Happy St. Patrick's Day, Tactics Time Chess Newsletter

Published: Sun, 03/17/13

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Hey there, -- Hope you have a great St. Patrick's Day, and are having a good weekend!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, today's tactic features a game from Russian-Irish Grandmaster Alexander Baburin.  Baburin was Irish Chess Champion in 2008, and has played on the Irish Chess Olympic team.

Black to Move,

Answer at the bottom.
St. Patricks Day Chess Problem
Chess eBooks - The End of the Beginning
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Chessbase posted an article this part week that I really enjoyed on eBooks in relation to chess.  This was part one of the article, and I am looking forward to part two of the article. 

My Tactics Time eBook was made using Chessbase 11 and Chessbase 12 (12 wasn't out yet when I started the book), as well as Fritz.  Chessbase products tend to be quite challenging to use, but can be very powerful. Most software you can figure out by playing with it, but with Chessbase products, you really do have to RTFM (Read the "fun" manual).

I love the quote at the beginning of the article:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

I think that sums up why the Tactics Time book has been so successful (it is currently the best selling chess book on amazon - paperback or electronic).  Most of the chess authors out there know way more about chess than I do, and are more intelligent than me.  But Anthea and I adapted to the rapidly changing book landscape.
New in Chess
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While I certainly think that eBooks are the future, I recognize that there is still a large market for "normal" books.  For example, if you are trying to sell a chess book at a tournament, it is much easier to be able to hand someone a book, and have them look at it, instead of telling them to go to amazon.com, search for XYZ, and look at the preview, and explain that you don't need a kindle to read it, etc.

I also get a lot of subscribers asking me about a paper book.

So, I have some potentially good news for people who are interested in a paper book.

"New in Chess" got in contact with me, and I have been e-mailing with their CEO, Allard Hoogland, about publishing a paper book version of Tactics Time!

New in Chess is one of the premier chess book publishers in the world, so I was really honored that they got in contact with me.

I have also been discussing with them some of my ideas for converting their library of books into an electronic format.  I converted a chapter of their book "Improve Your Chess Tactics" to an electronic format as a "proof of concept".

I am going to have a Skype call with them tomorrow.  They are located in The Netherlands, so there is an 8 hour time difference.

I will keep you posted!
In the Zone
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There have been a lot of great achievements in sports history.  For example, the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had some amazing sports accomplishments.

In his very first golf game in 1994, Kim finished an 18-hole round of golf at 38-under par - over the 7,700-yard championship course at Pyongyang, according to state media. Kim was in the zone, recording five holes-in-one (some reports have the number as high as 11). Another legend had him bowling a perfect 300 in his first attempt at the sport.

I can't compete with accomplishments like this, but I have been playing some good chess lately! 

I've won my last 8 USCF games in a row, and raised my rating over 100 points in the last month to an all time high.  You can see my rating history here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?12718954.

One thing that helped me a lot was going through a lot of games of class players when writing the Tactics Time book, newsletters, columns, etc.  I realized that the typical tournament player makes A LOT of mistakes in their games. 

Unlike, Kim Jong Il, we aren't bowling 300, or getting 5 holes in one, during a game.  The mistakes are there, and are waiting for you to pounce on them!  You just have to be ready!


Answer
Here is the complete game:
[Event "(LIC)"]
[Site "(LIC)"]
[Date "1993.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Alexander Baburin"]
[Black "Utut Adianto"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D25"]
[PlyCount "48"]
[EventDate "1993.??.??"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 a6 5. Bxc4 b5 6. Bd3 Bb7 7. O-O e6 8. a4 b4 9. Nbd2 Nbd7 10. Nb3 c5 11. dxc5 Nxc5 12. Nxc5 Bxc5 13. Qc2 Rc8 14. Qe2 Qb6 15. e4 h6 16. a5 Qa7 17. Nd2 Qa8 18. Kh1 h5 19. f3 h4 20. Nc4 Nh5 21. Be3 Ng3+ 22. hxg3 hxg3+ 23. Kg1 Ke7 24. Qe1 Rh1+ 0-1

You can play through this game here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1015164.

24...Rh1+! lead to a Damiano Mate.

25.Kxh1 Rh8+ 26.Kg1 Rh1+ 27.Kxh1 Qh8+ 28.Kg1 Qh2#

Black sacrifices both rooks in order to draw the King to a square where it can be checked, and mated, by the Queen.

This is a really fun mating pattern, and a good one to know.  Jon Edwards wrote an entire eBook just on this mating pattern, called Damiano and his Mate, which I enjoyed reading, http://www.amazon.com/Damiano-His-Mate-Chess-ebook/dp/B00BDPPZZ6/.  He gives a lot of good examples of when the mate works, and when it doesn't, and gives a bunch of games where the mate occurs.


Tim Brennan
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Your Friend,
Tim Brennan