Improvement Challenge - The Fax Machine Game
Just a couple of weeks ago, it was the 30th anniversary of the famous Michael Jordan two-word fax that was sent out to all the major media outlets. He succinctly stated "I'm back", marking his return to basketball from his brief 18-month hiatus playing Double-A baseball for the Birmingham Barons.
Well just this pass Monday, I made my return to OTB chess after a 6-month layoff thanks to extenuating life circumstances and it was one of the better games I've ever played. I had the initiative from the start, was able to win material and sealed the deal up a piece while my opponent was drastically low on the clock. Therefore, I'm dubbing this affair "The Fax Machine", since I announced my newfound presence ever so curtly and with authority.
It's clear taking the b-pawn and opening the file was my opponent's downfall in this game. Those types of positions remind me of certain characteristics in openings like the Dutch, QID or really any system where a Bishop is fianchettoed and a player makes the particular unintuitive decision to double their pawns to open a file. A bishop on the long diagonal in tandem with a Rook on an open file can create tremendous pressure. I've been studying the French Defense recently with both colors and here are a couple of examples to illustrate better this theme.
I searched the database for the 6...Be7 line and it seems to be Matthias Bluebaum's pet line against the Schlechter as he has essayed it in a many of a Titled Tuesdays and even OTB as well. Matthias has been in the news recently for winning the European Championship for the 2nd time so you could do worse than studying his games.
Also searching the database, I found an annotated game between two prominent GM's which helped clarify some moves, ideas and plans in regard to Black playing the 6...Be7 "Bluebaum Variation."
Wednesday 4/2/2025
Mating Patterns
Monday was playing and Tuesday was for fixing so Wednesday was for time to study. I homed in on some thematic puzzles, particularly mating patterns of the Max Lange's Mate and the Balestra Mate.
I think most would be familiar with Max Lange's mate, as the Bishop and Queen do a little coordinated dance of discoveries and two-steps. It's a pretty common motif to mate the King when not many pieces are on the board.
But what about when there are a lot of pieces on the board and a whole lot of noise?
Balestra is a fencing term where one competitor leaps forward and then lunge at their opponent. I like to think of the Bishop having a sword in this scenario getting ready to deal the final blow. In a Queen vs King endgame, one way to shoo the enemy Monarch off the plank is by taking Knight's opposition. The Queen does this continuously, as the King only has one square to attend to before the Lady cuts off the King for good, like so --
In the Balestra Mate, the heavily armed Bishop does the duty of covering that one square that the Queen can't. Remember, as powerful as the Queen is, she cannot mate the King by herself.
Here are a couple of examples, ranging from medium to hard --
Thursday 4/3/2025 - Friday 4/4/2025
Endgame Study
In order to improve my calculation and overall chess knowledge, I'm going to be focusing on Endgames for the foreseeable future. I began my studies with ChessMood's Endgame Roadmap's Introduction and Section 1: Queen Wanted. It was a bit rudimentary for my skill level but I'm still able to pick up a few things. For instance, I was asked which of the following two pieces are best at stopping a passed pawn, the Knight, Bishop, Rook or King? I naturally said the Bishop and Rook since they are long range pieces but I was proven wrong. Bishops only fight on one color complex. If the pawn doesn't want to be attacked, it will just advance to the color that the Bishop cannot play on. The same essentially goes for Knights, which are notoriously bad pieces at trying to stop a Passed Pawn. Even though we associate Knights with being great blockaders of a pawn, however once the pawn advances the knight is no longer threatening to capture.
Therefore, the answer is actually the Rook and the King, for the simple reason that they can both block a passed pawn and attack it at the same time. For instance --
Another elementary rule that I had been neglecting is that of the Square. It's a simple calculation device in a King/Pawn Endgame to detect whether or not your Pawn can promote uninhibited. I was aware of how this worked but for some reason always got confused with the execution so I would always just count out the squares like an elementary school student. Does this Square start on my move or there's? What if they step into the square on the next move, can they still catch up? Not trusting myself to do basic arithmetic, I always opted to do this the long way but not anymore! I actually find it easier to think of it as a Right Triangle instead of a Square. Follow my logic --
Finally, I studied the endgame of our very first World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz and a German chess master by the name of Paul Lipke that took place way back in 1898. I can see why Steinitz was the best back then as this endgame showed incredible precision and patience. It is a model game to show how one can play against an Isolated Queen's Pawn. Just see for yourself and watch how the first world champion just continues to slowly improve his pieces and tighten the screws on the German Master.
Later that weekend, studying the English and prepping my opening choices for tournament play, I found another model game on how to play against an IQP from a different world champion. This model game came from our 12th World Champion, Anatoly Karpov. This game debunked a pretty popular preconception that I had in that it's not so important to necessarily BLOCK an IQP, instead what it is really important is to CONTROL the square in front of the IQP.
Studying this game was very convenient for me as it served two-fold. Not only did a get a Model Game on how to play for the Black side against an English but it also was a lesson in the middlegame/endgame and how to play against the IQP, which was an unexpected theme throughout my lesson materials this week. And speaking of, that'll be it for this week and next week will be more of the same --
Monday 4/7/25 - Play
Tuesday 4/8/25 - Fix/Game review
Wednesday - Tactics/Mating Patterns
Thursday - Endgame Roadmap
Friday - Endgame Classic #2
And the weekend is reserved for opening preparation for Monday. Until then, keep sharpening those tactics.
