Bob Siegel has been with the 3M Club Chess Club for about the past seven years (though he played for 3M in the Twin Cities Chess League years before). He played chess a little as a boy, but didn't start playing seriously until 1972, spurred on by the Fischer - Spassky world championship match. However, Bob is quick to note that he is not fond of Bobby Fischer, and considers him an "embarrassment" to the chess community. Bob feels so strongly about this, in fact, that he sent a letter on the subject to Chess Life, which was published a few years ago.

The best thing Bob likes about chess is the variety. "Every game is different," he says. While no particular player has influenced him, he enjoys the games of the old masters such as Frank Marshall and Akiba Rubinstein. His advice to aspiring players is to read chess books and magazines, and to go over the games of such masters.

If there was one thing Bob would change about chess it is its popularity. "I find it hard to believe," he says, "that in a company this size, we have so few members in the Chess Club."

Bob has worked for 3M for 22 years, and currently works at the Cottage Grove plant, ensuring environmental compliance of the corporate incinerator. In the summer, you can find him on the tennis courts (playing for the 3M Club Tennis Club, naturally).

By Chuck Nelson

In a recent game against Larry Boardman I played pretty well, well enough at least to make it to a King and pawn endgame. With about a minute left on each clock, we ended up in the following position with it my (white) turn to move:

It doesn't look good as the white pawn can't move and any move by the White King will unprotect the pawn on f4. Is the game lost or can white still salvage a draw? There's not much time left and from past study I knew that for any hope of a draw, I must get in front of the pawn to stop its promotion. Quickly I play 1. Kf2?? to get in front of the pawn. As we'll see, this turns out not to be the best move. Black counters with 1...Kxf4

Not only does black capture the unprotected pawn, more importantly he captures "the opposition" What is opposition? It is an important concept that enables the person who has it to force the other king around, in essence, to become stronger than the other king. To get the opposition, on any rank, file, or diagonal, you maintain an odd number of squares between the kings. The move 1...Kxf4 does just this (see figure 2).

Black keeps an odd number of squares (one) between the kings. As the next moves illustrate, with the opposition black is able to force the white king away from the promotion square and win the game. 2. Kg2 Ke3 Here black seems to give up the opposition but his pawn is now free to move and black can grab back the opposition if he needs it. In general, the rule is to move the king forward as far as possible until the pawn is in danger. 3. Kg3 f4+ 4.Kg2 Ke2. At this point, the game is won. This is why you want to push the king as far forward as possible. When the black king reaches e2, it controls the promotion square f1 and white cannot recapture the pawn or block its path because the black king controls f1, f2, and f3. At this point even though black has only thirty seconds left, it's academic for Speed Champ Larry. He quickly dispatches me with: 5. Kg1 f3 6. Kh1 f2 7. Kg2 f1Q+ 8.Kh2 Qf3 9. Kg1 Qg4+ 10. Kh2 Kf3 11. Kh1 Qg2++

But was there still an opportunity for me if I had controlled the opposition? The variation on the next page illustrates that indeed all was not totally lost.

It still looks as if the game is lost as Black can capture white's last pawn. But with 1.Ke2, black can capture the white pawn but not capture and gain opposition. Without the opposition, white can gain control and prevent the pawn from promoting. After 1...Kxf4 white now gets in front of the pawn AND takes the opposition with 2.Kf2.

With 2...Ke4 3.Ke2 White maintains the opposition 3...f4 Black drives forward with his pawn 4. Kf2 The general rule here is to get in front of the pawn when possible and then move straight back. When the opposing king comes forward, take back the opposition. 4...f3 5.Kf1 Per the rule of thumb, white moves straight back. Black advances his King to protect the pawn 5...Ke3 and white is forced to move out of the way but this time grabs the opposition as he does so with 6.Ke1!

6...f2+ 7.Kf1. and it's a draw because either the pawn falls or it is stalemate.

ECO E91: King's Indian Defence

Result 1/2-1/2

{ This straightforward development leads to long and involved systems of attack and defence, where opening theory is discussed as deeply as move 20 to 30. }

{ This is less often played than A: 7.O-O e5 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Ne8 10.Nd3 f5 11.Bd2 Nf6 12.exf5 Nxf5 13.Re1 +0.04 Or B: 7.d5 Nb8 8.O-O e5 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bh4 g5 11.Bg3 Nh5 12.Nd2 Nf4 13.Bg4 Nd7 14.b4 +0.35 }

{ End of Book. ECO E91. King's Indian Defence. Score +0.27 }

{ [ Allowing White to threaten a powerful triple fork (!) on e6 with his knight, as in the game. ] Score -1.36. CENTURY 15...Kg8 16.Ne4 Nxe4 17.Bxe4 a5 18.Rae1 Nf5 19.Bc2 Bd7 20.c5 -0.28 }

{ Score -3.00. CENTURY 17...Re8 18.Ne6+ Rxe6 19.dxe6 Nd4 20.Qd3 Nxe6 21.Rfe1 Nd4 -1.18 }

{ Score +1.79 CENTURY 18.Nb5 Kg8 19.Nxd4 exd4 20.Ne6 Qe7 21.Nxf8 Rxf8 22.Rae1 Qg7 +3.01}

{ The knight fork, winning the exchange. An example of the theme 'Double Attack'. }

{ Watching over the safety of the king's home. White doesn't fear losing his c4 pawn, as he can win it back with Rc1 and Rxc7, and at the same time posting his rook on the 7th rank, where it is in a much better attacking position! }

{ Making room for a defender rook on g1 }

{ This allows a second thematic maneuver for white - a pin of the knight on f6, taking some of the wind out of black's attacking chances on the k-side! }

{ Pinning with the queen (!), while at the same time threatening Rxc7. }

{ White relinquishes the pin on f6 to trade down into a favorable endgame. The pin has served its purpose! } 33... Qe5 34. Rxc7 Ne4 35. Rc8+ Rg8

{ Kg7 loses to 36.Qf8 mate! }

{ Now white has a won endgame with 38.Rg2. }

{ Score +0.77. What?? White moves the wrong piece, giving Black a cheap draw! White shook his head for 10 minutes, looking for a way to salvage this blunder. CENTURY 38.Rg2 +2.73 }

{Black offered a draw, which White accepted. The game might have continued 40.Kg2 (or Kh2) Nxg4+ 41.Kg3 ( if 41.Kh1?? Qh2 mate ) Qh2+ 42.Kh4 Qxg1 43.Qxd5+ draw } 1/2-1/2

ECO D20: Queen's Gambit Accepted

Result 1-0

{ The Queen's Gambit Accepted. Many top players have it in their repertoire, including Nigel Short, Anatoly Karpov and Yasser Seirawan. Fischer used it to draw at will with Spaasky in their 1992 match. }

{ This has been very popular in master play during the early 1990's. Theory is not yet certain. }

{ Better is 4...Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.f3 Nc6 7.Nge2 O-O 8.Be3 e5 -0.33. }

{ Korchnoi's move. Sets the strategy of the game, which centers around attack and defence of the point d5, and in this game eventually leads to a thematic 'X-ray Attack' for White! }

{ Theoretical deviation (TD). Out of book. ECO D20. Queen's Gambit Accepted. Score -0.73. Opening continuation is 8.Nf3 O-O 9.O-O exd5 10.exd5 Bg4 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Qxf3 Nbd7 13.Bf4 Nb6 14.b3 +0.57 }

{ Giving White the opportunity to launch an X-ray Attack with the moves 15.Nxe7 and 16.Bd6, winning the exchange. Score -1.55. CENTURY 14...Bd6 15.e5 Bc7 16.e6 Bxf4 17.e7 Bxh2 18.Kh1 Qd6 19.exf8 -0.45 }

{ Moving either rook to d8 to pin the bishop doesn't work. Black then loses a rook with 17.Bxe7, instead of the exchange. }

{ Loses a rook outright. Score -4.43 CENTURY 17...Rxf8 18.Qd6 Rd8 19.Qc7 Bh3 20.Qg3 Qxg3 -1.98. }

18. Qf3 Bxg2 19. Qxg2 Qxg2+ 20. Kxg2 Kxf8 21. Rfd1 Ke7 22. Rd5

{ With the idea to restrict Black's king to the back ranks, rather than attacking the c-pawn. }

{ Further restricting Black's king }

{ The plan is to double the rooks on the 6th rank, limiting the movement of the Black king, and winning the a-pawn. The rooks have a crushing grip on Black's position. Black feels the crush, and resigns. } 1-0

Final standings:
1st^stplace Duane Hart 65%
2nd place Bob Siegel 60%
3rd place Ken Goebel 57%

Congratulations to Duane, and thanks to all who played in this year's speed tournament!

Those who have played in one or both of our league tournaments this season are eligible to play in our final tournament of the season. A round will be played every Tuesday evening except for the last Tuesday in April. The tournament ends April, 23^rd. This will be every person for themselves (no teams). Please let me (Steve) know whether or not you will be playing ASAP! At the same time, let me know if you'd be interested in attending summer chess. I am not planning on holding summer chess this year unless several people commit to attending.

In the picture, the lower right window displays all the first move "candidates" frequently played in tournaments. The bottom window displays comments for a given move, such as the ECO opening code, and perhaps some information about the position. You click on a candidate to make the move in the chess diagram. Bookup 2000 Lite also comes installed with a chess analysis engine, Crafty version 17.9, which is of high master playing strength (2400 rating). So one may also use any Bookup 2000 (including Lite, Express, and Professional versions) to analyse the best move of a position by using Crafty. This feature is not available in the 16-bit version, Bookup Lite!

The main reason I'm writing this article is not to publicize BOOKUP to the chess club, but rather to describe some projects I'm working on that use Bookup 2000 as a teaching/training tool, and for practice in sharpening chess playing skills in the opening, middlegame, and endgame phases. These projects are files that can be loaded into Bookup, and will be posted on our 3M Chess Club website for downloading, as I get various stages of the projects completed.

My first project involves expanding on the ECO book that already comes in Bookup 2000 Lite, so that every candidate move will be linked to an ECO opening code, and every opening line linked to an Informant rate symbol (i.e., = for "equal position", +/- for "white is better", =/+ for "black is slightly better", etc.). The Informant rate symbols are assigned auotmatically by Crafty when it is used to analyse a position. This project is nearly completed, and the ECO book will be available on the club's website to download. This compressed ECO file will expand into the "opening book" files used by Bookup 2000. Just load the expanded files into the Bookup directory on your computer's hard drive, and open it as a book. There are about 8600 different ECO opening variations or lines covered in this book! This ECO file will not work in the Bookup Lite (16-bit) version.

This takes you to a list of all the available positions to study in the theme, each position being identified by the names of the players (as shown below). These are positions from actual tournament games by masters and grandmasters. Select any position and it will be uploaded into the Bookup position window. The solution to the winning combination will appear as a candidate move in the candidate window.

Here the winning move is 1.Rh5!! uncovering an attack by White on Black's queen, while at the same time threatening mate as follows: 1...Qxd7 2.Ng5+ Kh8 3.Rxh6#. If 1...Qa6 2.Rxh6+ Bxh6 3.Ng5#.

One can cover up the answers to the winning moves in each middlegame tactical lesson, by selecting "Training" mode from the "Command" menu

[Ed: In some lessons you are to play Black. Therefore, I find that checking "Do Not Play" works better. Then, an ellipsis in the upper-right window indicates Black to move. After your move, click the ">" button to make the computer move.]

There are many middlegame combination themes covered in the book "Encyclopedia of Chess Middlegames", including:

So far, I've completed the simple exercises "Double Attack", "Discovered Attack", and "Pinning", about 150 positions out of 1800 or so in the book. These exercises will be available to download from our chessclub website.

I expect to complete a middlegame theme about once a month, and these will be posted for downloading as they are done. They will be pgn files which can be imported into a book using Bookup. When I'm done with the simple exercises, then I'll work on the more complicated ones from the same themes. All will be posted on the club site to download. It should be noted that these pgn files are a special format that will not work in any pgn reader, such as Rebel or Fritz or the 3M Chess Club's "chsdrill.exe". They will only work in versions of Bookup, including Bookup 2000 Lite and Bookup Lite!

I'm planning to create exercises of various endgame themes (such as "Opposition", "Bishops of Opposite Color", "Knight vs. Rook", etc.), just like the middlegame tactics. These also will be made available for download from our website, as pgn files useable in Bookup. My source for these endgame themes will be the books "Fundamental Chess Endings" and "Comprehensive Chess Endings", and these exercises will contain author's comments about the positions as well as the winning variations! The endgame studies project will start when I have completed the simple middlegame studies project.

No doubt these projects will occupy much of my free time for the rest of my life! I'm doing this primarily to benefit myself, and to sharpen my chess playing skills. So, why not share them with the 3M Chess Club, so we can all become master technicians of the game! I hope you will enjoy the study of these tactical and endgame themes with Bookup! When you can own Bookup 2000 Lite for as little as $5, and do all this study of all phases of the game, what more is there to say!!