Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Whose Book Is It Anyway?

Game Of The Week


This weekend I played in the Pikes Peak Open.  It is quickly becoming my favorite tournament.  Four out of my top ten prizes have come from the Pikes Peak Open, including this year where I tied for 1st place.  I have never finished in first or second place here before so it was sort of a milestone for me.

Of course, it helped that the turnout was a little on the light side.  No masters or experts showed up.  In fact, I think I was the only one from Colorado who showed up, as the state of New Mexico was nice enough to come up here to play me.

Another reason I am partial to the Pikes Peak Open is that it is part of both my longest unbeaten streaks for USCF-rated games.  In 2004, it started a streak of 13 unbeaten games over the course of 5 different events including such memorable games as:


The streak finally ended at the hands of Mikhail Ponomarev in the 2005 Colorado Springs Open.

This year the streak spans 4 different events starting with the Southern Colorado Open, as I mentioned last week when I was trying to find my last lost to publish (https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/2006/08/causing-stampede.html).

Well, it is a good thing I didn’t wait to publish my next loss because I just may never lose again.  This year’s Pikes Peak Open has broken the old record and set my mark at 14 unbeaten games and counting.

In all honesty though, I am not really sure why things have gone so well for me these past 14 games.  I am still missing things that seem so obvious when Fritz looks over the games.  In fact, in every game I won this weekend I missed a key move that would have changed the game dramatically.

But so did my opponents.  Maybe they aren’t as obvious as Fritz makes them seem.  I was talking with Arthur Glassman about problems with Fritz and his thoughts on how it should be used to avoid its pitfalls.

I liked what he was saying, but I am the kind of guy that wants some concrete examples before I buy into something.  I forgot to ask him if he could show me an example, but I may have stumbled across one myself.

I played Jim Johnston from New Mexico in the fourth round of the Pikes Peak Open.  He threw something at me I had never seen before.  I looked at 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3 f5 for a long time and thought I was going to be better.  I did end up better, and I was surprised when he told me all his moves in the opening were book.

Of course, I had missed 7. …Bg7, and I thought that is where he had gotten out of book.  But I was shocked to see the Fritz full analysis finish with “Nf6 last book move”!

Could that be correct?  I searched the position in the Fritz database.  Nf6 returned 0 games.  Bg7 returned 5 games.  Even the opening tree showed 0 games for Nf6 and 4 games for Bg7.  What book is Fritz using?  I looked at my MCO-14 and couldn’t find anything.  I am not even sure I know how to use that crazy book.

Finally, I tried Chessbase online.  I found 2 games that went Nf6.  Thomas Jepsen (2215) defeated Peter Jakobsen (2330) in 1990 with it.  The other one was Michael Shepherd (2037) losing to Stephen Gordon (2216).

Is that what makes it book?  Jakobsen looks to have blundered his game away, and Gordon got pretty much what I did.  It just makes me wonder...

See diagram on blog
White to move

Whose Book Is It Anyway?

[Event "Pikes Peak Open"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "2006.08.06"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Anderson, Paul"]
[Black "Johnston, Jim"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A40"]
[WhiteElo "1838"]
[BlackElo "1753"]
[PlyCount "37"]
[EventDate "2006.08.05"]

1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6 3. e4 Bb7 4. Bd3 f5 5. exf5 Bxg2 6. Qh5+ g6 7. fxg6 Nf6 8.
g7+ Nxh5 9. gxh8=Q Qf6 10. Qxh7 Nf4 11. Bxf4 Qxf4 12. Ne2 Qf3 13. Rg1 Nc6 14.
Qg6+ Kd8 15. Rxg2 d5 16. a3 Na5 17. Nd2 Qh3 18. Nf4 Qh8 19. Qf7 1-0



[Event "DEN-chT 9091"]
[Site "https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/"]
[Date "1990.??.??"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Jakobsen,Peter"]
[Black "Jepsen,Thomas"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Eco "A40"]

1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3 f5 5.exf5 Bxg2 6.Qh5+ g6 7.fxg6 Nf6 8.g7+ Nxh5 9.gxh8=Q Nf6 10.Bh6 Kf7 11.Bxf8 Qxf8 12.Qxf8+ Kxf8 13.Nd2 Bxh1 14.f3 Nc6 15.Kf2 Nb4 16.Bb1 Ke7 17.Ne2 Rg8 18.Ng3 Bxf3 19.Kxf3 Rf8 20.Be4 Nxe4+ 21.Kxe4 d5+ 22.cxd5 exd5+ 23.Ke5 c6 24.Nf5+ Kd7 25.Kf4 Nc2 26.Rg1 Ke6 27.Nf3 Rxf5+ 28.Kg4 h5+ 29.Kg3 h4+ 30.Kg2 Rf4 31.Rc1 Nxd4 32.Nxd4+ Rxd4 33.Rxc6+ Ke5 34.Rc2 Rf4 35.Rc7 d4 36.Rxa7 d3 37.Rd7 Ke4 38.Re7+ Kd4 39.Re6 d2 0-1

This Week In Chess


Tuesday August 8, 2006

On August 1, the CSCC had 18 members in attendance.  In the USCF-rated ladder game (G90), Tom Mullikin terrorized Jerry Maier and Joe Pahk pummeled Fred Eric Spell.

The rest of the participants played in a double round robin, speed tournament (G5).  Here are the results:

Player Score

Josh Bloomer 19.5
Paul Anderson 15.5
Buck Buchanan 15.0
Bill Whinemiller 15.0
Josh Divine 13.5
Renae Delaware 10.0
Larry Wutt 6.5
Virgil McGuire 5.0
Steve Jumper 5.0
Chris Wynkoop 3.0
Jason Feith 2.0

Pikes Peak Open Standings

By Buck Buchanan


Here is the crosstable for the Pikes Peak Open, which I directed in Manitou Springs Aug. 5-6.

Player Score

Paul Anderson 4.0
Imre Barlay 4.0
Jeffrey Dimiduk 3.5
Douglas Thigpen 3.5
DuWayne Langseth 3.5
Larry Wutt 3.5
Arthur Glassman 3.0
Jim Johnston 3.0
Michael Lauria 3.0
Jacob Zax 3.0
Gary Bagstad 3.0
Josh Divine 2.5
Isaiah Jesch 2.5
Joe Aragon 2.5
Robert Zing 2.0
Gerry Sunderland 2.0
Alexander Cacas 2.0
Joseph Pahk 2.0
Cory Foster 2.0
Shaun MacMillan 2.0
Tom Mulliken 2.0
Anthea Carson 1.5
David Hufnagel 1.5
Corey Chambers 1.0
John Cardie 1.0
Jerry Maier 1.0
Fred Eric Spell 0.5

Comments From Email


Randy & Teyana Reynolds, Tuesday, August 01, 2006 9:42 PM

I’m honored to be lumped in with Tyler and Daoud as “formidable”, but our last game ... still felt like a cakewalk for you.  Trading down to a lost endgame is a big temptation for me, it seems…


Comments From The Guest Book


John Farrington, Colorado Springs CO USA, Tuesday August 03, 2004 01:44:59 GMT

kEEP UP THE GOOD WORK... GREAT COLUMN.

Bob, US, Monday August 02, 2004 06:34:04 GMT

Hi there, Please try out my free chess clock. http/www.componentxtra.com/html/chessclock.htm

Ann Davies, Arvada CO USA, Tuesday July 06, 2004 16:39:11 GMT

I am not sure how it is that I receive your newsletter - but I do enjoy it.  I know that putting together something like this takes lots of time and effort.  After I read the latest newsletter, I almost wish I lived near the Springs so that I could be a member of your chess club.  It sounds like you folks are a great group who really enjoy chess and try to make things interesting.

[Comment is about this newsletter: (https://cschessnews.blogspot.com/2004/05/almost.html)]

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