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Chessville
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I have to admit that I approached S.O.S. #8 with a strange little bit of apprehension – kind of like that of a child who has been opening birthday presents for a good long while, and who suddenly wonders: what if they run out? Have no fear, though, the International Master and his creative crew of contributors have a collection of gifts for you that would put Kris Kringle, the Easter Bunny, and dear old Aunty Grizelda to shame. All follow the pattern of the previous seven volumes:
What makes the SOS volumes so helpful is that the authors present their ideas in annotated games, with enough analysis to see what is going on, and enough explanation to understand why it’s happening. Bosch leads off, as usual, with “The SOS Files”, a chapter presenting recent successful games using opening lines from previous SOSs. Actually, he’s so impressed with GM Ruben Felgaer’s chapter in this volume, “Meeting the Caro-Kann with 2.Ne2,” that the first “SOS Files” game is with that line. Finishing up the selection is another winner of the SOS Prize (“play the best SOS game, send it to us and win € 250”): Russian Nikita Vitiugov used a line in the Slav from SOS #6 to defeat GM Naer at Krasnoyarsk 2007, and the game is given. Hats off to GM Vitiugov – and to Bosch and the folks at New In Chess for encouraging and rewarding creativity in chess! GM Dimitri Reinderman introduces readers to “The Meszaros Variation of the Sicilian.” If 5…a6 can be called a “high class waiting move” in the Sicilian Najdorf (1e4 c4 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6) then we might think of 5…Rb8!? as at least a “coach class waiting move” in the Classical Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Rb8). Is such a move useful? Think – and think again. Reinderman later analyzes “The Porcupine Variation,” 1.c4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.g4!?, a gambit line likely to be embraced by club players the world ‘round. Embrace a porcupine?? Hey, it seemed to be a good idea at the time… Grandmaster Alexander Finkel scores twice in this volume, once with “SOS versus the Paulsen,” meeting one askance Queen move with another, 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Qf3!?, and again with “An Old Idea in the Modern Defence” – old meaning that Finkel first played the pawn sac in the 1990s: 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Bc4 d6 5.Qf3 Nf6!? Speaking of the Modern Defence brings to mind Raymond Keene, and it is one of his ideas that Grandmaster Sébastien Mazé and International Master Matthieu Cornette revive in “Nimzo-Indian with 6...Qe8!?”: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0-0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 Qe8!?. The authors concede that the move “looks stupid” but argue that it contains a lot of interesting ideas that are not readily apparent – an idea SOS! GM Arthur Kogan argues that “The Budapest Gambit Can Still Surprise!” giving some of his secrets in the fabulous Fajarowicz 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4!? – some aficionados of unorthodox openings will no doubt pick up SOS #8 for this chapter alone (I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you) – and then later the Grandmaster encourages readers to “Play the Spielmann Attack,” plucked from “between the ‘dusty shelves’ of my brain” 1.d3 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.d5 d6 4.Nc3 Bf5!? (with a possible …g5 thrown in later, when helpful.) Maybe it’s me, but I find even the name “Caro-Kann: Dementiev Variation” to be a bit unnerving. This is, of course, my own shortcoming, as many others know that Master Oleg Dementiev, of Kaliningrad, was a beloved and tireless trainer who worked with, among others, Grandmasters Petrosian, Vaganian and Akopian. His idea, 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ne2!?, which GM Mikhalchishin refers to as “Grandma’s” move (Dementiev was know to chessfriends as “babushka”), hardly seems dangerous at all at first glance – but tell that to Kholmov, Petrosian and Short, all who feature in losses in the chapter. GM Igor Glek re-introduces “A 19th Century Weapon versus the French” 1.e4 e6 2.f4!?, illustrating that all is new that has been forgotten. Given that this line was seen in the games between Alexander McDonnell and Louis Charles De Labourdonnais, and that Glek writes in his chapter that “we need more games to come to any definite conclusions here” – well, here’s one more example of the inexhaustibility of chess. Dorian Rogozenko understands the place of an SOS in a grandmaster’s life:
The grandmaster then goes on to present a survey on “Kamsky’s ‘Spare’ Slav” 1.d4 d4 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Qb6!? Grandmaster Leonid Gofshtein offers “A Dynamic Ruy Lopez Surprise” 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nge7!? which is bound to frustrate any club player who just proudly completed memorizing the first 15 moves in the Zaitzev Variation. The Knight move pre-dates Morphy and Anderssen, but I doubt that they played the opening so that “Black achieves dynamic positions like in the King’s Indian or the Benoni” as played in this chapter.
You may be fortunate to get into a main line Spanish Game after all, with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 B5 7.bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Na5 – congratulating yourself at this point that you didn’t have to face Grzegorz Gajewski’s 9…Rb8, highlighted in SOS #6 and “The SOS Files” of SOS #7 – only to find that after 10.Bc2 you’ve run into “Gajewski’s Incredible Spanish Novelty” 10…d5!? Bringing a Marshall-style Attack into this Chigorin Variation. Play can be as sharp as juggling chainsaws – enough to induce fond memories of the Berlin Defense, after all… Bosch also opines on “French Prophylaxis,” switching sides, as it were, from the line he gave in SOS #2, 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 h6!?, to now offer 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 a6!?. (Chessville readers may remember that both lines were covered in Dangerous Weapons: the French by IM John Watson.) The move of the a6-pawn is not just a silly out-of-the-book choice, it has a lot of thought behind it – again, the quintessential SOS. There is also Bosch’s “A Modest Indian,” not a tribute to GM Viswanathan Anand, although the line 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nd2 was played by GM Matthew Sadler against him a decade ago. (Those who like the idea should also track down Kaissiber 24, mentioned in the chapter.) Among other things, the opening wrinkle is touted as an excellent weapon against Grunfeld Defense players. Secrets of Opening Surprises Volume 8 finishes up the chapter “Who is Who? Authors and their Subjects.” What more can I say about Secrets of Opening Surprises? I started off this review by referring to the excitement of opening birthday presents, and in past reviews I’ve invoked the variety and deadliness of Batman’s utility belt. Twice I’ve made James Bond references. Let’s see… Working with the latest SOS adds to your tactical and strategic chops – Chuck Norris doesn’t play wimpy chess, Chuck Norris is a Secret Opening Surprise!
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