And apparently....
When going around your 2nd hand shops looking for bargain chess
books always check out, if they have one, the foreign books section
Within you may discover, as I recently did, a wee piece of 1960 treasure.
A copy of ‘Combinations and Traps in the Opening.’ by Boris Vainstein.
Some of you may not have heard of Boris Vainstein, but others will.
Bronstein’s Classic. ’Chess Struggle and Practice’ was mostly written
by Vainstein. Bronstein admits he only added in the ‘technical parts.’
The ‘technical parts’ were Bronstein’s ideas and comments. It was
Vainstein who did the actual writing and putting the book together.
Back then in the mid 1950’s Boris Vainstein was a Soviet non-person. His
name could not appear anywhere. It seems by 1960 he was back in favour.
Vainstein waves to his great friend Bronstein from the pages
by including a game Bronstein played in a simultaneous display .
D. Bronstein - NN ,USSR simultaneous display Sochi, 1950
1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. Qxd4 Nc6 4. Qa4 {4.Qe3 is theory. But this move angling for a Scandinavian in reverse is close to being playable.} 4... Nf6 5. Nc3 d5 6. Bg5 dxe4 7. Nxe4 Qe7 8. O-O-O {Black cannot believe his luck. The GM giving the simul had dropped a piece.} 8... Qxe4 9. Rd8+ {A study in pins. The c6 Knight is pinned to the King.} 9... Kxd8 10. Qxe4 {And now the f6 Knight is pinned to the King. Black resigned.}
‘Combinations and Traps in the Opening.’ is really a beginners primer
containing all the old classics mixed with a nice collection of cartoons.
This one shows a King being hunted across a chess board avoiding traps.
Vainstein also makes the occasional interesting suggestion.
Here, when looking at variations of the Two Knights Defence.
He reckons the Steinitz move 9.Nh3 is possibly worth a try also
adding it’s the kind of move a dogmatic Dr. Tarrasch would hate..
1899 was the last time 9.Nh3 appeared on the board in a master game.
Then three years after the 1960 book was published a certain American
player called Bobby Fischer who read everything Russian he could lay
his hands on played 9.Nh3 against Bisguier at Poughkeepsie in 1963.
Fischer won. It’s game No 45 in ‘My 60 Memorable Games.’
(It is also the famous game where Fischer fell asleep at the board
and Bisguier made the worse move of his life. He woke Bobby up!)
I was also surprised (and dismayed) to see ‘my move’ , ‘my bust’ to
Blackburne’s Shilling Trap recommended as a try worth considering.
I played it in 1982 a few times and thought I was being original.
Here is Vainstein’s line suggested 20 years before I thought of it.
I’ll translate the page with an RHP game.
aukermdr - Pauline Calf RHP 2015
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nd4 {The Blackburne Shilling Trap.} 4. Nxe5 Qg5 {5.Nxf7 Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Nf3 mate has hundreds of victims. White's next move avoids this.} 5. Bxf7+ Ke7 {The King comes here to stay on the Bishop so White cannot save the piece with Ng4.} 6. O-O Qxe5 {White is a piece down but has loads of compensation. both OTB and here White scores well this. On RHP Sir Lurch has had this position as Black 22 times losing 17, drawing 1 and winning just 3.} 7. Bxg8 Rxg8 8. c3 Ne6 9. d4 Qf6 10. f4 {It is this massive pawn front that gives White all the play. Black has to play very carefully.} 10... b6 {A natural enough looking move but Black is not given time to develop his pieces.} 11. f5 Ng5 {Unpalatable as it seems Black had to play Nd8.} 12. e5 Qh6 13. Qg4 {White has won back the piece} 13... Qc6 14. Bxg5+ Ke8 15. f6 {That is the idea. White just keep pushing the central pawns.} 15... gxf6 16. Qh5+ {Black resigned here. The finish could go something like this.} 16... Rg6 17. Rxf6 Qe4 {Where else. At least this has a trick (18.Rxg6 Qe1 mate).} 18. Nd2 Qc2 19. Raf1 Bg7 20. Qxh7 {Just ore of many ways to win.} 20... Rxg5 21. Rf8+ Bxf8 22. Qf7+ Kd8 23. Qxf8 {Give this a try. Fall into the trap and have loads of fun. Good Luck.}
Top of the class if you know your chess history trivia and get both of these correct.
E. Steiner - E. Colle, Budapest 1926
White to play. What happened next?
S. Reshevsky - A. Denker USA Championship 1942
White to play. What happened next
Here are the answers to the two questions above.
E. Steiner - E. Colle, Budapest 1926 (White to play)
White played 17.Bg5 but in the act of withdrawing his hand from placing the
Bishop on g5 his elbow caught the White King and knocked it to the floor.
Steiner picked it up but by mistake placed it on g1 instead of h1. The game continued.
[FEN "r1b1kb1r/pp1q1ppp/2p5/2Pp4/3P4/1QN5/PP4PP/R1B2R1K w kq - 0 17"]
17. Bg5 {Here the King was knocked to the floor and put back on g1.} 17... f6 18. Rae1+ Be7 19. Rxf6 gxf6 20. Bxf6 O-O 21. Rxe7 Rxf6 22. Rxd7 {And because here the King was on g1 instead of h1 Black here did not play Rf1 checkmate.} 22... Bxd7 23. Ne4 Rf7 24. Qg3+ Rg7 25. Nf6+ Kh8 26. Qe5 Bh3 {That looks silly but remember on the actual board the King was on g1.} 27. Nh5 {Black resigned. It was soon discovered that the King had been misplace. Colle protested but the result stood.}
The Reshevsky - Denker game is even more incredible and when I first
heard about this years ago I simply refused to believe it. It must be a joke.
The clue is the clock above the board. Sammy Reshevsky ran out of time.
The tournament controller, L. Walter Stephens, was looking at the back of
the clock so he picked it up, turned it around and looking at it saw that the
left hand clock (Sammy’s clock) had indeed ran out of time so he declared
the player sitting on his left, (which was Arnold Denker) had lost on time.
Beldam followed. The controller simply refused to reverse his decision.
Sammy made a quick exit saying it was nothing to do with him as he
was not the tournament controller. This win enabled Sammy to tie for
first place with Isaac Kashdan and Sammy Reshevsky won the play off
What joys of sheer delight do we have this time.
By coincidence I was looking at this study by Reti a few days ago.
White to play and win.
‘The Black Bishop cannot dance at two weddings at the same time.’
[FEN "3B4/6b1/6P1/2p5/P1k5/8/8/5K2 w - - 0 1"]
1. Ba5 {Like all good studies the first move looks crazy because....} 1... Kb3 {...Black simply picks up a precious pawn.} 2. Bc3 {This is Reti's idea.} 2... Bxc3 {2...Kxc3 also losses.} 3. a5 c4 4. a6 Bd4 {The Bishop can stop one pawn but not both pawns.} 5. a7 Bxa7 6. g7 c3 7. g8=Q+ {That is now an elementary win.}
We follow that with an RHP game where pawns outrun a Bishop.
chris thorne - heinih RHP 2017
[FEN "2b1k3/8/2P5/3PK1p1/p5pp/B7/2P3PP/8 w - - 0 35"]
35. d6 g3 36. d7+ Bxd7 37. cxd7+ Kxd7 {Now hxg3 and Black can resign.} 38. h3 {OOPS!} 38... g4 {Now Black is winning.} 39. hxg4 h3 40. gxh3 g2 41. Bc5 {The Bishop can stop one pawn but it cannot stop both pawns.} 41... a3 42. h4 a2 43. Bd4 a1=Q 44. Bxa1 g1=Q 45. Bd4 Qxg4 46. c4 Qxh4 {Black won fairly easily from here.}
Staying on the same theme we continue. Sometimes it best not to play the obvious move.
Luck - golddog2 RHP 2017
[FEN "8/5k2/5B2/5pPp/5K2/5PPb/8/8 w - - 0 48"]
48. Ke5 Kg6 {White now thinks his next move places Black in Zugzwang.} 49. Ke6 {But it's a mistake. However, not yet a losing mistake.} 49... f4+ 50. g4 h4 51. Ke5 Bxg4 {Do not take the Bishop. Take the f-pawn with the King.} 52. fxg4 {Now Black has two passed pawns and the Queening square is light coloured. The dark coloured Bishop is useless.} 52... f3 53. Kf4 f2 54. Ke4 f1=Q {Black won quite easily from here.}
Now some good chess culminating in moving the King to the wrong square.
joeboy69 - ChFoMa RHP 2013
[FEN "8/4Q3/1p4k1/P1pK1r2/1PPb4/8/8/8 w - - 0 48"]
48. Kc6 Rf6+ 49. Qxf6+ {Well played. White has seen that Bishop cannot stop the a-pawn.} 49... Kxf6 50. a6 cxb4 51. a7 b5 52. a8=Q bxc4 53. Qf8+ Ke5 54. Qxb4 c3 55. Qc4 Ke4 56. Kd6 Ke3 57. Kd5 Bh8 {White now checks to pick up the loose Bishop.} 58. Qe4+ Kd2 59. Qg2+ Kd1 60. Qh1+ Kd2 61. Qxh8 c2 {Now force the Black King in front of the c-pawn to allow the White to advance.} 62. Qd4+ Ke1 63. Qe3+ Kd1 64. Qd3+ Kc1 65. Kd4 {Wrong! the winning move was Kc4. See next game.} 65... Kb2 66. Qc3+ Kb1 67. Qb3+ Ka1 {The game is drawn. Qxc2 is stalemate, the White King is not close enough, The game was agreed draw a few move later.}
To make sure you have it I’ll show the win White missed.
[FEN "8/8/8/3K4/8/4Q3/2p5/3k4 w - - 0 64"]
64. Qd3+ Kc1 {Here is where White played Kd4 and only drew.} 65. Kc4 Kb2 66. Qb3+ Ka1 67. Qc3+ Kb1 68. Kb3 c1=Q 69. Qd3+ Ka1 70. Qa6+ Kb1 71. Qa2
