Marshall Spectator 10.21.2020
Contents 10.21.2020 :
GM Wojceich Moranda on his New Book
Board of Governors Election Results
Coming Up: Great Games, The Scotch, KID
Club Perspectives
Frank Marshall Draws to go to Supper
GM Wojceich Moranda on his New Book
Dear Chess Friends,
Below is an excerpt from my new book Universal Chess Training. It is aimed to benefit a very wide chess audience starting from 1600 upwards. Click here for a PGN detailing one of the 90 games included in the book.
Before reaching the GM title at the age of 21 I used to be very principled, digesting book after book. I purchased whatever title appeared on the market – this was my method. With little or no access to professional coaching services, I believed that hard work (understood as memorizing idea after idea and maneuver after maneuver) would eventually pay off. There was little or no order within this ‘learning process’, nor was there any understanding of how to apply this knowledge in a tournament game. To give you an example, I knew every single pawn-structure that was ever discussed in textbooks, but I still felt lost like a babe in the woods whenever my games diverged from these studied structures.
Only when I started training others in my early twenties, as probably the youngest coach in the history of the Polish National Youth Chess Academy, did I discover that this ‘learning process’ was not the way. I witnessed some players working as I did in the past – training extremely hard, but only seeing the fruits of their labors after a long period of time. Indeed, so long that they were discouraged from further work. This experience as a young coach taught me one very important lesson: the training regime of every single player needs to be not only organized around whatever might be taking place on the board (plans and ideas in various stages of the game), but should also cover more concrete topics pertaining to thought processes and decision making.
[…] To devise something truly instructive I investigated a few thousand games of my students. My purpose was to seek to establish what type of mental mistakes they made most frequently. The results of my research surprised me. I discovered that whether the given player was rated 1600 or 2500 they were all most likely to experience difficulties when making use of the following five skills:
1. Anticipation & Prophylaxis
2. Attack & Defense
3. Coordination
4. Statics & Dynamics
5. Weakness
[…} As you can tell by now these skills are not something particularly concrete, but rather a general set of skills. Moreover, they are necessary if you are to learn the skill of handling your pieces properly. It will enable you to apply all the knowledge you have in practice. However, calling them ‘soft skills’ is not sufficient. I, therefore, prefer to speak of them as ‘Universal Chess Training’, because knowing them will most certainly help you play a good move whether the position seems familiar or not.
You can order your copy of Universal Chess Training by clicking here!
—GM Wojciech Moranda, Captain of the NY Marshalls
Board of Governors Election Results
Yesterday, the club held its Annual Meeting and Election. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Frank Brady, Ken Kubo, and Keith Espinosa were reelected to serve on the board. They will be joined by new board members Edward Frumkin, John Galvin, and Sarathi Ray.
This was the first time in the club's history that the election and meeting were run virtually, using the software Election Runner and Zoom. 33% of eligible voters cast a ballot—a marked increase from the usual turnout!—in a race that came down to a single vote for the final Board seat. (If you don't think your vote matters, think again!)
The Annual Meeting was attended by approximately sixty members. Updates were given on the club's finances, reopening plans and considerations, online content, and more. While the Board still has no imminent plans to reopen the club in the face of the CoVid-19 pandemic, they are continuously working on and revising a reopening plan so that when the time is right they are prepared.
A central theme of the meeting was keeping our community engaged and vibrant while the physical space remains shuttered. We implore all of you to consider participating in our online tournaments and classes. Speaking of which. . .
Online Classes
The club is still physically closed, yes, but that doesn't mean there aren't fantastic opportunities to keep improving your chess while remaining engaged with our community. (How often do you come across a class on the The Scotch??)
Coming up (later today!) we're starting another eight week cycle of our Great Games series, with FIDE Trainer, IM Silas Esben Lund. Get into the minds of the great masters as each week students will analyze one game ranging from classics/instructional, modern/advanced, to computer games. Classes are recorded if you need to miss one. (And if by the time you're reading this registration is closed, simply email us to sign up late!)
Next week we'll launch two new five week classes. On Monday evenings, popular instructor NM Ben Katz will teach Play the Scotch! A complete repertoire for 1. e4 e5 with white. The first three classes will focus on the Scotch game, focusing on the main lines used by Kasparov in his WCC matches with Karpov. The last two classes will address stubborn responses by black, such as the Petroff, Philidor, Latvian, and Elephant defenses.
On Thursday evenings, IM Lund is back with Understanding the Kings Indian Defense (KID). Students will learn the main setups in the classical KID, (King's Indian Defense) where black plays e7-e5 to challenge white's center: Mar Del Plata (Nc6-e7), Petrosian (Na6-c5), Old Main Line (Nd7), exchange variations, & more. (IM Lund is the author of Opening Simulator: KID published by Quality Chess in 2019.)
These classes are of course in addition to our ongoing Tuesday Adult Class, Saturday Junior Class, and GM Chess after school program. And stay tuned for even more details as we are finalizing a course covering defense in chess with new instructor, IM Nikola Nestorovic, coming soon!
Club Perspectives
On Online Tournaments:
Directing online tournaments has been quite the new experience for me. Following the games live on chess.com, watching the players in zoom, and addressing various questions demands plenty of attention. It's nice to see regular players from our over-the-board tournaments play chess online and build that sense of community the club is very famous for. Some tournaments like the Monday Classical and Weekly Wednesday have been more successful so far in drawing players than others like the Thursday Action and Friday Night Blitz. Here's a question for all our members and online chess players: What time control and type of format tournaments would you like to see more of online? Let us know and we will make it happen!
—Carlos Chavez, Staff TD
On Slowing Down:
When I first started playing chess, my main focus was basically to go from point A to B—namely, finishing the game—as fast as possible. It was during my first game at Nationals that I started to utilize the time on my clock rather than trying to blitz the game away. Who knew you could spend ten minutes or even an hour to make one move! The amount of time I take to finish my games has become longer and longer since then, to the point that sometimes I flag before twenty moves have been made on the board. Nevertheless, I've grown to really appreciate the longer time controls. They've allowed me to implement the strategies I've learned and focus on calculating my next moves. I've begun to see results that I never would have before too.
—Yifeng Zheng, Staff TD
FRANK MARSHALL DRAWS TO GO TO SUPPER
Thanks to club member Eduardo Bauzá-Mercére for sharing this fantastic gem. As reported in the Harrisburg Telegraph, 30 January 1925, Frank Marshall played a simultaneous exhibition in Harrisburg on 29 January 1925. One result was, shall we say. . . hunger induced.
White: Eshbach+Towsen (two local players in tandem)
Black: Frank James Marshall
(notes by MCC staff)
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c5 3. e3 Nc6 4. b3 cxd4 5. exd4 Bg4 6. Bb2 e6 7. Be2 Bb4+ 8. c3 Bd6 9. Nbd2 Nf6 10. O-O O-O 11. c4 Ne4 12. h3 Nxd2 13. Nxd2 Bf5 14. Nf3 Qf6 15. cxd5 exd5 16. Bd3 Be4 17. Bxe4 dxe4 18. Nd2 Rae8 19. Nc4 Bc7 (??) 20. d5 Qf4 21. g3 Qh6 22. Kg2 (White is seeing ghosts! dxc6 is a clean piece up.) Ne5 23. Ba3 Nxc4 24. Bxf8 (the simple bxc4 was good white.) e3 (Marshall misses Nd2.) 25. Bxg7 Qxg7 26. bxc4 e2 (Bxg3 was a better try.) 27. Re1 Re3 (In true Marshall fashion, looking for swindles.) 28. Rxe2 Rxg3+ 29. fxg3 Qxg3+ 30. Kf1 Qf3+ 31. Rf2 Qh1+ 32. Ke2 Qe4+ (the final position is below.)
"The game was here abandoned as drawn because Marshall wanted to go to supper and the allies were unwilling to play Kd2 without studying the moves ahead!" {source; Harrisburg Telegraph, 30 JAN 1925, p. 19}
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The Marshall Chess Club
Address: 23 West Tenth Street New York NY 10011
Contact: 212.477.3716; td@marshallchessclub.org
Hours: M-F 1pm-Midnight; S/Su 9am-Midnight
