Friday, February 27, 2009



One of my latest book in store is THE SLAV. The author is Graham Burgess, a GM who used to be in the same team with GM Dr. John Nunn. Together, they had produced many notable chess books which enriches the chess literature such as NUNN'S CHESS OPENINGS, BEATING THE INDIAN DEFENCE etc.

My price is RM95.00. As far as I am concerned, the local bookstore's price is RM 104.90, which means that I am offering almost RM10.00 less.

My good friend, Hairul (see his famous blog http://hairulovchessmaniacs.blogspot.com/ ) onced had seked me if I know any latest reference for Slav when holding the black pieces. I recommended this. After a few while, when I met him again, I asked about this book. He commented: "This book had helped me answering 2 problems in Slav. First, how to react against the dull exchange Slav, (eg 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 etc). And second, how one should play as black in the line whereby black sacrifices a piece 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 Bb4 8. e4 Bxe4 9. fxe4 Nxe4 10. Bd2 Qxd4 11. Nxe4 Qxe4+ 12. Qe2 Bxd2+ 13. Kxd2 Qd5+.

He added, "I prefer to defend the black side".

Saprin Sabri, a very strong local chess player posed me a question during the recent UIA Open 2008; "Can this book (THE SLAV) improve your game?". Well, as a chess books seller and a friend I had to be fair to myself as a businessman and as a friend. I came out with the answer, "Surely this book will help to improve your game, but, if you still lose playing Slav, it is not the book's fault, but it is your own fault", and we bursted into a laugh. My real meaning was, the book is good but it is up to the owner to benefit from the book.

I also present here a partial game of mine (5 minutes game- I could not recall the whole game) against Choo Min Wang (see picture), the silver medalist of Para Games 2005 Manila, and our own very first National Master.



[Event "Catur OKU Berpasukan" (5 minutes warming up game)]
[Year 2007]
[White "Rizal A Kamal"]
[Black "Choo Min Wang"]
[Annotator "Rizal A Kamal]

Slav defence [ECO "D15"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bf5? (This is a very common mistake in the Slav which I notice, frequently committed by Malaysian players, including by very strong players)
5. cxd5 cxd5 6. Qb3 Nc6 7. Qxb7 Na5 8.Qb5+ Bd7 9. Qd3 g6 10. e3 Bg7 11. Ne5 Bf5 12. Qb5+ Kf8 13. Be2 and white won in a few more moves

3 comments:

abdooss said...

4..Bf5 boleh main la Rizal. Tgk game bawah. Moro kalah psl blunder masa middlegame..bukan opening

GM Bu Xiangzhi (2708) - GM Alexander Morozevich (2774)
Chess Giants Yerevan 2008, Round 8, 13.06.2008

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4 7.f3 Bg6 8.Qb3 Qc7 9.Bd2 a6 10.Rc1 Bd6 11.cxd5 exd5 12.g3

-Dollah Salim, 017-3187861
abdooss@hotmail.com

abdooss said...

GM Bu Xiangzhi (2708) - GM Alexander Morozevich (2774)
Chess Giants Yerevan 2008, Round 8, 13.06.2008

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4 7.f3 Bg6 8.Qb3 Qc7 9.Bd2 a6 10.Rc1 Bd6 11.cxd5 exd5 12.g3 Fritz suggest the strong 12.g4! Qd7 (12...Qd8 13.Qxb7) 13.Na4 12...Nbd7 13.Kf2 0–0 14.Nxg6 fxg6 15.Kg2 Kh8 16.Bd3 Rae8 White has just play 17.Rhf1 17...b5 is suggest by Fritz, probably with the idea of ..Nb6 and Nc4 later but Moro made an unexpected simple blunder with 17…Nh5?? 18.Nxd5 simply winning a pawn and demolish black pawn centre which Bu easily convert it to win the game on move 50! 18...Qb8 19.Nf4 Bxf4 20.exf4 Ndf6 21.Bb4 Rg8 22.Bc4 Nd5 23.Bxd5 cxd5 24.Rfe1 Nf6 25.Be7 Qa7 26.Bxf6 gxf6 27.Qxd5 Qb6 28.Rxe8 Qxb2+ 29.Kh3 Rxe8 30.Rc7 Qb5 31.Qxb5 axb5 32.f5 gxf5 33.Rxb7 Ra8 34.d5 Kg8 35.d6 Rd8 36.Rxb5 Rxd6 37.Rxf5 Kg7 38.a4 Rd2 39.g4 Ra2 40.a5 Kg6 41.Kg3 Ra4 42.h4 h6 43.h5+ Kf7 44.Kf2 Ra3 45.Ke2 Rc3 46.Kd2 Rc6 47.Kd3 Ke6 48.Rb5 Rc1 49.Kd4 Rd1+ 50.Kc5 1–0

(from hairulov's blog)

Rizal Ahmad Kamal said...

Tu ada 4.e3 la..memang la boleh main Bf5