6 5 c3 f5 (which also featured in game G13.45). However, White later erred, allowing Black to play a crushing 16th move which you are invited to find from the following position:









Solution:

The finish was 16...Rf8! 17 Qg3 (White is not helped by 17 Bxc6+ bxc6 18 Qxe4+ Kd8 19 Nxc6+ Kd7 or 17 Qxe4+ Kd8 18 Nxc6+ bxc6, when Black's queen threatens to deliver instantly fatal checks at f2 or h2) 17...Rf1+!! (what a shocker!) 18 Kxf1 Nxh2+ 19 Qxh2 (19 Kf2 Ng4+ is even easier for Black) 19...Qxh2 0-1. GM Michael Adams resigned with his king hopelessly exposed, and facing the terrible threat of a skewering check ...Qh1+ followed by ...Qxc1 and probably ...Qxb2 then ...Qxa1 too! Basically, Black's queen was about to go on the rampage eliminating white units, and so their king decided it was time to throw in the towel.

The Birthday Game

This regular feature puts the spotlight on a player of the past or present whose birthday was or still is a day in the current month. For example, super-GM Viswanathan Anand (born on 11.12.1969 in India, and now resident in Spain) is a truly world-class 'December birthday' player, and for our game G13.61 I've chosen his highly-instructive victory from Dortmund 1997 as White in the Ruy Lopez against England's Nigel Short, who's another real super-GM.

Would YOU like to star in The Birthday Game? If so, please send an e-mail to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com sometime between the 1st and 15th day of the month preceding your birthday month, and include the following information to be considered by Mr Mo: your name, date & place of birth, and one of your own games starting with 1 e4 e5 (or another acceptable move-order such as 1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 e5 or 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 e5). Although annotations are not strictly necessary (since Mr Mo will always analyse the game too), your own personal notes would certainly be most welcomed. Please do mention where and when the game was played, and also state the players' names (together with ratings, if applicable).

Don't be shy-let us celebrate YOUR birthday too!

By the way, since James Bond is about the same age as myself- we both 'arrived on the scene' in 1962, as my delivery doctor knows like 007's Dr No!- I'll conclude this section with 'Happy Birthday' in 007 different languages that I've had at least some exposure to:

Happy Birthday (English)

Shengri kuai le (Mandarin)

Heureux Anniversaire (French)

Gelukkig Verjaardag (Dutch)

Herzliche Wünsche zum Geburtstag (German)

Buon Compleanno (Italian)

Felicidades (Spanish)

Thanks

Special thanks this month to Scotland's Nicol Bathie and GM Jonathan Rowson, both of whom have sent me very useful information which certainly enhances the quality of this e4-e5 Internet site.

Announcement

Bonus Brainteaser

Puzzle Solution

Birthday Game

Thanks

Dedication

New Highlights

M.O. Moves

Rewind Reward

Hero of the Month

Hero Puzzle

Hero Puzzle Solution

Motto of the Month

Index of New Games

New Index of Players

New Index of Openings

Dedication

This fifteenth update (since the initial launch material in September 1999) is dedicated to my friend GM Jonathan Rowson, who also stars as our newest Hero of the Month.

New Highlights

Tons of fresh mouth-watering goodies await us, including a double helping of Ruy Lopez games in the dynamic duo G13.61-G13.62, where you'll also find other handy supplementary bonuses.

The King's Gambit always provides lots of thrills too, although this time round White gets all the fun in G4.28, and the same is true in G7.13 where the Petroff Defence is petrified! Also check out G1.6, in which the great Paul Charles Morphy reduces Black's position to ruins by move six!

To be fair, Black strikes back strongly with a pulverising Petroff win in G7.12; a scorching of the Scotch Game in G9.14; and doing the business on the Bishop's Opening in G2.7.

If you can't sleep after so much drama, then the Two Knights Defence of games G12.20-G12.21 will keep you busy all (k)night!!

In general, the action-packed battles are made even more irresistible by the presence of related challenging puzzles, which can also be seen in the section called "Puzzle Paradise".

And the feast is still far from over yet...! Further courses include the very select stimulating material that appears in the Reflection Zone, but only subscribers can access that section and all the juicy annotated games too.

M.O. Moves

It's a personal choice, but for me three of the Most Outstanding Moves from the games within this month's update material are as follows. The sacrifice 12...Bxh2+! which blasts through the opposition in game G7.12; then a second bishop sacrifice on the same square and move-number stuns Yakov Estrin- another renowned theoretician- with 12...Bh2! in G12.21; and finally it's a knight that floors White with 14...Neg4! played by Greek GM Spyros Skembris in G2.7.

Rewind Reward

The key idea here is that (although in general we focus on recent happenings) it still pays off to study some memorable older material. For instance, in game G1.6 the great Paul Charles Morphy reduces Black's position to ruins by move six (!), and Scotland's Nicol Bathie is nearly as fast on the road to victory with White in G4.28.

Those encounters actually happened years ago, but these games selected again now are still highly instructive (and entertaining too!).

December 2000 Hero Puzzle

Our Hero of the Month, GM Jon Rowson, was born in 1977- the same year when Jon Arnason, a then 16-year-old future GM, won the Icelandic Championship and also the World Under-17 Championship (in Cagnes sur Mer, France) ahead of Garry Kasparov. Your puzzle is in three parts:-

(i) Which World Championship match was held in Iceland?

(ii) Which Icelandic GM was once the President of F.I.D.E. (the International Chess Federation)?

(iii) For a very small country, Iceland has a lot of grandmasters, but can you name the first-ever Icelandic GM? Answers will appear in next month's 'update', but meanwhile enjoy all the goodies awaiting you now on this site...

Solution to November 2000 Hero Puzzle

The puzzle was as follows:

Our Hero of the Month, Chris Morrison, has a December 4 birthday, as does a famous American IM who in his youth starred in a film about a former World Champion. Can you name that champion, and also the film and the American IM?

Answers:

Robert James Fischer; "Searching for Bobby Fischer"; IM Joshua Waitzkin.

Motto of the Month

The previous launch and update material laid the foundations for further enjoyable adventures with 1 e4 e5 as our chosen starting point. This month, besides there being lots of fresh interesting ideas in the openings, every new encounter also demonstrates that a daring attacking style of play will very often be rewarded with a full point at the end of the game. So, an appropriate motto for us now is the famous saying that "Fortune favours the brave".

Codename Olivetto

The title sounds like a James Bond assignment, but it's actually much less dangerous! At the special request of subscriber Livio Olivetto, from July 2000 onwards all new main or complete games on this e4-e5 site have been labelled with an ECO code from the range C20-C99, to match the particular opening variations featured. The codes provide an extra means of identifying games containing one's own favourite opening lines, and so the codes are being given in the Index of New Games. Some people may like to construct, for their own personal use, a complete index of games according to ECO codes, but since I know that many readers would find its appearance to be rather abstract, I shall leave it as a project to be done at home only by people who are really big fans of ECO codes!

Reflection Zone

Index of New Games & Part-games

Main games have ECO code labels associated with their particular opening lines.

G1.6 Morphy, P - Buttin, P

G2.7 De Barberis, M - Skembris, S, code C26

G4.28 Bathie, N - McLelland, A, code C30

G7.12 Westra,R-Van Kemenade,R, code C42

G7.13 Cijs, P - DellaValle, M, code C42

G9.14 Rodrigues, N - Damaso, R, code C45

G12.20 Slaby, J - Ehrenfeucht, W, code C55

G12.21 Estrin, Y - Nun, J, code C57

G12.21.1 Kurkin, A - Estrin, Y, code C57

G13.61 Anand, V - Short, N, code C87

G13.61.1 Anand, V - Agdestein, S

G13.62 Rowson, J - Miles, A, code C67

New Alphabetical Index of Players

(bold indicates that the player had White)

Agdestein,S G13.61.1

Anand,V G13.61

Anand,V G13.61.1

Bathie,N G4.28

Buttin,P G1.6

Cijs,P G7.13

Damaso,R G9.14

De Barberis,M G2.7

DellaValle,M G7.13

Ehrenfeucht,W G12.20

Estrin,Y G12.21

Estrin,Y G12.21.1

Kurkin,A G12.21.1

McLelland,A G4.28

Miles,A G13.62

Morphy,P G1.6

Nun,J G12.21

Rodrigues,N G9.14

Rowson,J G13.62

Short,N G13.61

Skembris,S G2.7

Slaby,J G12.20

Van Kemenade,R G7.12

Westra,R G7.12

New Alphabetical Index of Openings

1 e4 e5 2 c3 G1.6

Bishop's Opening G2.7

King's Gambit Declined with 2...Bc5 G4.28

Petroff Defence with 3 Nxe5 G7.12/7.13

Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence G13.62

Ruy Lopez, Closed Variatn with 6 Re1 d6 G13.61

Ruy Lopez, 4 Ba4 b5 G13.61.1

Scotch Game with 4...Bc5 5 Be3 G9.14

Two Knights Defence with d3 & ...Be7 G12.20

Two Knights Defence G12.21

 

Announcement

Bonus Brainteaser

Puzzle Solution

Birthday Game

Thanks

Dedication

New Highlights

M.O. Moves

Rewind Reward

Hero of the Month

Hero Puzzle

Hero Puzzle Solution

Motto of the Month

Index of New Games

New Index of Players

New Index of Openings