Perpetual Chess Linkfest #93, August 31, 2024

Critical Moment

For more than I year, I have toiled on this free newsletter as part of a long con to get you to buy my New Chessable course! (OK, you probably shouldn’t buy it if you are a grandmaster.) The course, Identifying Critical Moments in Chess, is designed to help intermediate players get better at managing their time. I know this topic well because I have been terrible at managing my time for years. By applying the framework presented in this course, I became less terrible. We will leave the sales pitch there, but I have included a few puzzles in this newsletter that are representative of those in the course (although they aren’t actually in the course). As is my preference, the positions are taken from amateur, rather than professional-level games. Catch you all next week!

Chess Improvement

Kamryn Hellman shares a few tips for developing a study plan. “For a consistent routine, I’d recommend a small number of rapid games per day. Anything faster than rapid doesn’t count, and setting a specific number of games prevents tilt.” (The Little Pawn)

GM Noël Studer takes some shots at the innocent Pirc defense! (Next Level Chess)

Fancy Move Syndrome is a concept borrowed from poker, where a player cannot resist going for a tricky move or an unnecessary counter-attack. In this game, Black is up a pawn, and couldn’t resist going for the petit combination with 31… Rxc3. 32. Kxc3 Ne4+ King and Pawn endgames are very tricky, and Black actually lost the game. With a less fancy move like 31… Kf7 a win would have been more likely.

Reviews

Forward Chess previews Chess Coach by Vladimir Barsky. The book looks at the legacy of IM Mark Dvoretsky (Forward Chess)

Chess News

Alireza won the Sinquefield Cup! “This wasn’t the greatest Sinquefield Cup ever, to put it mildly, but we can hope that it was a good warmup for the players as they get ready for the Olympiad, which starts in a couple of weeks.” (FM Dennis Monokroussos in The Chess Mind)

The latest news rundown from Leonard Barden “This year’s FIDE World Rapid & Blitz there will be a free day in the middle, devoted to Chess Davos, a conference exploring the links between chess and finance. The new schedule has evoked widespread criticism,both from players concerned about scarce and costly accommodation, and from chess media due to the overlap of the final blitz rounds and New Year celebrations.” (The Guardian)

Countless amateur games are decided on the back-rank. Sometimes they are decided by classic back-rank mates, but in other cases the mate is somewhat hidden. White to move and win! (Check the solution here)

FM Andy Lee wonders aloud, Has the Sinquefield Cup lost its secret sauce? (Lit & Chess)

A statistics expert asserts that Nakamura’s online winning streaks are not statistically improbable. As was a statistical certainty, Kramnik disagrees! (Tarjei Svensen for Chess.com)

King & Pawn endgames are always critical and require constant vigilance not to screw up. How could Black have seized victory from the jaws of defeat after 36… g3? (Answer here)

The Women’s Speed Chess Championship is approaching its Final 8 (Colin McGourty for Chess.com)