How to use your rook effectively?

The most commonly misunderstood piece in chess is the rook. Many players have real problems with their rooks and don’t know how to play with them.

Today, IM Vangjel Buli has prepared a new text lesson for you. He will teach you with an illustrative example – a game he played in the Accelerated Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defense. There is one famous Russian rule about rooks – find all the reasons why you should place one rook on an open file and then move the other rook!

Let’s imagine that we have two rooks, one on f1 and the other on a1. Let’s imagine that we have only one open file, the e-file. We should think hard and find reasons for deciding which rook we should move to e1.

If we decide to place the f1-rook there, then we should bring the other rook, the a1-rook, to e1! This is a very well-known rule and it is useful in practice. What I’m trying to say is that some rook moves are mysterious. But after this lesson, you will understand clearly how to play with rooks.

The rooks should go to open files. I hope this is very clear to you.  What can we do if there is no open file in the position? How should we place our rooks in this situation?

V. Buli – H. Xhakoni [B35]

16.07.2016

White to play

White has finished the opening tasks and developed all of his pieces. How should he play now? This is the critical moment for White because he has a lot of options. Should White play f4, or Nd5, or capture on c6, or develop the queen with Qd2, or play something else?

The position is about equal and has good potential for both sides. Please think for 3-5 minutes from White’s point of view and try to find the best move for White.

11.Re1! We should place the rooks on open files, when we have open files. As the game proceeds, it is possible to exchange some pawns or to exchange some pieces. If we exchange some pawns, then one file can open. Similarly, we can exchange some pieces and then we can have an open file that way.

Usually in the Accelerated Dragon variation, White castles on the queenside and, after that, prepares the attack on Black’s kingside. In this particular variation, Black forces White to castle short. White cannot attack Black’s monarch, so he needs to play in the center. The most typical move for White is to play the knight to d5. If Black exchanges this central knight, then White will recapture with the e-pawn and we will have a semi-open file there.

This is the key to the position! White wants to put pressure on the semi-open e-file and, more specifically, on the backward pawn on e7.

Before placing the knight on d5, White is preparing this plan with the mysterious move Re1. This move is connected with all actions in the center. White is planning ahead and trying to coordinate all of his pieces in order to open a file for his rooks.

Suggestion: you may like to see the video lesson “Magical Chess Rooks” by GM Levan Aroshidze.

11…Rac8 12.Qe2!? White intends to bring the rook to d1; for that reason, 12.De2 is a simple evacuation 12…Nxd4 13.Bxd4 Bc6 14.Rad1 b5

White to play

Black cannot capture the e4-pawn because the pawn on d6 is falling. You can see that clearly in the following variation:

14…e5? 15.Be3 Bxe4 (15…Nxe4?? 16.Nxe4 Bxe4 17.Bd2+- Black loses the bishop) 16.Rxd6 Bc6 17.Red1. White takes control of the d-file and has more active pieces

.

15.Nd5 Bxd5

The idea for Black is to take on d5 with the bishop and then to exchange the bishop on g7 with that of his opponent on d4, in order to enter into the ending with a good knight vs bad bishop on b3.

16.exd5

Black to play

Now we can clearly see what the aim of the mysterious rook move was. White has strong pressure on e7, the bishop pair and a more promising position.

16…Rfe8 17.c3 Nd7 18.Bxg7 Kxg7 19.Rd4!

Black to play

If we compare the White and Black rooks, then we can see that White’s heavy pieces are much more active. Black pieces, including queen and rooks, are not standing well, have no active role, and possibly need to defend the e7-pawn in particular.

Suggestion: learn how to use an open file in chess now.

By contrast, White’s heavy pieces are very active, control a lot of space and are now ready to jump into the attack. Black’s king is not well protected. Black manages to exchange the dark-squared bishops in order to achieve a good knight vs bad bishop on b3, but now he will pay the price. The dark squares and the fianchetto formation are really weak.

White uses his positional advantage to transfer his heavy pieces to the kingside and start attacking there. His plan is to play the queen to d2 and the rook to h4.

19…Nf6 20.Qd2 Rc7 21.Rh4! h5 22.g4!

Black to play

We place the rooks on open files or try to open files for them. With his last move, White is trying to open files against the king. White would like to exchange some pawns and open files for the rook on h4.

22…Rh8 23.g5 Nh7 24.Qd4+! f6 25.gxf6+ Nxf6 26.Rhe4!

Black to play

Tactics serve a good strategy. Black’s knight is pinned, so White uses this fact to transfer the rook to the semi-open e-file and press the weak e7-pawn.

26…Kf7 27.Re6 Qb6 28.Qf4 Qb8 29.Bc2 Rg8 30.Qg5 Rg7 31.R1e3 1-0

White uses the rook lift technique. Another common way to develop the rooks is to transfer them in front of pawns. We can do that by moving the rook from the first to the third rank. We can see now that the rook is very active and ready to go to f3, in order to pin the knight, or it can go to g3 and put pressure on the g6-pawn. Black resigns.

Conclusion

1. You can put your rooks on open files.

2. You should put your rook behind a pawn only if this file will be opened in the near future.

3. You can use the rook lift technique to transfer your rook to in front of your pawn.

Author information – IM Vangjel Buli

 

Vangjel Buli is an Albanian International Master. He started playing chess at eight years of age with the “Partizani Club” in Tirana, the capital city of Albania. He has been a junior champion, and with the Partizani team won a lot of team medals at junior championship level.

He went to Italy in 1994 because of political troubles in Albania and has studied hard, achieving Master, FIDE Master, and then IM titles. His FIDE ELO rating is 2406.

He has stopped playing professional chess in tournaments but is an instructive teacher in many chess clubs in Florence. He has helped a lot of players to become Masters or Fide Masters, so I’m sure his coaching can help you to improve your game.

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Magnus Carlsen wins 75th TATA Steel

Magnus Carlsen has won the 75th Tata Steel Chess Tournament with a score of 10 out of 13, equalling Garry Kasparov's 1999 record win in Wijk aan Zee. In the final round of the tournament the world number one was a bit lucky his opponent Anish Giri (see picture) allowed a drawing combination after reaching a nearly winning position: ()see diagram) After 28.Qa3 Black would be in big trouble, but with 28.Qd6?White allows 28...Bxb3. However, Carlsen apparently was not satisfied with a draw and tested his luck one more time with28...Ne8?!. Even though 29.Qa3 is still much better for White, Giri chose to force Carlsen to execute a drawing combination:29.Qa6? Bxb3! 30.Qxf6 Nexf6 31.axb3 Rxb3 32.Rc2 Rb1 33.Ka2 R1b4 34.Ka2. Giri's draw was enough to tie for first in the battle for best Dutchman as Loek van Wely had already gone down in flames against Sergey Karjakin. The Russian Grandmaster was well prepared for Van Wely's second Sicilian Dragon of the tournament, and when the latter embarked on a faulty plan with (see diagram) 22...a5? 23.Qh4 a4? the game came to an abrupt end with 24.Bxf7!and White soon won.

Battling for second place, last year's winner Levon Aronian was all set to make matters even worse for Fabiano Caruana, who had lost his last three games. Nevertheless, in the end Caruana rose to the occasion and managed to draw after 104 moves. Although his score of 8,5 out of 13 would ordinarily suffice for first place, Aronian had to settle for the runner-up position. He did not, however, have to share second place with Viswanathan Anand. The World Champion suffered a painful defeat at the hands of Wang Hao (see picture). The Chinese Grandmaster reached a slightly better endgame out of the opening and went on to exploit the advantage of a bishop over a knight in exemplary manner.

Hou Yifan (see picture) ended the tournament with a quick theoretical draw against Peter Leko. The former Women's World Champion started the tournament as bottom seed and had a rough start in the tournament. In the end, her fighting spirit and youthful energy prevailed and with a score of 5,5 out of 13 she clearly exceeded expectations. In order to avoid last place, Ivan Sokolov gave it his all one more time, but Erwin l'Ami kept his cool and held the draw. Finally, Pentala Harikrishna tried to convert an extra pawn in an endgame against Hikaru Nakamura, but the American Grandmaster did not care for a third loss in a row and minimized the damage taking half the point.

The winner of Group B only emerged after six hours of play and 82 moves when Arkadij Naiditsch finally brought Sipke Ernst to his knees in a queen endgame. Tied for first, but losing the fight for the right to participate in Group A on tie-break is Richard Rapport, who tricked Predrag Nikolic in a complicated position: (see diagram) 39.f5? c3! 40.Nxc3 Qf4 41.Ke1 Qg3! 42.Kd1 Rxc3 43.Rb8 Kg7 44.Rb7 Kf6 and White was lost. Jan Smeets was the best Dutchman in Group B in third place with a score of 8,5/13. Group C was won by Sabino Brunello with the massive score of 11 (!) out of 13. Fernando Peralta had quickly drawn his black game against Alexaner Kovchan, giving Brunello the chance to take clear first by beating Miguoel Admiraal. The best Dutchman was Robin Swinkels in third place with a score of 8,5/13.

Source : www.tatasteelchess.com

TATA - Report of round 12

Magnus Carlsen, the world number one from Norway, has won the 75th Tata Steel Chess Tournament with one round to spare. He took care of Hikaru Nakamura in spectacular fashion, and in short order. Nakamura resigned when he was unable to defend against the destructive (see diagram) 32.f7. As Levon Aronian was easily held to a draw by Anish Giri, Carlsen increased his lead to a point-and-a-half and will face Giri tomorrow in an effort to break Garry Kasparov's record of 10/13, set in 1999.

Viswanathan Anand joined Levon Aronian in second place after defeating Erwin l'Ami (see picture). Even though the Dutchman got a better endgame with black out of the opening, the World Champion showed his true mettle this time, and outplayed his opponent gradually. In the battle for Best Dutchman of the tournament, Loek van Wely again took the lead recovering from a loss in the previous round, as he had done already twice before in this tournament. His opponent Fabiano Caruana had his back against the wall all afternoon, and eventually lost a race for checkmate: (see diagram)45...Qe4 46.f3 Rc2?! 46...Qc2 47.Kg3 Qc7 48.Qxc7 Rxc7 leads to a lost rook endgame,47.Kg3 Qe5 48.f4 Qxe3 49.Kh4 g5 50.Kxg5and Black will be mated soon.

Ivan Sokolov's trouble is only increasing, and for the remaining Dutchman the end of the tournament can't come too soon. In a better position against Hou Yifan (see picture), he self-pinned his knight only to find out that keeping the piece out of harm's way cost him a pawn and the position. The games Harikrishna-Wang Hao and Leko-Karjakin ended in a draw from uneventful endgames.

Whereas the fight for first in the A-Group proved to be a bit anti-climatic, the heat is on in Group B. Arkadij Naiditsch and Sergey Movsesian (see picture) could only draw their games and Richard Rapport took advantage of this by beating Jan Timman, thus joining them in the lead with 8 out of 12. The three leaders will all face players from the bottom of the standings tomorrow. Sabino Brunello and Fernando Peralta again won their game in Group C and are now in first place with 10(!) points out of 12 games. In round 13 Brunello has the easier pairing, playing with black versus Miguoel Admiraal, while Peralta will face 2nd seed Alexander Kovchan, also with black.

Source : http://www.tatasteelchess.com/

Carlsen leads after 12 rounds

Standings of grandmaster group A

		Score	Rating	TPR	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
1	Carlsen, M.	9.5 / 12	2861	2952		½	½	½	1	1	1	1		½	1	½	1	1
2	Anand, V.	8.0 / 12	2772	2852	½		1	½	½	½	½	1	½		½	1	1	½
3	Aronian, L.	8.0 / 12	2802	2847	½	0		1	½	1	½	½	½	1	1		½	1
4	Leko, P.	7.0 / 12	2735	2800	½	½	0		½	½	½	1	½	½		1	½	1
5	Karjakin, S.	7.0 / 12	2780	2790	0	½	½	½		½	½		½	1	1	½	½	1
6	Nakamura, H.	6.5 / 12	2769	2761	0	½	0	½	½			½	½	1	1	1	½	½
7	Harikrishna, P.	6.0 / 12	2698	2732	0	½	½	½	½			1	1	½	0	½	½	½
8	van Wely, L.	6.0 / 12	2679	2733	0	0	½	0		½	0		½	1	½	1	1	1
9	Giri, A.	5.5 / 12	2726	2693		½	½	½	½	½	0	½		½	0	1	½	½
10	Wang, H.	5.0 / 12	2752	2670	½		0	½	0	0	½	0	½		1	½	1	½
11	Hou, Y.	5.0 / 12	2603	2686	0	½	0		0	0	1	½	1	0		½	½	1
12	Caruana, F.	4.5 / 12	2781	2635	½	0		0	½	0	½	0	0	½	½		1	1
13	L'Ami, E.	3.5 / 12	2627	2589	0	0	½	½	½	½	½	0	½	0	½	0
14	Sokolov, I.	2.5 / 12	2667	2517	0	½	0	0	0	½	½	0	½	½	0	0

Magnus Carlsen with a great lead of 9.5 points stands first.

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Happy Birthday Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. Anand won the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2000, at a time when the world title was split. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. With this win, he became the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: Knockout, Tournament, and Match. He will next defend his title in the World Chess Championship 2009 against Veselin Topalov, the winner of a challenger match against Gata Kamsky in February 2009.He have also won his championship against B.Gelfand in 2012.

Source: Anand's Chess Biography on Wikipedia.

Visit : http://ChessBaron.co.uk/

Story of Karjakin

Hello friends, 

I have recently visited GM Igor Smirnov's blog and I have found an interesting article from him. Here it is!

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A few days ago the 2012 Chess Olympiad concluded. Armenia won the gold medal and continues to get great results in team championships. My congratulations to the winners and all chess fans! This was an exciting event with many interesting games.

When observing such games people often admire the genius moves played by the top players. I often see comments like “Black’s position was tough, but the genius Ivanchuk found the right way.” It’s a bit funny to hear. It seems that Ivanchuk’s talent “tells” him what the best move is. 

In this issue I’d like to reveal the REAL truth. Let’s use Sergey Karjakin as an example. I know him pretty well (initially we lived in neighbor cities and often met at tournaments etc), so I can provide the true facts.

Nowadays Karjakin is considered a “natural talent”, one who chess successes come easily to. Let me tell you how this story began however.

–> Karjakin’s parents hired all the good coaches they could find.
–> He spent a lot of time on chess training starting from a very young age. He’s the only person I know, who studied the entire series of endgame encyclopedias as a child!
–> Sergey took part in all the top tournaments. His father always accompanied him (I even was thinking “When does this man find time for his own job?”).

–> Karjakin didn’t really study in a school or university. He dedicated all his time to chess.
–> He traveled around the world to train with good coaches.
–> When he was school age he moved to another town which offered better possibilities for chess development.

–> Later he moved to another country to join the Russian team and meet even better coaches.
–> Even his wife is a chessplayer and I bet they met at a tournament 

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As you can see, his chess development required a lot of effort and sacrifice (from himself and from his parents as well). Remember this the next time you hear about “natural talent” 

I know some of you will argue: “Some people just have a better aptitude for chess”

A man with long legs has better prospects as a runner. Does this mean others can’t run? Can’t others also improve their results in running? Can’t they become professional sportsmen and run faster than the majority of people in the world?

You may be thinking “Yes, but a natural talent progress’s faster”. I can tell you this: the way you train combined with your enthusiasm are MUCH more important factors!

So don’t overestimate the value of aptitude. And don’t underestimate yourself!

You CAN improve your current results significantly! And realize MUCH greater progress than you originally expected. I know PLENTY of such examples and publish them regularly. Here’s one more.

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Sir, you may be happy to know one thing that “I have become Champion” in All Assam State Open Rapid Chess Championship’ 2012 held on 28th & 29th July at Guwahati, Assam. It was a state level (15 minutes rapid) competition and I got 6.5 points out of 7 rounds. 
Before 1 year, victory in my state was a dream for me, but after going through your courses and keeping in touch with a GM like you, its become so easy to me to achieve the goal!! I get the championship title effortlessly for the first time in my life.

Bidyut B. Handique (India)

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I hope to receive the next e-mail with a success story from you!

At the end I’d like to show you a very interesting position from the recent Olympiad.

Try to find black’s next move and calculate the following lines.
After that, download the solution and check yourself: LINK

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Hope you all liked it guys!

You can get his courses by clicking here