Chess: Thoroughly Modern
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Your support makes all the difference.BEST of the early spring crop from the Batsford chess book list is David Norwood's Winning with the Modern (145 pages, paperback, pounds 10.99). Norwood is a part-time grandmaster who believes that talent ought to be a match for hard work and opening theory. Playing 1. g3 with White and 1 . . . g6 with Black, he has gone through life blithely oblivious of most of the ever-changing wrinkles of theory. To a large extent, Winning with the Modern is an explanation of how he has managed to get away with it.
Starting with a highly instructive discussion of the various themes than can emerge from Black's choice of 1 . . . g6 as an opening move, Norwood intersperses analysis with complete games (mostly his own) and advice on how best to play the resulting positions. By consistently recommending slightly offbeat variations, he ensures that the reader has a repertoire guaranteed to take most opponents by surprise, without too many variations having to be remembered.
Any book on openings should be judged by three criteria: the quality of the writing, the quality of the opening, and the magnitude of the price. In this case, the general excellence of the first more than outweighs any reservations in the other two areas.
Today's game, from the current Linares tournament, shows how even a top grandmaster can be provoked by an obscure line in the Modern. With Nh6, f6 and Nf7, Black cowers behind his pawns, but White's subsequent piece sacrifice cannot be justified. In the end it was Black's attack that broke through.
White: Topalov
Black: Shirov
1 e4 g6
2 d4 Bg7
3 Nc3 c6
4 Nf3 d5
5 h3 Nh6
6 Bf4 f6
7 Be2 Nf7
8 Bh2 0-0
9 0-0 b6
10 Re1 Bb7
11 Bf1 Nd7
12 a4 a6
13 a5 b5
14 exd5 cxd5
15 Re6 Rc8
16 Nxb5 axb5
17 Bxb5 f5
18 Qe2 Nf6
19 a6 Ba8
20 Rxe7 Rxc2
21 Qxc2 Qxe7
22 Qa4 Qe6
23 b4 Ne4
24 Bf1 g5
25 b5 g4
26 Ne1 Qb6
27 Nc2 Rc8
28 Bf4 Bh6
29 Bxh6 Qxh6
30 hxg4 Qd2
31 f3 Qf2+
32 Kh2 Nfg5
33 Ne1 Qh4+
34 Kg1 Nh3+
White resigns
Leading scores in Linares: Karpov 5, Kasparov 41 2 , Kamsky 31 2 , Anand and Kramnik 3. Kasparov will play Karpov in round seven.
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