Chess: the Ultimate Brain Game

While reading and watching Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman I realized it was that years of being a salesman had wired Willy Loman's mind to view things a certain way. In life imitates art once again, my life experiences have been bolstered by modern psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and biology that indicates the same thing: you are what you do.

People who invest significant time being involved with chess are improving their thinking and analytical powers just like a body builder strengthens their muscles by lifting weights. Reinforcing this idea is David Shenk's book The Immortal Game - he claims that chess rewires the brain and all mankind for the last 1500 years has been drawn to chess, making chess the greatest game in human history.

The good news is most of us in the US alive today will live to our mid 80's. The bad news is half of the people in their mid 80's today have various stages of Alzheimer's disease . Yet it has been proven in numerous studies that playing thinking games defends the brain against this disease. I hope this fact keeps the boomers coming to tournaments; unfortunately chess demographics indicate that we are losing 6 to 8 percent older players each year.

Now for you younger folks there are benefits as well. Obviously kids who study chess learn how to deal with situations and apply their analytical skills in real life situations, albeit they reside on 64 squares. Yet successful application of pieces on these squares is based on learning the mechanics of how to generate the most effective force in combination with dissolving one's opponents ability to do the same. Being trained as be a middle school teacher we became keenly aware of the importance of pushing kids to take on the most difficult mental challenges they were capable of handling at the earliest stages that their cognitive ability could handle the challenge. Add to that the need for every kid to find their passion, usually something that's not initially or inherently easy, but becomes something they learn to excel at; which provides, the mortar that builds and glues their self esteem and ego. All my kids play internet games and while these games are quite challenging I contend that chess allows you to create a new reality at the moment. The reality is out in front of us unhidden, present yet so complex.

Upon waking up on the mornings that I know I am going to play chess my mind already is processing in a different way. This may sound weird, but my thinking is different when I even know I'm going to play chess. What does all this mean? Well it means that if chess is your past time, there are collateral improvements in your thinking, increasing capability, and protection your future thinking ability. Pretty heady stuff indeed.

How can we promote chess as the ultimate brain game?

Please comment

Thank You

Mike Griffin
01/26/2010

Liberty Bell Open

FM Paul MacIntyre was in the group of 5 tied for second at the 2010 Liberty Bell Open.

Paul had 5.5 of 7 points, - the half-point came from a last round draw with GM Alexander Stripunsky (2615) which edged the GM out of the money.

GM Alexander Shabalov won first place with 6.0.


Congratulations to Paul...

Law Student and Chessmaster

from the Boston College Chronicle
Friday, January 22, 2010

Charles Riordan is ranked among the top 100 chess players in the country.

(Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Law Student and Chessmaster

By Melissa Beecher Chronicle Staff
Boston College Chronicle

Charles Riordan was in seventh grade, a self-described “class nerd,” when he answered a challenge from a classmate to play a game of chess.

“I got checkmated in four moves, much to the delight of everyone watching,” said Riordan. “At that point, I realized I needed to learn how to play and get a little revenge.”

During the past year, the United States Chess Federation ranked the second-year Boston College Law School student among the top 100 chess players in the country. Riordan, who is an editorial assistant to Monan Professor of Law Dan Coquillette, regularly participates in top tournament play in the region and throughout the country.

“I like the fact that it’s a problem solving exercise. I like that it’s unexplored in a lot ways. There is a whole theoretical discussion about the best way to get a good position out of the opening for both colors,” says Riordan, pausing to laugh. “I guess that’s very dull to anyone who doesn’t play. But I enjoy that you get to make new discoveries for yourself, your own subset of knowledge.”

A Cambridge native, Riordan credits a parent on his high school chess club for getting him interested in competing on the national level.

“There’s a lot of people who equate children playing chess to kids doing well in school, but I think there’s less cause and effect there. You have people who are interested in studying chess, there are people who are interested in studying a whole variety of other things,” said Riordan. “On it’s own, it’s very esoteric, but it’s very fun. And that’s why I play.”

Riordan said rare is the occasion that he sits across from someone he hasn’t already competed against before – a group of 10 high-level chess players in the Boston area often compete against one another repeatedly for the best matches. He describes his style as focused; he prefers to not to look at his opponent at all, simply focusing his attention on the technical points of the game.

Riordan said little has changed since he became a top-rated player, other than he has taken to traveling with a chessboard in the trunk of his car, just in case a good match-up presents itself.

“I’ve been fortunate to meet some really amazing people through this,” he said. And what advice would Riordan give to nerdy seventh graders who may get checkmated during a first attempt at chess?

“Don’t quit...unless you hate it. In that case, do quit and play sports,” said Riordan. “And I’d tell them not to worry, most chess players are very nice and not all that geeky once we grow up."

GM/IM Lecture Survey

The Boylston Chess Foundation is committed to delivering high quality chess content in many formats. One way to bring chess to the community is to invite GMs and IMs to give a lecture. We normally schedule these in the evenings during the week.

We would like to boost attenance at these events in the future, and hope that people will post comments to answer the following questions:

1. Are evenings during the week best? Or would you be more likely to attend if the lectures were scheduled immediately after a weekend tournament, for example the 3-round quads?

2. What topics would you like to hear GMs/IMs cover?

3. How much would you be willing to pay for an event? Usually they are free for club members, small fee for non-members. If a club member, would you be happy to pay a small fee? Please remember the club must pay these professionals for their time, and we usually take a loss on the events.

4. Would you attend a lecture by other top Boylston Club players, perhaps one of our many masters, for a nominal fee? What subjects might they cover.

Thanks for you response. If you prefer, you can e-mail your answer to the club, or to rihel_AT_mcb.harvard.edu.

Those madcap Québécois, Part Deux

Well, I was just up in Canada, too, but for some reason I was unable to buy enough rating points to get over 2500. Where did you go shopping, Marc?
;-)

I did succeed in taking a tour of the Ice Hotel, currently celebrating its 10th anniversary in Québec.

Getting my opening theory down cold


Despite placing the improvised mini-board correctly, I was unable to scrape up an opponent


The interior temperature of the Ice Hotel is kept at -5° Celsius, so if you're burning up from Fire on Board, consider a trip up north. After visiting the Ice Hotel, you can always retire indoors with Chess Masterpiece Theatre:


My French language defense held up about as well as my French defense does. Hmm, not sure if that's good, given that I haven't answered 1 e4 with 1...e6 since the 1990's.

In any case, leaving Québec I had no trouble at all switching back to butchering things in English. I was once told that the stress is on the first syllable of the World Chess Champion's name, instead of on the second syllable, as I'd imagined. While driving, the classic 70's chess song, Anand On by Stephen Bishop, began playing over and over in my head.

Thank you, Ladies and GerMs, I'll be here all week, unless NBC changes my time slot.

Chess Library at the BCF: Rihel Effort Shown

What is the difference between a book collection and a library? For the past two years Dr. Jason Rihel (Biochemist by trade) worked on cataloging the BCF's chess books. He determined that there exists 2100 volumes, including DVDs and VHS tapes. For those months Jason would be seen connected to his IBM laptop sitting by stacks of books typing away. This one-man Herculean task called the Chess Club Library Project now provides us members with two lists of this great asset.

• List one: BCF books and media materials.
  
• List two: Duplicate books, which are for sale and currently have brought in over $200 to date.
  

Now we know what we have. And if you are interested in buying a book it will help the club as well.

So thank you Jason Rihel for sacrificing the time to inventory these books thus enabling the rest of us to know what the BCF has and allow us to enjoy them.

BCF members: did you have any ideas as to how we can improve our library?

Please Comment.

Thank You

Mike Griffin 01/18/2010

http://www.boylstonchessclub.org/Library.html

IM Marc Esserman broke through to the 2500 level

FM Paul MacIntyre reports that IM Marc Esserman broke the 2500 barrier, in Edmonton and then moved a bit further at our own $10 open. He gained 34 points in Canada!

Congratulations Marc !

2009-12-17 4TH INTERNATIONAL 2467 => 2501

2010-01-09 BCF $10 OPEN JAN 2010 (MA) 2501 => 2502

Herb Healy Jan 1 2010 - A View from the Sidelines

About 44 participated in playing in this year's Herb Healy. This is down about 20 people from 2009. The deficit caused the $320 expense of the food to be absorbed by the BCF, contrary to previous years where entry fees covered prizes and the food.

The tradition of serving food new year's day began out of necessity because in the days of the blue laws there was very little open on Jan 1. Irving Yaffee estimates he catered the HH (even before it was called the Herb Healy) for about 50 years. Irving worked for a meat packing firm and got the food at wholesale prices. About six years ago Irving got a pacemaker and had to step down. Larry Schmitt and myself stepped in. So although the need to serve food has gone away people still like the tradition.

I remember walking from Park Street Station to Boylston Street in 1976, the morning after the first First Night, to play in the HH. In those days the city of Boston hadn't figured out all the rules and the whole Boston Common was covered in about one foot depth of trash and people were still partying. Public drinking was prevalent and people were in various states of ossification; it was a very chaotic situation.

Below is the score of a beautiful HH French Defense having Ben Goldberg performing the classic exchange sac and then offering his queen.

Ben Yuan counters in a dangerous almost successful fashion. A fantastic game played by both sides.

Zongyuan Yuan vs. Ben Goldberg

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 Nd2 Nf6
4 e5 Nfd7
5 Bd3 c5
6 c3 Nc6
7 Ne2 cxd4
8 cxd4 f6
9 exf6 Nxf6
10 Nf3 Bd6
11 O-O O-O
12 Bf4 Bxf4
13 Nxf4 Ne4
14 Ne2 Rxf3
15 gxf3 Ng5
16 f4 Nf3+
17 Kg2 Nh4+
18 Kh1 e5
19 dxe5 Bg4
20 Qb3 Bf3+
21 Kg1 Qd7
22 f5 Nxf5
23 Bxf5 Qxf5
24 Ng3 Nd4
25 Qxb7 Rf8
26 Qxg7+ Kxg7
27 Nxf5+ Rxf5
28 h4 Rf4
29 Kh2 Rxh4+
30 Kg3 Rg4+
31 Kh3 Ne2
0-1

How was your HH experience? Please Comment. Thank You Mike Griffin 01/11/2010

How Boston's First Night Got Started

Monday Night Swiss

It is not too late to join the Monday Night Swiss with a 1/2 point bye for the first round. What we lack in quantity, we make up in quality -- come join us to play some competitive games. Email me at oresick@gmail.com to register.

4ss; 30/90, G/20, rounds start at 7:00 pm.


1 Esserman, Marc 2453
2 Jaleel, Zaroug 2047
3 Glickman, David 1994
4 Eldridge, Ross 1885
5 Christiansen, Natasha 1812
6 Driscoll III, Walter 1800
7 Hoy, Andrew Paul 1760
8 Lee, Jonathan Mark 1724
9 Ingham, Sean Thomas 1708
10 Oresick, Robert J 1638
11 Lieberman, Seth 1549

Herb Healy 2010

The annual Herb Healy Open House ushered in the new chess year.

Only 46 players entered the rated and unrated events, though many others visited and greeted old friends. The total was down about 20 from last year.

The TDs were Bernardo Iglesias and Walter Driscoll. Mike Griffin prepared a delicious spread again this year. [Irv Jaffe, who for many years was the chief cook, is recuperating from a back injury.] The enterprising Jason Rihel who recently cataloged the BCF library sold off many duplicates and earned a nifty sum for the foundation.

NM Lawyer Times won the rated section (n = 28) with 4.0. FM Denys Shmelov was 2nd with 3.5. Tied for 3rd with 3.0 were NM Chris Williams, NM Carey Theil, NM Greg Kaden, Simon Warfield and Ben Goldberg. Though Ben only got the bronze, he is lucky in love, as his beautiful girlfriend accompanied him to the tournament and patiently observed his games.

NM Charles Riordan’s 4 points won the unrated section (16 players). FM Bill Kelleher and LM Alex Cherniack tied for second with 3.0. Tied for 3rd were Winston Huang, Alex Slive, Embert Lin, Robert Huntington, WFM Vesna Dimitrijevic, and Paul Mishkin.

If you would like to view some photos, check out this link.

How early Boylston Chess Club?

While thumbing through the Boyslton Chess Club Library, I started to wonder how early I could find a reference to our esteemed club. We know that it was formally founded on August 27, 1919, and that the Young Men's Christian Union, our original home, had chess playing in the late 1800's. But could I find the actual references in print, especially to the days when it was still informal?

With the Google Book Library Project, it becomes very easy to search old books for small mentions. Here is what I've found so far, going backwards. With Google Books, this research only took a few hours.

First, I'll start with a neat article (I can send the full article to interested parties) about a young Sammy Reshevsky kicking the collective Boston butt in 1922, just 3 years after our club's founding.

This was hosted by an older chess club, the defunct Boston Chess Club, but the Boylston Chess Club had serveral representatives listed, including C.B. Snow, who is mentioned as "a vertern player, who was the local champion over forty years ago and who had defeated Steinitz twice in similar events...." He lost, but Jacobs of the Boston Club actually checkmated Sammy over the board, noted as the first mate in over 400 exhibition games in America!This article is significant, as it is the earliest mention of an EVENT that features players specifically from the Boylston Chess Club that I could find. Can anyone get earlier?

Moving backward in time, I've found the article in the American Chess Bulletin, 1919, discussing the first founding meeting of the Boylston Chess Club, which must certainly be one of the earliest use of the official club name in print.

So that is probably how early we can officially go. But chess was played in the Boylston Chess Club space in the YMCU on Boyslton Street for many years before the founding of the club. How early can we go?

YMCU on Boylston photo-1911

First, in 1911, is a reference in the YMCU yearly report, is this image of the chess players:

Is this the nascent Bolyston Chess Club, meeting for some casual games, or even a tourament?

Going back even further, I can find several references to the Chess Room at the YMCU, while not an official club, certainly was the starting point of our club. These include a 1898 reference to the Chess Room. However, the earliest I can get a reference to chess in the YMCU goes all the way back to the the early days of the YMCU on Bolyston Street in 1869:

What I like about this reference is that chess is not mentioned in the 1867 or 1868 yearbooks, giving me confidence I'm hitting one of the earliest references to the chess of the future Boylston club. Not a spectacular mention, but one that suggests chess was played at the YMCU 50 years before the club was officially founded.

So, with that I turn it over to the club elders, who may have more details about the club's early days. During my library work, I barely touched the old newspaper clippings and other dusty materials that may hold even better information. What I would really like to see are some early cross-tables, perhaps even those from unofficial tournaments BEFORE 1919. That would be pretty cool.

But I also hope that other club members will dive into the great Google Book resource and find even more print references to chess in Boston.

BCC member Philip Nutzman co-discovers SuperEarth!

Astronomer and Boylston Chess Club member Philip Nutzman was part of the Harvard team that recently discovered the exo-planet, GJ1214b, also known as a Super-Earth. The work was published in the premier journal, Nature. Only 40-light years away, this is the first "super-earth" with an observable atmosphere.

You can find a somewhat humorous artist's movie rendition of the planet here.

Size Comparison of GJ1214b to Earth and Neptune

Philip, can we get a cooler name, like Thoron, Cassia, or maybe Bh7!? Anyone have other suggestions for a name for this super-earth?

Poem to the Boylston by Walter Ness

Chess and Holiday Dream Gifts

In the past holidays gifts I have received:

• a beautiful Staunton set from Levitt and Pierce from my oldest Son Mike, that is my primary practice and tournament set;

• An Isle of Lewis reproduction set (with the Bob Oresick King) from my wife;
  

• and a Red Sox v NY Yankees chess set from my kids still "brand new - never been opened condition".

It would be appropriate to have Bill Lee as one piece and Mickey Rivers as another piece. The Isle of Lewis set is great in demonstrating the feeling of chess as a war game to little kids, because the pieces are very representative of real people fighting.

For this Christmas, if I could dream, I would like to have the following books:

• "The Hammer of Thor, My most exciting chess games" by GM Larry Christiansen and
  

• "Be the Force, Secrets of the Smith-Morra Gambit" by IM Marc Esserman.

I wish everyone Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a safe and prosperous New Year.

Hope to see you January 1 at the Herb Healy.

What would your fantasy holiday chess gifts be?
Please Comment. Maybe Santa is watching.

Thank You.

Mike Griffin 12/22/2009

Herb Healy Open House, Jan 1, 2010

Please consider coming to the open house, see some old friends, make some new ones, play some chess (rated or unrated), and enjoy a free lunch. It's a great way to start the 2010 chess year.

Registration isn't until 10:45 so you can sleep in from your celebrating the night before.You might even have a chance to play Chess Hall of Famer GM Larry Christiansen or former Mass. Champion and current BCF President IM Dave Vigorito or newly titled IM Marc Esserman.

............................................................................

Friday, January 1st: BCF

Herb Healy Open House

• 4SS; G/40;
• 2 sections: Rated and Non-Rated;
• Entry fee: $25, $20 BCF members if received by 12/30, $5 extra on site.
• Registration: 10:45 to 11:40.
• Rounds: 11:45, 1:20, 3:00, 4:40.
• Free food and drink served all day long to tournament players.
• Send advance entries to: Herb Healy Open House, 240B Elm St. Suite B9 Somerville, MA 02144
  

............................................................................

Herbert E. Healy was born on July 13, 1885 and died on Wednesday, January 9, 1974 in Boston. [Thanks to George Mirijanian for providing July 13 as his exact day of birth.]

He was 88 years old and one of the original Charter members of the Boylston Chess Club at its official organization in 1919. He was Secretary Emeritus at his death.

“The Club was saddened by the death of Herbert Healy, Charter Member and Secretary Emeritus, on Wednesday night, January 9, 1974. This occurred only days after the Herbert Healy Appreciation Tournament (the 30-30 New Year’s Event) and Testimony was held in his honor. Wednesday had a 10”-12” snowfall, but Mr. Healy showed up at the Union and peeked into the Chess Quarters. [ He went to his home in the South End on Brookline Ave.] He died in his sleep. (Only Dave Hudnut, in the Providence Rhode Island area, remains as a Charter Club Member.)”

In 1980 the New Year's 30/30 was permanent dedicated to him as Herbert E. Healy Open House. Herbert E. Healy along with Harry Lyman, Irvin Yaffee, Myer Edelstein and others customarily provided food to the participants of this event.

This information was taken from minutes of the club from January 27, 1974 and talking with Mr. Harry Lyman and William Lukowiak in past years. There are more testimonies about Mr. Healy that I am omitting.

Bemardo Iglesias

December 2007

New commenting service, Echo, is now up and running.

The old commenting system was discontinued, so we adopted the Echo upgrade.

The new commenting service is now up -- just click on any comment link on the site. It is actually quite impressive, e.g., you can now include an image in your comment.

Since we are now requiring people to authenticate themselves before they comment, we turned off moderation (we can always turn it back on if necessary). This means there will be no delay in posting your comments and perhaps shorter response times.

To authenticate yourself, use the admin button at the upper right corner of the comment page.
I believe that once you set up and log in, you will be able to comment freely until you logout.

By the way, it appears that we can no longer show recent comments on the sidebar. (Update: Recent comments are now showing up again on the sidebar - DG)

-David, Robert, Jason

IM Dave Vigorito won the Harry Lyman Memorial

IM Dave Vigorito won his 3rd Harry Lyman Memorial in the last five years.
In the 15 player Open Section GM Alexlander Ivanov and Vigorito settled on a quick draw, but Ivanov could only draw expert Alan Price with White. Vigorito beat LM Cherniack with Black from a dubious position to win the tournament.

After all, it was the Harry Lyman Memorial, and they share the same birthday, so he may be getting some inspiration from the great chess beyond...

In the U1800 Section (14) Sean Ingham won clear first with 3.5 points. Robert J. King, Bernardo Iglesias, and Jerry Williams all finished with 3.0.

Bernardo also was TD and guarantor of the prize fund.


Previous Lyman Memorial winners have been as follows:
2009 (29 players): IM Dave Vigorito
2008 (16 players): IM Dave Vigorito
2007 (22 players): NM Avraam Pismennyy
2006 (32 players): IM Dave Vigorito and FM Paul MacIntyre
2005 (23 players): FM Charles Riordan and NM Eric Godin




Harry Lyman was the dean of New England chess and the soul of the Boylston Chess Club.

Don't miss his memorial tournament on Saturday with a $400 prize fund (b/30).

..................................................

1957 Lyman, Harry wins US amateur championship, 6-0, in Ashbury park, NJ.

..................................................

Saturday, December 19: Harry Lyman Memorial
4SS; G/60. Entry fee: $25, $20 to BCF members. Prizes: $400b/30: 1st $150 2nd $75 Under 1800 1st $100 2nd $75; Registration: 9:15 to 9:55; Rounds: 10:00, 12:40, 3:00, 5:10.

Read more about Harry Lyman by Alex Cherniak at
http://www.boylstonchessclub.org/Harry.html

and by Mike Griffin at http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/2008/12/harry-chess-and-me.html

IM Dave Vigorito attained a rating above 2500.

12/12/2009: IM Vigorito won the Robert James Fischer Memorial tournament at the Boylston.

In doing so, Dave achieved a personal goal of breaking the 2500 rating barrier.

2009-12-12
200912128651 2494 => 2501

Congratulations Dave, from all of us.

PS I did want to congratulate you on breaking the 2500 barrier - I knew that was a goal you had and feel like it really is a great accomplishment. I should say I didn't track your progress and it was Paul MacIntyre who drew my attention to your result and suggested the post --you've got many folks rooting for you.

......................................................

See details about the tournament below, from the wonderful news column George Mirijanian does for MACA.

International master David Vigorito of Somerville added another victory to his long list of tournament triumphs on Saturday, December 12, by posting a perfect score of 4-0 in the Robert James Fischer Memorial tournament at the Boylston Chess Club in Somerville.

Finishing as runner-up with a 3-1 tally was national master Ilya Krasik of Newton, who lost to Vigorito in the third round.

Luke Lung, an 11-year-old player from Boxborough, also posted a perfect 4-0 score to win first place in the Under 1800 section.

Thomas Brinkmann of Somerville, who lost to Lung in second round, ended up in second place with a 3-1 result.

The two-section tournament drew 18 players and was directed by Bernardo Iglesias of Stoughton.

George Mirijanian
Publications Coordinator

MACA

BCF annual appeal - please discard the pre-addressed return envelopes you may have received.

Dear chess friends -

I hope you have or were planning to make a contribution to the annual appeal of the BCF, but I need to ask you to discard the pre-addressed return envelopes.

I inadvertently omitted the leading "0" in the zip and the post office computers will bounce it back to you. If you have used your own envelop, delivery should be fine.

I apologize for the error and inconvenience - I have learned to avoid hanging pieces, pretty much, but I still fall victim to the Excel-delete-the-leading-zero trick.

Finally, please help us make sure that our December contribution drive is a success. If you want to see the club continue, please make a generous donation this holiday season. We only exist because of your support.

Send your contributions and renewals to

Boylston Chess Foundation
PO Box 441345,
Somerville, MA 02144

Or, you can also simply bring your donations to the Herb Healy.

We'd love to see you at the Open House on January 1.

Friday, January 1st: BCF Herb Healy Open House 4SS; G/40; 2 sections: Rated and Non-Rated; Entry fee: $25, $20 BCF members if received by 12/30, $5 extra on site. Registration: 10:45 to 11:40. Rounds: 11:45, 1:20, 3:00, 4:40. Free food and drink served all day long to tournament players. Send advance entries to: Herb Healy Open House, 240B Elm St. Suite B9, Somerville, MA 02144

Chess and the Smith-Morra Gambit , according to IM Marc Esserman

Boston has always been the epicenter for swashbucklers of chess, beginning with Harry Nelson Pillsbury, to Weaver Adams, to Harry Lyman, to John Curdo, to GM Larry Christiansen, and now the chess gods insured that Marc Esserman move to Boston from Florida.

For the above mentioned, initiative is the most important asset in the game of chess -- these are players who put force above materiality.On December 8th Marc Esserman presented his views about the Smith-Morra Gambit in a lecture during an entertaining few hours about the fun one can have for the investment of one pawn.

The Smith-Morra is and has been a controversial opening over the past 50 years - being very popular with Boston players - and various claimed antidotes have been put forward.

Harry Lyman influenced many BCF players to use it against the Sicilian, including yours truly.

Then a man named Tim Taylor in the early 90's published a book that took some of the appeal out of the opening. Theory being ever-changing, Esserman and others have taken a real serious look at the Smith Morra. Marc computer beating on all known lines and games goes into a game with the confidence he has seen all that has been. With such preparation, and Marc being so gifted with great tactical skills, generates this confidence to use the Smith Morra against all comers. Last night Marc via games reviewed major attempts to debunk the Smith-Morra, showing in great detail how to deal with the Chicago and Siberian defenses. Most of his audience, a dozen, were people who play the white side of the SM, not defenders against the SM. Marc joked that he didn't want the lecture taped during the night as he divulged lines, facts, and concepts never published.

Esserman warned us not to be as dogmatic as originator Ken Smith, noting to be careful and not blindly make automatic moves like Qe2 without looking out. Esserman emphasized that white has to act quickly in not letting black consolidate easily without being "messed up" a bit for the pawn. Marc also stated you should take a lot more time in analysis than you might normally take because of the complexities but joked to not go too crazy in sacrificing too much. Then he showed an outrageous game where he quickly sacrificed a knight along with a pawn to win. He pointed out you should play against black's queen and leverage that pressure to impede Black's development and coordination.

The Smith-Morra, in Esserman's hands, presents positions that play to his strengths: early centralized queen placement, cryptic but brutal knight moves, in combination with bishops flying away from self interference with rooks are some Esserman's tactical common themes.

Bishops to h7 and a7 imbedded behind enemy pawns, and forcing enemy rooks to self smother their kings also abounded -- being Esserman signature strategies.

Overall a very well planned and presented lecture. At the end of the evening Marc took on all comers with a simultaneous.

Five players faced Marc -- some of us played/lost two games. I had to leave to early, but at that time Marc was undefeated.

I hope someday to see the book -- once Marc feels he has squeezed as many points as he can from the opening.

Is the Smith Morra a good opening for white?

Please Comment

Thank You Mike Griffin 12/09/2009