This is the 2nd episode in the series of Olympiad stories with Saravanan. In this episode, we discuss the Madras Tiger Vishy Anand and some of his memorable games at the Olympiad. In discussing the games, Saravanan and Sagar also go into the history of how Vishy developed as a chess player. Saravanan saw the lightning kid style of play of Anand and also the more mature and calm style. This is part of a 6-episode series of the most interesting stories from the Chess Olympiads. | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram.
Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 51st instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman talks about the black squares. | Photo: Tommy Grooten
The Sicily|Sicilian defense is one of the most fundamental chess tactics that a player new to the game should master. It is a classic defensive manuever.
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MMMG #10: Optimal form
Mihail Marin was born in Bucharest on 21 April 1965. A multiple Romanian champion, his first major international success was achieved in 1987 when he qualified to the Interzonal Tournament played in Szirák. Three years later, he played at the Interzonal in Manila. In 1988, Marin won the bronze medal on board 3 at the Thessaloniki Olympiad that was the first of twelve Olympiads in which he represented Romania, the last one so far being Baku 2016.
For many years, Marin worked as a second of Judit Polgar, and in 2005 he accompanied the Hungarian star to three elite tournaments, including the San Luis World Championship.
He sent me a note once when one of his students showed him an endgame study quiz that ran in this space, while noting casually that there was a massive flaw in one of the composer’s variations, basically ruining the whole thing. His tone was friendly and understanding, but it was a bit mortifying to have to run a correction the next week “based on information supplied by The Washington Post.”
Over the board, Kavalek like Newton and Einstein before him saved his best for first, playing one of the most anthologized games of the 20th century when he was just 15 against fellow future GM Eduard Gufeld at the 1962 World Student Team Championships.