Saturday 16 March 2019

Oh, What A Kneipp

BEGAN yesterday at my 14th annual Bad Wörishofen congress, held in a well-heeled south Bavaria spa town that does a roaring business in the summer.
The town was a tiny village until a Catholic priest, Sebastian Kneipp (the K is pronounced), invented a form of hydrotherapy that is popular with German hypochondriacs to this day.
Bad Wörishofen is surrounded by scores of water troughs sunk into the ground for initiates to wade through.
The central European winter ensures these troughs have to be shut down and covered over well into springtime.
This means the town has lots of smart hotels, nearly all of which offer a form of Kneipp treatment, that have to drastically reduce their prices in the off-season.
Father Kneipp is treated with great reverence in the town, which is not surprising since his legacy means employment for many and enrichment for quite a few.
The town's officials tend to be particularly solemn - "po-faced" would be unkind - when it comes to everything Kneippian, which is why I was surprised to find the following prominently displayed at  Bad Wörishofen's kurhaus.
This is my 14th visit to Bad Wörishofen, and I have never seen Father Kneipp treated so flippantly before
Kneipp was not a chess player, as far as I know, but then I have been doubting recently whether I can fairly call myself a chess player.
Nevertheless I got off to a winning start yesterday in round one of Bad Wörishofen U2000.
Spanton (1890) - Karl-Heinz Stolzenwald (1623)
Sicilian Rossolimo
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6
Three world champions, Euwe, Anand and Carlsen, have played this move.
4.Bxc6 bxc6
4...dxc6 is regarded as the main line, but the text has been played by some strong players and is preferred by the analysis engine Stockfish10.
5.d3 d6 6.0-0!?
The most-popular move in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, and is liked by Komodo9, but it scores badly.
6...g6?!
Black should probably play 6...e5, with a very reasonable position.
My next move seems to be a novelty
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
7.e5!
This somewhat obvious move is a novelty, or at least is not in Mega19. The exclamation mark is for the move's effectiveness rather than for any special merit on my part.
7...Nh5
The engines slightly prefer 7...dxe5, but if isolating his doubled c pawns is Black's best move, then Black is in trouble.
8.exd6 Qxd6
I was expecting 8...exd6, but White is quite a bit better after 9.Re1+ Be6 10.Ng5 Qd7 11.Nxe6 fxe6 12.Nc3 (Komodo9) or 9.d4!? Be6 (9...cxd4 10.Nxd4 Be6 11.Re1 Qd7 12.Nc3) 10.dxc5 dxc5 11.Qe2 (Stockfish10).
9.Nc3 Bf5 10.Ne4 Bxe4 11.dxe4 Qxd1 12.Rxd1
Black is clearly better, and I did go on to convert my advantage (1-0, 44 moves).

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