To Hull And Back

AM making final preparations for traveling to Hull tomorrow for a 4NCL weekend congress, which starts on Friday evening.

The 150 entries over five sections include two grandmasters, an international master and two Fide masters, with a time limit in the top three tournaments of 90 minutes, and a 30-second increment throughout.

I have entered the U2000, which has five rounds over three days, but I will be staying on an extra night, returning to London on Monday.

Hull's South African war memorial

Lessons From Bad Bertrich VII

THE progress of players is in some ways mirrored by their relationship with the chessboard's back rank, and in particular with the danger of falling victim to a back-rank mate.

Novices often succumb to such a mate, until in time they learn it can be worthwhile playing h3/...h6, or similar, to give the castled king an escape square.

But as players get stronger, they realise playing h3/...h6 - a "bookend move," as it has been called - can be a serious waste of time, and even make the king's position less safe.

Eventually players develop a feel for when a back-rank mate is on, or, more precisely, for when it is useful to take precautions against the possibility of such a mate.

My round-seven game at the Bad Bertrich 50+ tournament, in which I was Black against Michael Hillenbrand (2113), featured an interesting back-rank scenario, arising after I played 22...Rfd8.

All four black pieces (five if you include the king) are either on the back rank or are defending it - even the bishop covers f8

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In the game, White saved his queen by playing 23.Qf3?, but after  23...Rxd1 24.Qxd1 Qe4+ 25.Kg1 h6 White was lost, thanks to the pin on the c file.

The move 25...h6 was necessary because, although the peril is not immediately obvious, Black's back-rank is weak.

So much so, that in the diagram position White has three moves that maintain at least equality, Qe5, Ba1 and Be1, and it is worth looking at each in turn.

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23.Qe5 threatens mate on g7, so Black's best is 23...Qxe5, and after 24.Bxe5 Black cannot capture either white rook, eg 24...Rxc2?? loses to 25.Rxd8+ Bf8 26.Bd6.

Black should probably play 24...f6, when Dragon1 gives White a slight edge, but Stockfish18 calls the position equal.

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23.Ba1!? gives an even stranger impression at first sight, but 23...Rxd5?? loses to 24.Rxc8 Qf8 25.Rxf8+ and 26.Rxd5.

Not so bad is 23...Rxc2?!, although 24.Qxd8+ Qf8 25.Rd7!? is promising for White, eg 25...Rxa2 26.Be5 Rc2 (preventing Qc7) 27.Qg5 h6! (only move) 28.Qxf5 Rc5 29.Qe4, after which White's greater activity gives the upper hand, according to the engines.

The engines reckon Black's best is 23...Bc5!?, after which White should play 24.Qe5 or 24.Qf3, both with equality.

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23.Be1?! also looks odd, but the engines agree it leaves the game completely equal.

However, unlike Qe5 and Ba1, it sets Black no problems, and several moves maintain the balance, including 23...Bc5, 23...g6 and 23...Rb8.

LESSON: the threat of back-rank mate creates possibilities that otherwise would not exist, and this is especially so when most minor pieces (bishops and knights) have been exchanged, but heavy pieces (queens and rooks) remain.

Lessons From Bad Bertrich VI

MY round-six game, in which I was White against Martin Schopf (1909), was decided in a rook-and-pawn ending.

A critical position arose after I played 48.Rg3-g5

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My opponent replied 48...Rxg5?, which, as I commented in my post, "makes White's task easier."

The evaluations of my main engines jump from around +3.00 for White to more than +5.00 (Stockfish18) or almost +9.00 (Dragon1).

But it occurred to me afterwards that it would be instructive to see how White wins after a more sensible move, such as 48...Ke7, assuming the engines are right, and there is a way for White to break through.

Position after 48...Ke7

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Material is level, but White's advantage is based on the fact that Black's 4-3 queenside majority is blockaded, while White's 4-3 kingside majority still has some flexibility.

The moves that follow are the engines' consensus on how to best play the position. Where they disagree, and it is not obvious which is correct, I will choose what seems to me the more-human continuation.

49.Rf1!? Rg7 50,g4 hxg4 51.Rxg4 Rh5 52.Kf3 Rh6 53.Rc1 Kd7 54.Rh1 Rh5 55.Rg5 Ke8!? 56.Kg4 Rh8 57.h5 Rgg8 58.h6 Kf7.

White has created a passed pawn, but how does White make progress?

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59.Kf3 Rh7 60.Rg2 Rgh8 61.Rc2!? Rxh6 (61...Rc8?! 62.Kg4) 62.Rxh6 Rxh6 63.Rxc6 Rh3+ 64.Kg4 Rb3 65.Rxa6 Rxb4 66.Ra7+ Ke8 67.a6 Kd8 68.Kg5 Rxd4

Black is a pawn up, but White's more-active king and advanced passer add up to an advantage worth well more than a rook, according to the engines

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69.Rh7 Ra4 70.a7 Kc8 71.Kxg6 Ra6 72.f5!? exf5+ 73.Kxf5 b4 74.Rh8+ Kc7!? (74...Kb7 75.e6) 75.a8=Q Rxa8 76.Rxa8, and even the most-stubborn Black can resign.

LESSON: engines can make endgame technique seem simple, but watching such technique is instructive.

Opening Conundrum

THE game from the British Championship I highlighted yesterday featured an interesting point in the opening, which was a Réti, albeit one that began as an English.

This position has occurred 29 times in my games, with me being on both sides of the board, and it appears 49,965 times in ChessBase's 2026 Mega database

In Syvatoslav Bazakutsa (IM 2579 ECF/2488 Fide) - Kenneth Hobson (FM 2349 ECF/2244 Fide) the move-order was 1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3.

Black continued 4...d4!?, with Andrew Ledger commenting in Chess that "White will get decent dynamic chances, given that he has the extra move and Black is committed to ...e6."

In my post I pointed out that 4...d4!? is the top choice of Stockfish18 and Dragon1, whereas the engines reckon the most popular continuation, 4...Be7, allows White to gain a slight edge with 5.d4 or 5.0-0.

So the question arises as to the soundness of ...d4, and I think it will be interesting to investigate this.

Note that a purer Réti move-order to reach the diagram would be 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2.

In that sequence, Black has the option of 2...d4!?, which, while playing through Bazakutsa-Hobson, I seemed to remember used to be frowned on in old opening books.

My memory was not faulty, eg Reuben Fine in The Ideas Behind The Chess Openings claims pushing ...d4 on move two "is somewhat dubious," because it is "uncertain whether Black can maintain his powerful wedge at d4 under favourable circumstances."

However, Fine adds that "it is essential for White to hammer at the Black d pawn early, or secure compensation in some other way."

He reckons both e3 and b4 are necessary, and argues that 3.e3 is the best continuation.

A more modern, and more specialist, book, Easy Guide To The Réti Opening, sees Angus Dunnington recommend 3.b4.

He admits "theoretically Black should be OK," but argues that the complicated lines arising will not be easy for Black to handle psychologically.

However, it is again interesting to note that after 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4, the engines agree 2...d4!? is Black's best continuation.

The possibility of 3.b4 has persuaded some players to delay ...d4 in favour of 2...e6, when 3.g3 continues the "purer Réti move-order" mentioned above.

Position after 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3

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Here Stockfish18 changes tack by recommending 3...dxc4!?, narrowly ahead of what is overwhlemingly the most popular continuation, 3...Nf6. Dragon1 also comes to prefer 3...dxc4!?, but by a tiny margin over 3...d4!?
After the commonest move, 3...Nf6, White usually plays 4.Bg2, reaching the position in the first diagram, where, as we know, the engines like 4...d4!?, albeit with 4...dxc4 close behind, and with some fluctuation in the evaluations.

The bottom line seems to be that ...d4 is certainly playable, and may even be best, at moves two, three and four.

However, be warned that after 4...Be7 5.0-0, reaching a position occurring 27,651 times in Mega26, ...d4 loses some of its charm, at least for Stockfish18, which reckons both 6.e3 and 6.b4!? are promising for White.

And be especially warned that 6.b4!?, apart from facilitating Bb2, sets a trap, which has been fallen into by a 2206, namely 6...Bxb4? 7.Qa4+ Nc6 8.Ne5, when best seems to be 8...Rb8.

At first glance Black looks fine, but Gulruhbegim Tokhirjonova (2350) - Rui Yang Yan (2206), US Women's Championship (St Louis) 2023, continued 9.c5!, when Black's best may be 9...0-0!? (the game saw 9...Nd7?!) 10.Nd3! Ba5 11.Bxc6 bxc6 12.Qa5 e5!?, but Black does not have enough compensation for being a piece down.

Ton Up

ENTRIES for the English championships in Peterborough at the end of October have passed 100.

Lessons From Bad Bertrich V

MY round-five game, in which I was Black against Fide master Norbert Heck (2235), featured an instructive middlegame moment.

White has just played 22.Rc1-c7, defending the bishop on b7, which has helped snaffle a pawn

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I replied with 22...Rfd8?, the idea being that White is forced to move the bishop from b7 as Black threatens to kick the queen's rook with 23...Be5.

However, after 23.Ba6 Rxb2 (there is nothing better) White played 24.Bc4, when Black must lose either the f or a pawn.

Black is lost, according to Stockfish18 and Dragon1, as I show in my notes to the game.

What is more important is that in the diagram Black has an instructive way to equalise (Stockfish18) or at least be only slightly worse (Dragon1).

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The way to do this is to give up a second pawn by 22...d3!?, the point of the move being to activate Black's bishop.

After 23.exd3, Black does not take on b2 straightaway (if at all!), but instead hits the white queen's rook with 23...Be5.

That effectively forces 24.Rd7, and now 24...Rfd8 25.Rxd8 Rxd8 results in two White pawns being en prise.

White cannot defend both of them, so, after Stockfish18's line, 26.b3 Rxd3 27.Re1 f6, Black has regained one pawn, and has the better coordinated pieces.

Dragon1 suggests 26.Re1 Bxb2 27.Ba6, after which White has a passed pawn, but it is difficult to see how White makes progress following, for example, 27...Bd4.

LESSON: piece activity is hugely important, and can be well worth achieving at the price of a pawn, especially as the pawn may well be regained in short order.

Championship Chess

THE September issue of Chess magazine has reports on the British championships, held at Warwick University last month.

Chess ... championship edition

One game that particularly caught my attention, and certainly deserves deeper scrutiny, is the following round-three clash, which features a long-term positional piece sacrifice.

Notes in italics are by international master Andrew Ledger.

Syvatoslav Bazakutsa (IM 2579 ECF/2488 Fide) - Kenneth Hobson (FM 2349 ECF/2244 Fide)

Réti

1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3 d4!?

We get a reversed Benoni, and White will get decent dynamic chances, given that he has the extra move and Black is committed to ...e6.

On the other hand, 4...d4!? is the top choice of Stockfish18 and Dragon1, narrowly ahead of 4...dxc4, while the engines agree the most popular continuation, 4...Be7, leaves White slightly better, or at least with the better part of equality, after 5.d4 or 5.0-0.

5.0-0 c5 6.e3 Nc6

This position occurs 1,929 times in ChessBase's 2026 Mega database, and is equal, according to the engines

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7.d3 h6!?

7...Bd6 is most common, although as this is usually met by 8.exd4 cxd4 9.Bg5, you can see the point of ...h6.

8.exd4 cxd4 9.Bf4 Nd7!?

Challenging White's dark-square bishop with 9...Bd6 looks much more natural, but the engines rate the two moves as more-or-less equivalent.

10.Re1 g5!?

An aggressive attempt to stir things up.

11.Be5

I'd be nervous about committing my bishop to e5, but Bazakutsa, quite rightly, has no such fears.

11...Rh7!?

After 11...N(either)xe5 12.Nxe5 Nxe5 13.Rxe5, Black has the bishop-pair, but White is ahead on development, and it is unclear where the black king will find a safe haven.

How should White proceed?

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12.Bxd4!!

This appears to be a novelty, initiating a long-term piece sacrifice, relying on Black's lack of coordination and development.

I am sure the text would not have seriously crossed the mind of most players, but it is engine-approved, and may well have been preparation. The known continuation is g4 but, as AL points out, it "looks pretty ropey after simply 12...h5."

12...g4

Black has to accept the piece sacrifice, as otherwise White is winning, according to the engines.

13.Bc3 gxf3 14.Bxf3 Bg7

How would you assess the coming middlegame?

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White has two pawns for a knight, which, materially, is clearly not enough, and has a slight lead in development. But the main factor is surely the plight of the black king, which will struggle to reach the queenside, and is unlikely to be very safe in the centre or on the kingside. The engines give White a slight edge.

15.d4 Kf8!

Bearing in mind White's threatened 16.d5, this is the only move to stay in the game, according to the engines.

16.Na3!? Kg8 17.Nb5 a6?!

Black has defended well up to this point, but this looks wrong, sending the knight to where it wants to go. 17...Ne7 looks better, and the engine [unspecified] assesses it as close to equal.

18.Nd6 Bf8?

The engines give 18...Qf8!?, but award White the upper hand.

19.d5!

Really strong.

19...Nce5

19...Bxd6!? looks catastrophic for Black after 20.cxd6, but the engines reckon it is not much inferior to the text, which shows how bad Black's position already is.

20.dxe6 Bxd6 21.Be4!

Excellent play, following up with all the best moves. White will soon start to recoup material.

He needs to - Black has two knights for three pawns!

21...Qf8 22.exd7 Nxd7 23.Bxh7+ Kxh7

The position has clarified somewhat, leaving White with rook and two pawns for bishop and knight

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Often two pieces are well worth a rook and two pawns, but not here - Black's position is a wreck, with a weak king and far behind in development.

24.Qd3+ Kg8 25.Rad1 Bb4!? 26.Bxb4 Qxb4 27.Qd4 Qf8!?

The engines reckon there is nothing better.

28.Qg4+ Kh8 29.Rxd7

The rest is pretty easy.

29...Bxd7 30.Qxd7 Qb4

It is KH's misfortune that, being 'only' two pawns down, he probably feels compelled to play on in the hope a swindle will somehow appear, and it may be his opponent is short of time

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31.Re7 Qxb2 32.Rxf7 Qb1+ 33.Kg2 Qe4+ 34.Kh3!? Qg6 35.Qxb7 Re8 36.Rf4 h5 37.Kg2 Kg8!? 38.Qd5+ Re6 39.h4 Kh7 40.Rf5 1-0

It is said that only when you become really good do you realise how really bad you are. Alas, I am fairly certain I am one of those players for whom 12.Bxd4!! would not have been a candidate move.

Lessons From Bad Bertrich IV

MY round-four game, in which I was White against Joachim Hiller (1879), featured an instructive moment in the opening, an Exchange Variation of the Spanish.

I have just played 10.Bc1-f4, and it is up to Black to decide what to do about the attacked c7 pawn

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As is well known, White in the Spanish Exchange gives up the bishop-pair in order to obtain the superior pawn-structure.

White gets a healthy 4-3 kingside majority, from which a passed pawn can be made with normal play, while Black gets a damaged 4-3 queenside majority, which will not produce a passed pawn with normal play, unless White gets careless.

In the diagram position, Black has three plausible ways of saving c7: (i) by castling, (ii) by defending the pawn with the dark-square bishop, (iii) by advancing the pawn.

I suspect most players would pretty quickly dismiss 10...c6 as not helping development, as well as weakening Black on the b8-h2 diagonal, including the square d6.

The overwhelmingly most popular choice in ChessBase's 2026 Mega database is 10...0-0-0, which not only defends the pawn, but gets the king to safety, and develops the rook - three good things for the price of one!

However, I was surprised 10...Bd6 appears only once in Mega26.

After 11.Bxd6 cxd6, Black no longer has the bishop-pair, but also no longer has doubled pawns. However, Black has also contracted a backward pawn on a half-open file.

The engines very much disapprove of 10...Bd6.

Part of the reason, no doubt, is the backward pawn, but there is also the fact that engines rate the bishop-pair as more than cancelling out the disadvantage of having doubled pawns - indeed, engines are not keen on White playing the Spanish Exchange from the get-go.

The move 4.Bxc6 sees Stockfish18 and Dragon1 drop their evaluation of the opening from slightly better for White to a game with equal chances.

Garry Kasparov might well agree, as I recall a John Watson review for The Week In Chess in which he quotes Kasparov as joking that "the bishop is always better than the knight!"

LESSON: the bishop-pair is a major factor in chess, and should not be given up without very good cause.

Lessons From Bad Bertrich III

THERE is a fairly well-established hierarchy when it comes to the drawishness of endings.

At the top, and by a considerable distance, are endings with opposite-colour bishops.

Next come rook-and-pawn endings, their drawing tendencies illustrated by the aphorism, usually attributed to Tarrasch or Tartakower, that "all rook endgames are drawn."

Third in the drawishness stakes are queen endings, thanks to the danger of the weaker side escaping defeat with perpetual check.

After that the hierarchy becomes somewhat murky, but I would suggest the list continues with same-colour bishop endings, followed by knight endings, and finally pawn endings (note I am only listing endings where both sides have the same pieces, ie leaving out, for example, rook versus bishop and knight).

All of this is a preamble to the strange finish in my round-three game, where I was Black against Børge Svanholm (1871).

The following rook-and-pawn ending was reached after White's 27th move.

White has just captured on d8, leaving a commonly occurring rook-and-pawn ending in which material is level, but one player has a farside passed pawn

Such positions are normally quickly agreed drawn at high levels, and often at club level too.

However, if the game continues, the normal procedure is that the player with the passed pawn - in this case White - protects it from the front, and advances the pawn to the seventh rank, while the black rook keeps an eye on the pawn from behind.

There are two dangers for Black to avoid, once the pawn has reached White's seventh.

One is to carelessly put the black king in such a position on Black's third rank, or higher, that it can be checked by the white rook, allowing the a pawn to be advanced on the next move.

The other is to let the white king get over to the queenside to safely help promote the pawn, although this is a risky business if it means Black mops up White's kingside pawns.

But if White tries nothing, and Black does not get careless, the game is inevitably drawn.

Here is the position seven moves after the previous diagram

Material is still level, and the ending is still completely drawn. Indeed, the ending would be a tablebase draw even if the h pawn were removed from the board.

Six moves later, the h pawn was removed from the board after Black in this position played 40...Rxh5

The Syzygy endgame tablebase confirms that the position is still drawn, and would remain so after any move by the white rook along the back rank.

Instead, my opponent committed the cardinal sin of leaving a drawn rook-and-pawn ending for a lost pawn ending by playing 41.Rxh5+, resigning 10 moves later.

LESSON: unless you have no other option, never swop off into a pawn ending unless you are certain of the outcome.

Lessons From Bad Bertrich II

MY round-two game, in which I was White against Wolf Ebert (1725), was a French Defence that began 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3.

A position familiar to every tournament player, even if it has not appeared in one of their games

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The position occurs 239,392 times in ChessBase's 2026 Mega database, with the most popular continuations being 3...dxe4 (27,031 games), 3...Nf6 (94,362) and 3...Bb4 (106,481).

Geoffrey Stern (1931, Luxembourg) told me later that, although he had played the French for many years, my opponent's continuation was one that GS had never even considered playing.

The move my opponent played was 3...Ne7!?, which frankly looks rather silly at first, but appears 251 times in Mega26.

One of my first thoughts was to reply 4.Be3, to make it difficult for Black to get in ...c5. But then one of the points of my opponent's move becomes apparent, as he can play 4...dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nf5, with ...Nxe3 to come, when Black at least has the bishop-pair for his trouble.

I finally settled on 4.Bd3, which is reasonable enough, but the commonest continuation in Mega26, and the top choice of Stockfish18 and Dragon1, is 4.Nf3.

(Note that a move such as 3...Ne7!?, no matter how awful it may look, cannot be refuted out of hand - there is no tactical blow to punish Black.)

After 4.Nf3, the engines for quite some time completely disagree as to how Black should continue, but eventually agree that best is 4...Nbc6!?

This may look odd, but a knight on c6 is well-placed to harass a white bishop on d3 (by continuing ...Nb4) and may support a later ...e5.

After 4...Nbc6!?, the continuation 5.Bd3 scores a disappointing 47% in Mega26, but 5.e5, ensuring Black cannot play ...e5 in the foreseeable future, rings up a much more satisfactory 61%.

Black can attack the head of the pawn chain with 5...f6 - Nimzowitsch might have disapproved - when the relatively high-level game, Yunguo Wan (2471) - Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen (2579), PGMA Cup (Manilia, Philippines) 2008, continued 6.exf6 gxf6 7.Nh4!? Ng6?! (the engines reckon 7...Bg7 improves) 8.Qh5 Ne7 9.Nxg6 Nxg6 10.Bd3 f5 11.Bg5 Be7 12.h4 Qd6 13.0-0-0 Bd714.Bxe7 Kxe7! (14...Qxe7 15.Nxd5!) 15.g3 Rag8, when the engines agree White has at least the upper hand, but the game was drawn after 41 moves.

A later game, but also at quite a high level, Axel Delorme (2495) - Aleks Sahakyan (2243), Chess.com Blitz 2023, varied with 7.Bd3. There followed 7...a6!? 8.Bf4 Ng6 9.Bg3 Bd6 10.Qe2 Nb4!? 11.0-0-0 Nxd3 12.Rxd3 Nf4!? 13.Bxf4 Bxf4+14.Kb1, with a slight edge for White, according to the engines (but 0-1, 49 moves).

LESSON: following established theory is often be safe and reliable, if a little predictable, but striking out on one's own, even with a move that may cause 'superior' players to smile or wince, can be invigorating, and may bring surprising success if the move is played with specific worked-out ideas in mind.