** The following is a chapter from the book Devoted to Chess - The Creative Heritage of Yuri Razuvaev by Boris Postovsky **
The 12-year-old American Daniel Naroditsky, a pupil at the Kasparov chess school, recently became World Junior Champion in his age group and traveled to Moscow with his parents during the Tal Memorial. On one of the days he visited the editorial offices of the magazine 64, to meet with Honoured Trainer Yuri Razuvaev, who had agreed to the youngster’s request to meet with the young student.
– You’ve already been to the Tal Memorial – Yuri Sergeyevich asked the young champion after they had been introduced and sat at the board. Alongside him was a notebook computer with a database of training positions. Daniel was somewhat nervous and initially declined the offer of tea and cake.– We’re going today.– Who do you support?– Kramnik.– A good choice! Incidentally, Kramnik was a very good player by your age. Even the young Karpov did not stand out like Kramnik. The only player175
A remarkable fact in the history of chess theory is that very much has been written about 'Steinitz's theory' but nobody tells you where to find it. Lasker and Euwe wrote volumes on that theory without so much as a single quotation from Steinitz. Later writers copied Lasker and Euwe, often without ever having read a syllable from Steinitz. In 1978, Australian correspondence grandmaster and chess author Cecil Purdy did delve into the matter and as a result spoke of 'the great Steinitz hoax': he could find very little about that theory in Steinitz’s writings and therefore thought that what Lasker attributed to Steinitz was actually largely Lasker's own invention. Whether that is true remains to be seen, but it is certain that Lasker, and in his footsteps Euwe, made something special out of the lore of Steinitz's ideas.
I was reminded of this when watching The History Of Chess: The World Championship, released by Chess.com some months ago. This is a compelling documentary in which the viewer175
The last days of January saw an explosion in the orders for the book "Techniques of Positional Play" by IM Valeri Bronznik and FM Anatoli Terekhin. Popular Twitch-streamer Andrea Botez (from the Twitch and YouTube channels "BotezLive") released a video on YouTube featuring fellow streamer WGM Dina Belenkaya. In this video they discuss a position between Lajos Portisch and Bobby Fischer, taken from the book that the video description indicates as "the book on strategy every Russian kid has studied".
Originally written in Russian by Terekhin, later revised and updated by Bronznik, and translated into German, "Techniques" first saw the light of day in 2005. It was translated to English in 2013 by New In Chess and has received overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim since. It takes one glance at the reviews to get a taste of the enthusiasm with which "Techniques" was embraced upon its release.
So, what makes "Techniques of Positional Play" such a highly regarded book?
The key word is "efficiency"175
The prize-giving of the 85th Tata Steel Chess Festival in Wijk aan Zee took place four days ago, but I still feel the heat and the excitement of the final round. What a sensational finish it was. A finale that left the Dutch fans delighted and rubbing their eyes in disbelief.As could be expected Magnus Carlsen fought for his chances till the very last moment and did what he had to do by grinding down India’s Arjun Erigaisi. But it was not enough, as Anish Giri leapfrogged Nodirbek Abdusattorov to finally win ‘Wijk aan Zee’ after no fewer than five second places in previous editions. While our contributing editor himself defeated Richard Rapport on the last day, he got a mighty helping hand from his Dutch teammate Jorden van Foreest, who beat Abdusattorov and destroyed the Uzbek’s dream to win his first classical super-tournament.
In the next issue of New In Chess Magazine, Anish Giri will be properly feted with extensive coverage of the highlights of the 85th edition of ‘the Wimbledon of175
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