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For the Love of the Game: Joseph Zeltsan of SAR and his Coach Vitaly Zaltsman BY DANIEL TAUBENBLAT | ||
The last time I remember seeing it was at a tournament in NYC four years ago. It was during the medals ceremony after a full day of very intense matches. Students were collecting their medals and trophies and I came over and chatted with a top student player. His dad came over and joined us and suddenly the student looked at his dad and said “Hey Dad how about a game of chess. Just for fun.” And so at the end of a full days tournament, after finishing in the top three of his section, a game started at the rear of the final trophy ceremony “just for fun”. “Wow”, I thought as I watched the two set up and play, “that kid really loves chess.” — CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 — | ||
Magnus Carlsen, The Mozart of Chess? BY DANIEL TAUBENBLAT With a first name that means “great” and is shared among 6 Norwegian Kings, Magnus Carlsen, the world’s number one highest ranked chess player is only 22. In a sport where child prodigies and genius at a young age occurs more often than in other sports/games, Carlsen continues to break age-related chess records.
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Reti’s Endgame Problem: Chess“Multitasking” BY DANIEL TAUBENBLAT 91 years ago the great Jewish Hungarian chess player Richard Reti published one of the most famous chess puzzles ever created.Known as the “Reti Endgame Study,” the problem is set up simply with single pawns and kings on the board. Though it looks easy, Reti’s ideas are complex. His puzzle is one of the best examples of how pieces can become extremely powerful — CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 – | ![]() Richard Reti 1889-1929
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when they “ multitask” or can be used in two or more different strategies. As shown on the left, the problem is for white to move first and draw. The solution here is based on the idea that the white King can multitask well or be used for two purposes at the same time. White moves .rst its king and depending on black’s reaction, stays on a diagonal path that allows it to EITHER defend its pawn on c6 allowing it to promote or prevent the black pawn on h5 from promoting. The three main paths both players can choose are shown below. |

In all of these solutions, white moves first and then follows a diagonal so that it can when necessary, cause a draw. Traveling along diagonals, the white King can easily access the area on the board involving promotion of his queen, and at the same time police the area in the opposite corner to prevent black’s pawn from promoting.
For example in the first solution “Race to the End”, white still addresses both issues of protecting his pawn and preventing
the black pawn from promoting, by staying on the diagonal until his third move when he abruptly breaks off to promote his own pawn and achieve the draw.
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The Famous Giuoco Piano Trap BY MARK KURTZMAN |
Opening traps are fascinating because they require very little knowledge, yet they can enable you to win quickly against a much stronger player…provided they don’t know the trap also.
Here we have the standard opening moves of a basic Giuoco Piano opening. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nd4 Black makes a very strange move violating the opening principal of moving the same piece twice. Black’s e pawn is hanging as well…or is it? |
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4. Nxe5? White goes for the free pawn and falls immediately for the trap! This move looks so good for white
because it wins the center pawn and attacks the f7 square for a second time. If you have never seen this trap, it
is very easy to fall for.
4. …. Qg5 Black violates another opening principle of moving the queen out early, but traps have a life of their
own! The queen makes a double attack on the Knight on e5 and the pawn on g2.
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If 5. Ng4 then black plays 5. … d5 with discovered attack against the knight on g4 and white must lose the knight or the bishop on c4. 5. Nxf7 Qxg2 |
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7. …Nf3# White’s bishop on e2 is pinned and white is checkmated in a commonly known checkmate called the
smothered mate! 7. …Nxc2+ was winning also, but not as strong as checkmate.
Of course, white could have traded knights on move 4 and black would have had nothing to show for his play. But
traps are based upon greed. Players love to steal the material…the juicy pawn on e4 in this case. Don’t be greedy…
and you will not lose quickly!
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“> The Oldest Game BY DANIEL TAUBENBLAT |
Though newspapers and TV news can be full of scary stories, this summer the news changed as writers and reporters
covered the summer Olympics in London. How is it possible, I thought while watching Usain Bolt set a world record
in the 100 meter sprint, that runners keep getting better and better each Olympics as the winning times continue to fall?
Of course the athletes get better by working harder and putting their discipline to the goal of an Olympic medal every
four years but also technology is a big help. From the shoes to the types of body suits swimmers wear, to the design
of the tracks and pools, new technology allows players of the same ability to stand out, win, and set new records every
four years.
Chess is similar in that technology has helped child prodigies become grandmasters at a younger age. The internet
has had a tremendous effect on top level players but also on newcomers to the game as information on recently played
games and on how to improve is easily available almost everywhere and at any time. Games played by top players
today are much more complicated than those played one hundred years ago.
Going even further back, the very first chess games (following mostly modern rules) were fairly simple as higher level strategies and even many common tactics were unknown. We see this in the earliest recorded chess game nearly 550 years ago, a match explained by Francesc de Castellvi, Bernat Fenollar, and Narcis de Vinyoles. These three men recorded a chess game which follows most of our major current rules on how the pieces move. They were poets and chessplayers, with their poetry published in the first printed book in Spain by Lambertus Pamert, printed in 1474. In 1475 Castellvi, Fenollar, and Vinyoles wrote a poem called Scachs D’Amour (Chess of Love} which has the earliest game in its words and as part of its 64 verses. ![]() |
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The game, shown below in its final position (Checkmate just delivered), has many errors and would today be considered a beginner’s game as both sides fail to castle, and black is forced \to exchange knights for bishops and rooks.
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Joseph Zeltsan ( (Continued From Previous Page) We saw how the game was won. We really focused on how.” He was here joking about Wang Hao (pronounced HOW) the young prodigy who won the grandmaster section of the tournament against players like Carlsen and Nakamura. “Joseph is a special player. But he has holes and these need to be filled in.” I had to ask a question about tournaments, after all Zaltsman knew and had played in tournaments himself against a wide range of famous players like Korchnoi, Reshevsky, and Benko. But I did not see a clock. “What about tournaments. Do you use and teach with a clock?” “No, he is not really ready” was the reply. “So we look at games then we play each other, slowly, very slowly, move by move and then we focus on the endgame-you know both Tal and Kasparov had weaknesses in the endgame.” “We do exercises, King vs. Queen, King with Rooks and Pawns. We practice and it is hard work.
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Perhaps continuing the comparison in this way doesn’t really help decide whether the comparison is just. But the core of what makes chess special and what makes music too so powerful, what makes both of them art, are simply the great ideas. And here the comparison is a good one. Kavalek made the Mozart remark after after looking at Magnus’ amazing endgame from the 2004 game Carlsen vs.
Standard rates for one of our instructors to come to your home for a weekly one hour lesson start at $80. Senior instructors We o.er special rates of $60/hr. for students who take the lesson in our store in Manhattan at It is not necessary to sign up for a package of lessons in advance. You can try out a lesson and see if you like it and pay as you
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