A USCF Publication $3.95

18 2011 WORLD OPEN

The Dynamic World OpenBy Jamaal Abdul-Alim

The Great American Open tournaments encourage fightingchess by their very structure,and this year’s World Open, won by GMs Michael Adams and Gata Kamsky, was a perfect example.

24 SCHOLASTICS

2011 North American YouthChess ChampionshipBy WIM Beatriz Marinello, FIDE Vice President

Young chess players embody the spirit of chess in Tarrytown,New York.

28 2011 WORLD TEAM

USA Just Misses Medal in ChinaBy GM Robert Hess

At the 2011 World Team Championship in Ningbo, China, our squad just misses a medal despite strong play from all, including an ‘un-retired’ Yasser Seirawan.

42 PRISON CHESS

Thug Life can becomeChess LifeBy FM Alex Dunne

Many chessplayers become consumed by the game. Whatwould happen if job, family, or other responsibilities were not in competition for your attention and you had an unlimited amount of time to do nothing but play chess?

48

Comparing Apps to AppsBy FM Mike Klein

Your decision about what material to use when studying or playing chess is now just as complicated as your decisionabout which opening to play. We help you out.

52 CHESS JOURNALISTS OF AMERICA

2011 CJA Annual AwardsThe winners of the annual chess journalism awards.

COVER STORY

Columns

12 LOOKS AT BOOKSInformant LiteBy FM Todd Andrews

14 CHESS TO ENJOYThe Motivation GapBy GM Andy Soltis

16 SOLITAIRE CHESSThe Unfortunate QueenBy Bruce Pandolfini

52 BACK TO BASICSRemember the Position’s IdeasBy GM Lev Alburt

54 ENDGAME LAB Botvinnik CentenaryBy GM Pal Benko

Departments

3 PREVIEW

6 COUNTERPLAY

8 FIRST MOVES

10 USCF AFFAIRS

58 TOURNAMENT LIFE

78 CLASSIFIEDS

79 SOLUTIONS

On The Cover

The number of options out there for playing chess on yourmobile device can be bewildering.FM Mike Klein, winner this year of the “Best Tournament Report”category in the Chess Journalistsof America awards for hisreporting from the 2010 U.S.Championships, helps guide you through the choices, beginning on page 48.

iPad illustration by Jeremy Kortes; Cover design by Frankie Butler

4 Chess Life — October 2011

October Chess Life

uschess.org

GM Yasser Seirawan, declaring, “I’m ready!,” comes out of retirement to join the U.S. team atthe World Team event in China. See the feature beginning on page 28.

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34 Chess Life — October 2011 uschess.org

2011 World Team

ONCE THERE WAS AN ORCHARD in which an enormous orange wasgrowing. When the orange was

peeled open, two men were discoveredinside, playing chess together. Jin-ZhenZhu Jinzhen recounts this fable in hisseventeenth-century chess book, TheSecret Inside the Orange. As fabulous asthat sounds, the chess you find whenyou look inside China today is hardlyless miraculous.

Since Dato Tan’s 1974 promotion ofthe “Big Dragon Project” to develop Asia’spotential for international chess, China

has achieved world-class status: multi-ple women’s world championships (GMJun Xie in 1991 and 1999, GM ChenZhu 2001, GM Yuhua Xu 2006, GMYifan Hou the current champion), thewomen’s Olympiad, the women’s FIDEWorld Cup, top-ten GM Yue Wang, AsianTeam Championship, and World YouthTeam Championship. Not only have Chi-nese excelled internationally, since 1980China has hosted a number of interna-tional competitions. Underlying thissuccess is China’s tradition of its nativeversion of chess (Xiangqi). Wenzhe Liu

(the first to defeat a western grandmas-ter in formal competition) and Women’sWorld Champion Jun Xie, among others,began as strong Xiangqi players.

We do not know precisely when chesscame to China. Some believe the gameoriginated there and came to India,rather than vice-versa. We do know thatXiangqi has been around since theeighth century and probably earlier. It ismore popular among Chinese but lessprestigious than the more ancient gameof Go (Weiqi). The modern internationalversion of chess came to China withEuropean missionaries and imperial-ists who established strictly segregatedchess clubs in their colonies in Shang-hai and Hong Kong. Contact probablycame about in more informal venues. Forexample, Chinese merchants encoun-tered international chess when travelingwith foreigners by ship.

Xie Xiaxun is the most importantchess figure in China in the early 20thcentury, born in 1888 near Wenzhou inZhejiang province. At age four heobserved his father and uncle playingXiangqi and soon began to play. At tenyears he was the city champion. Twoyears later he walked over 30 miles toseek out a renowned Xiangqi player totest his skill. Xie tied their three-gamematch, +1 =1 -1.

Xie married and began college, but hisfamily faced hard times after his fatherdied, and Xie was not able to completehis college education so he took jobsteaching in elementary schools. Xie hadto support a growing family, but hisheart was in chess. He took an oppor-tunity to move to Shanghai to work asXiangqi editor for a newspaper, where hepublished composed endgames withpolitical themes that subtly protestedthe corrupt government of the earlyRepublic. (Imagine modern endgamestudies with titles such as “MortgageForeclosure Crisis” or “Debt-CeilingStalemate.”) Thus they became popularamong both players and non-players.With Pan Dingsi, Xie collected thesestudies and in 1916 published them asIn Remembrance of National Shame: ANew Chess Manual.

In 1916 a Dane, Charles Kliene (trans-lator of Seven Stars (1916), the firstXiangqi manual published with wide-spread appeal in the west) sought outXie for his knowledge of Xiangqi. Klienealso introduced Xie to international

A Chinese Chess Centenarian

Xie Xiaxun is the most important chess figure in China in the early twentieth century.

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uschess.org Chess Life — October 2011 35

chess. Xie must have shown a quickaptitude for it, because Kliene broughtXie to the Shanghai International ChessAssociation whose members were allwesterners. There Xie defeated the pres-ident and some stronger members incasual games. Xie became the first Chi-nese member of the association andsoon became a board member. As aresult, the association opened meetingrooms for both international chess andXiangqi, and an exchange began whereXie would introduce Xiangqi to foreignresidents and international chess toChinese through traveling exhibitions.This is the first organizational attemptto spread international chess amongthe Chinese population.

In 1918 Xie won the Xiangqi Individ-ual Championship in Shanghai, apremier event that preceded the nationalchampionship system. In the followingyears, Xie toured China promoting bothkinds of chess and began a four-volumemagnum opus on Xiangqi that includeda section on international chess. He isresponsible for establishing the Chi-nese nomenclature used today forinternational chess. He gave blindfoldand simul exhibitions. He also wroteabout Go. In 1927 he was one of the firstChinese to participate in an interna-tional chess tournament in Shanghai,

and he won games against Europeansover the next several years. In 1928 hewas chief arbiter of China’s first nationalXiangqi championship.

Alexander Alekhine took a seriousinterest in the regional chess variants ofAsia during his 1933 Far East tour. Hethought it might be possible throughcomparative analysis to create an arche-typal that would be more organic thanthe contrived variants advocated byCapablanca and others.

The Shanghai International ChessAssociation sponsored Alekhine’s visit inJanuary 1933. Xie was the sole Chi-nese among five from the association towelcome him. Alekhine called Xie “topsin Asia for chess.” Two Chinese drewwith Alekhine in the 47-board simul onthe 27th. In the 11-board blindfoldsimul on the 29th, Xie, in consultationwith Yang Wenkai, drew his game withAlekhine. Regrettably, that game scorehas not come to light.

Emulating the world champion, Xieundertook a southeast Asian tour in1935 to promote both Xiangqi and inter-national chess. In Singapore he metwith several Chinese chess enthusiastsbefore being entertained by the Singa-pore Chess Club. Xie played a much-publicized game with the club presi-dent and previous champion, RAF Wing

Commander Paul B. Hunter. The Singa-pore Free Press chess editor describedhim thus: “Austerely clad in white linengarments, Mr. Cheh Hsieh Shun [XieXiaxun] is an impressive figure. Hiswhole bearing, quiet and dignified, hiskindly-humorous eyes, his shrewd, cal-culating mind stamp him as anaesthete” (25 April 1935, p. 2). Theyplayed at the Chinese Swimming Cluband Hunter resigned in two hours, Xiedominating the endgame.

Queen pawn opening (D03)

Xie XiaxunWing Cmr. Paul B. HunterChinese Swimming Club, SingaporeApril 24, 1933

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bg5 Nbd7 4. e3 e6 5.Bb5 Be7 6. Nbd2 0-0 7. 0-0 c5 8. Bxd7Bxd7 9. c3 Bc6

Also possible is 9. ... Ne8 10. Bxe7(Also OK is 10. Bf4 Bb5 11. Re1 Bd6 12.Bxd6 [12. Ne5 f6 forcing the exchange]12. ... Qxd6) 10. ... Qxe7 11. Ne5 Bb512. Re1 f6.

10. Ne5 h6 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Bxf6 Bxf6 13.dxc5 Qe7

13. ... Qa5!.

14. Nb3 a5 15. a4 Rfb8 16. Ra3

After 16. Ra3

16. ... e5

This is premature. Black should haveplayed 16. ... Qa7 17. Re1 White doesnot appear to have a single good move.17. ... Be7 18. Qd4 e5 19. Qxe5 Bxc5 20.Nxc5 Qxc5 21. Rb1 (21. Ra2 Rb3 andagain Black’s game is preferable) 21.... Qxa3!

17. Re1 e4 18. Qc2 Be5 19. g3 Kh8

19. ... Qf6 was indicated.

20. Re2 Bc7 21. c4 Rb4 22. cxd5 cxd5 23.Rd2 Rab8

23. ... Rc4 was best.

24. Rxd5 Qe6 25. Qd1 Kh7 26. Kg2 Qe8 27.

Rd7 Bd8

27. ... Rd8 was preferable.

28. Rd4

I was unable to witness the rest ofthe game, and the subsequent movesand comment were kindly supplied by acorrespondent.

28. ... Bf6 29. Rxb4 Rxb4 30. Nxa5 Bxb2 31.Ra2 Qe6 32. Qe1 Qxa2 33. Qxb4 g5 34.Qb3 Qxb3 35. Nxb3 Be5 36. a5 Bb8 37. c6Bc7 38. a6 Bb6 39. Nd2 f5 40. Nc4 Bxe3 41.fxe3 f4 42. exf4 gxf4 43. gxf4 Kg6 44. c7,Black resigned.

On May 4th, Xie gave a simul for thelocal players at the same locus, perhapsof international chess. In this extendedtour, Xie played 241 games of Xiangqi(+175 =53 -13) as well as a smaller num-ber of international chess games.

On his return to China in January1936, Xie gave a simul in Guangzhouand stayed to compete in the “SilverDragon Cup” international chess compe-tition, hosted by the Victoria Chess Club.China was represented in this five-nationtournament (Great Britain, USA, Ger-many, Austria) by Xie Xiaxun and Dr.Wu Guoliang. Although he had not had achance to rest from his tour and prepare,Xie won the 20-round tournament with anoverwhelming score (+18 =1 -1).

But the Japanese invasion of Chinawas not far off. Between 1937 and 1939,Xie and his chess friends traveled toHong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia,Malaya, and Thailand, using chess togarner aid. In 1939, Xie returned toChina where he had recruited numerousChinese technicians. During the warZhou Enlai met Xie and they played anddiscussed Xiangqi together, developing alife-long friendship.

After the war Xie held several leadershippositions in national and municipal chessassociations. He worked with some ofChina’s future grandmasters, such asXu Jialiang, before retiring to Wenzhou,which remains an important center ofchess activity in China. He died in 1987;by the Chinese way of reckoning age, hewas 101. He is primarily remembered asa strong champion and important pro-moter of Xiangqi. Although he did notdevelop his international chess play to itsfull potential, it was Xie who planted theorchard that grew the miraculous orangeof international chess in China.

For more on Chinese chess (Xiangqi),visit the excellent website www.xqineng-lish.com. The author thanks Jim PngHau Cheng and Jianxin Taylor for invalu-able assistance furnishing material andtranslations.

~Mark Taylor

rr++k+++qpp+p+plppPp++P++++RNPP+P+PPP++Q+RK

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52 Chess Life — October 2011 uschess.org

Chess Journalists of America

The Cramer Awards for excellence in Chess Journalism 2010 Best Books:

Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall—from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness by Dr. Frank Brady. A review of this book appeared in the February 2011 Chess Life.

Chess Masterpieces: One Thousand Years of Extraordinary Chess Sets by Dr. George Dean with Maxine Brady. A review of this book by Dr. Tim Redman appeared in the November 2010 issue of Chess Life.

2011 CJA ANNUAL AWARDSMore information about the Chess Journalists of America awards program, including this year’s runners up, can be found at chessjournalism.org.

Best Story of the Year Award“The Grandmaster Who Did It His Way”Written by Larry Parrappeared in Chess Life (March 2011)

Best Chess Column AwardEndgame LabWritten by GM Pal Benkoappears in Chess Life

Best State Magazine/Newsletter AwardGeorgia Chessedited by Mark N. Taylor

Best Tournament Report Article Award“Kamsky Bids Adieu to Championship Drought”Written by FM Mike Kleinappeared in Chess Life (August 2010)

Best Chess Magazine/Newsletter Layout AwardThe entire October-December 2010 issue of Chess HorizonsEdited by Robert D. Messenger

Excellence in Chess Writing, Mainstream Media Award“My Playing Weight”Written by Dale Rigbyappeared in Sport Literate (Volume 7, Issue 1)

Best Regular Newspaper Column AwardChessWritten by David R. Sandsappears in The Washington Times

Best Regular Newspaper Article of Local Interest AwardChess: A Knight's TourWritten by Bill Cornwallappeared in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel

Best Chess Photojournalism AwardCover of June 2010's Chess LifeBy Jeff Weiss

Best Features Article Award“Involuntary Retirement”Written by IM Jack Petersappeared in Chess Life (March 2011)

Best Instructive Lesson Award“Conversation with a Grandmaster”Written by GM Boris Gulko and Dr. Joel R. Sneedappeared in Chess Life (June 2010)

Best Review Award“Frank Brady’s Masterpiece”Written by Al Lawrenceappeared in Chess Life (February 2011)

Best Humorous Contribution Award“Weekly Chess News (April Fool's Supplement)”By Mark N. Taylorappeared in Georgia Chess

Most Notable Achievement inCorrespondence Chess Award“Enter the Centaur”By FM Alex Dunneappeared in Chess Life (February 2011)

Best Historical Article Award“A Forgotten Chess Tale: Hapley's Project”By Yasser Seirawanappeared in Northwest Chess (November 2010)

Best Interview Award“Profiling Brady”By Al Lawrenceappeared in Chess Life (February 2011)

Best Chess Art AwardCover of Northwest Chess March 2011 issueDesigned by Philip Petersonappeared in Northwest Chess

Best Analysis AwardKeating, R-Karagianis, PBy Robert Keatingappeared in Iowa Chess En Passant (July 2010)

Best USCF State Chapter Website Awardwww.calchess.orgOfficial website of the Northern CaliforniaState’s USCF chapterDesigned by Tom Langland

Best General Chess Website Awardwww.uschess.orgOfficial website of the United States ChessFederationDesigned by Phillip R. Smith

Best Chess Blog Awardbrokenpawn1.blogspot.com“Broken Pawn”By Hank Anzis

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