Najdorf Work

Working on the Najdorf this week.  Much of this book covers the 6.Be2 lines.  I have never had an opponent play that against me.  Mainly 6.Be3 is what I see, but I'm going to try it and pick up what ideas I can about the general handling of the Najdorf as a weapon against 1.e4. 
  I'm finding that I don't study openings real well.  I keep feeling like I have to memorize everything in them.  I know that I have to memorize a few things, but going through this book slowly and methodically will help sort out all the rubbish I'm hoping.  Let you know in a few days how it's going.

Way to Go Nick!!

Congratulations to an old friend from my junior golf days!  Nick Watney wins the 2012 FedEx Cup Playoffs opener by 3 shots!!!

My endgame studies

Got my copy of Silman's Endgame book in the mail this week and have been plowing through it.  Already up to the Expert Section.  Spent a long time on the minor piece section making sure that I keep the middlegame ideas from Reassess in mind when I look at the relevant endgame section.  Trying to work on linking the 2 parts of the game.  I'll get there yet!!

   The things I love most about studying endgame are all the cool moves that confound those who don't understand them!  Outflanking, triangulation, opposition, and how to effectively use them are basic tools in endgame but so few study this part of the game that they have no idea what they are missing!

White to move.  1. Kf2! (1.Ke3? Ke5! and white must give way) e3! (1...Ke5? 2.Ke3! and black loses the pawn and his chances) 2.Ke2! (2.Kxe3? Ke5! leads to the same problem as the note to move 1) Ke5 3.Kxe3  All about triangulation!! 

 

White to move 1.g5 Kh7 2.g8=Q+! (2.g6+?? leads to 2...Kg8 and to avoid stalemate the white king must let on of the pawns fall and go into a dead drawn K+P vs. K position; 2.Kf7?? is a little something we call stalemate) 2...Kxg8 3.Kg6  White gets the opposition and black loses.  How can someone see positions like these last two and think that studying endgames is boring??  If you say such things you must be doing it wrong. 

Middlegame Reading Summary

The week of August 12-18 I read How to Reassess Your Chess 4th Edition.  I started from the beginning and read up through minor pieces.  While learning/reinforcing what I knew about the ideas regarding these pieces, I still found things that I could use even better than I previously had.  Seeing that a piece can, no NEEDS TO BE, redeveloped to be more effective was something that I hadn't really considered OK before. 

 

Bc1!

 

This kind of move is something that wouldn't have occurred to me before reading this section.  Now, however I see the almost obvious reasons as to why it has to be played!  Redeploying to the a3-f8 diagonal will either prevent black from castling or great control over the d6 square.