Recently, I’ve been looking at some of my old middlegame books, both as potential teaching material and for the pleasure of reminding myself what the bods had to say. A few of the found jewels: Max Euwe and Hans Kramer’s two-volume work on the middlegame; three volumes of “Complete Chess Strategy” by Ludek Pachman; “A Contemporary Approach to the Middlegame” by Alexei Suetin; and three different editions of Aron Nimzowitch’s “My System” (one in Russian).
Chess is always tense, and the closer you get to lifting the tension, the tenser it normally gets. This is something that stronger players often exploit against weaker opposition. Grandmaster Jon Speelman uses three notable games to explore this all-important subject, including a fascinating encounter between Reuben Fine and Jose Raul Capablanca. | Pictured: Erich Gottlieb Eliskases
In the opening rounds of the Belgrade Grand Prix there were two splendid instances of defensive queen sacrifices. These remarkable efforts set Jon Speelman thinking about defence in general. He thus turned to one of his favourite books, The Middlegame by Max Euwe and Hans Kramer, and cherry-picked a couple of games from the chapters on Steinitz and Lasker. | Pictured: Emanuel Lasker / Collection of the <a href="https://worldchesshof.org/hof-inductee/emanuel-lasker">World Chess Hall of Fame</a>
(May 14, 2021) This week, 80 years ago, Commonwealth forces in North Africa launched a limited offensive against Erwin Rommelâs Axis forces. Before delving into the particulars of that operation, letâs reacquaint ourselves with the history.
Libya was an Italian colony, and had been so since the Kingdom of Italy wrested it from the Ottoman Empire in 1912. It was bordered on the west and south by the French colonies of Tunisia, Algeria and modern-day Chad and Niger. It was bordered on the east by British-dominated Egypt.
When the Italians declared war on the British and French on June 10, 1940, their colony was surrounded on three sides by enemies. However, on June 22, France executed an Armistice with Germany and ceased fighting. On Sept. 9, 1940, the Italian Tenth Army, under the command of Spanish Civil War veteran, Mario Berti, crossed the Egyptian border and advanced 60 miles east into Egypt, stopping at Sidi Barrani, 240 miles west of Alexandria.