This Week's ChessVideos Show: Two Shows!

The "official" show is here, in which I present a remarkable computer battle from one of Martin Thoresen's all-engine battles. It's a really spectacular game in which attack and defense remain in a precarious balance for a long time before one side goes too far, and even that turns out to be fascinating as well. This is definitely a game to check out, and suitable both for pure entertainment and especially for training.

This week there's a second video as well. Last week's show featured a couple of pawn endings arising straight out of opening theory, and one of the viewers asked a very good question, one that deserved a special look. So here it is: two videos for the price of one!

That "price" is very reasonable - it's free (free registration required) - and the videos will be available on-demand for the next month or so.

A Brief Review of The Chess Cafe Puzzle Book 3: Test and Improve Your Defensive Skill

Karsten Müller and Merijn van Delft, The Chess Cafe Puzzle Book 3: Test and Improve Your Defensive Skill (Russell Enterprises 2010). 216 pp. $24.95. Reviewed by Dennis Monokroussos.

Karsten Müller is well known in the chess world, especially for his endgame books, while Merijn van Delft's primary claim to fame at the moment is his work with the weekly e-newsletter ChessVibes Openings. The current work is primarily Müller's, but both authors are involved in this, the final book of the Chess Cafe Puzzle Book series.

The first volume was a straightforward test-your-tactics book, while the second offered more positionally-based tests. Their latest work tries to help the reader (or perhaps better, the solver) grow as a defender, in part through information and mostly through exercise. There are 12 chapters, the first nine of which offer a mix of instruction and exercise. (A concept is presented, examples are given, and a few puzzles are posed.) Here's an overview of those first nine chapters.

Chapter 1: Principles and Methods of the Defender. This chapter offers the principles of defense at the highest level of abstraction; that is, general tips for the defender that can apply across the widest span of defensive situations. Examples include "chess is not checkers" (i.e. seemingly "forced" captures are sometimes anything but), "the elimination method" (i.e. finding the right move by refuting all the alternatives) and "being not doing" (viz., not helping your opponent by "doing" something that sabotages your own position).

Chapter 2: Defending against an Attack on the King. Here the concepts are a bit more specific, and among the included topics are standard tips like exchanging the enemy's attackers but also subtler notions like using the king as a defender and sacrificing to destroy the harmony of the attacker's army.

Chapter 3: Fighting against the Initiative.

Chapter 4: Perpetual Check.

Chapter 5: Stalemate. The authors divide this into two sections: endgame stalemates (which is further subdivided to include, inter alia, the second-rank defense in the rook and bishop vs. rook ending) and middlegame stalemates.

Chapter 6: The Right Exchange. In chapter 1, the idea of swapping off enemy attackers was noted; on the other hand, if one is down material, the rule of thumb is to swap pawns and avoid trading pieces. These are rules of thumb, not laws, and in a given position the rules of thumb may be completely wrong. The authors offer further guidance on the matter.

Chapter 7: Exchange Sacrifices. The chapter includes (but is not limited to) sections on the "Russian" exchange sacrifice (when a rook plugs up an open file on a square that's inaccessible to enemy pawns, is vulnerable to one or more enemy minor pieces and is protected by two of its own pawns), the blockading exchange sac, plus typical exchange sacs in the Sicilian (...Rxc3) and the French (...Rxf3).

Chapter 8: Defense against a Minority Attack. This is highly specific, but of course very useful to anyone who plays or faces the Carlsbad pawn structure. (This most frequently arises in the QGD Exchange, but can happen elsewhere too, e.g. the Exchange Caro-Kann.)

Chapter 9: Defending Inferior Endgames. Included here are sections on the defender activating his rook and "the [m]ighty [p]assed [p]awn".

Chapter 10 presents some highlights from one of Tigran Petrosian (the 9th World Champion), who is widely recognized as one of the all-time great defenders. Chapter 11 offers 24 "Easy Exercises", aimed as a warm-up for chapter 12: Tests. There are 16 tests, each with eight puzzles, with a (very) approximate rating chart based on the number of correct answers.

Not too many books have been dedicated to defense in chess, and fewer still have taken a puzzle-based approach, so the book definitely fills a role in the market. Further, it's not just that they've done the thing; they've done it well. The instructional material hits the key topics and the puzzles are both well-chosen and almost all of recent vintage, not rehashes of oldies but goodies. The problems might be a little too challenging for lower-level club players, but certainly anyone 1700-1800 and up can benefit from the book.

Recommended, and available here (and no doubt elsewhere, but not yet on Amazon).