Chess960: Sinquefield Cup 2014 Corner bishops stay on the board!

The pgn games of the Sinquefield Cup 2014 are available for us fans to enjoy ->here<- Thanks for that! I've updated the Chess960 database on this blog with the six games to bring the total number of Chess960 games up to 1676.

Critics of Chess960 say that the bishops in the corner are just plain bad, because they get exchanged off early resulting in dull games....

Well I think Hikaru and Levon think otherwise! In the first two games of the match between Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian, both bishops were in the corner. The bishops did not get exchanged off for a long time and they produced very interesting games!

SP579 Nakamura v Aronian move 6 white to play

SP579 Aronian v Nakamura move 9 white to play

Look at the different approaches to the opening
taken by both players, excellent stuff!

In game two Aronian had white and tried the idea to damage blacks kingside pawn structure with 3.Bxf6 leaving Nakamura's bishop entombed in the corner by two pawns. What did Nakamura do? He just spent the tempo playing g6 and f5 to free his bishop in the corner and went on to win the game!

Big picture question for this SP. Is queenside castling a possibility, even though we did not see it in these two games?

Chess960: Bishops in the corner do not have to exchange off!

Unlike some, I actually like all four bishops in the corner. Mark Weeks has also talked about this in the Myth of the Corner Bishop. To quote Mark from his own post:

 

"The only real disadvantage of the B:a/h setup is when both Bishops start in the corner. When this happens, all four Bishops are facing each other on their long diagonals. The order in which the Bishops are developed becomes a subtle tactical dance where a player's fast grab of one diagonal cedes the other diagonal to the opponent. Furthermore, a premature development of the Bishops can lead to them all being swapped off in the opening for a Bishopless middlegame. A player who wants to avoid this must block the diagonal before developing the Bishop, but this gives the opponent the opportunity to develop first on the same diagonal. And so the dance continues"

The reason I like bishops in the corner, is that both sides can play can and mouse, which I think of more as a subtle strategic dance as they hide their castling intentions from each other. If either side can provoke evidence of castling intention prematurely, the other side can castle to the opposite wing and launch an attack.....well at least in theory!

Here is a classic example. Note how both sides play all their moves to deliberately hide castling intentions, until one side cracks. In this example it is white that cracks, and is then promptly punished for it when black offers a sacrificial pawn.

SP515: Who will reveal their castling plans first?

So don't believe the gossip out there spread by some anti-Chess960 people, that bishops in the corner produce boring games. There are ways to prevent bishop simplification from happening and to even create opposite wing castling scenarios. However computers usually can't see that deep into the game to appreciate the cat and mouse that is going on, so computer examples of bishops in the corner games are not valid.

Chess960: two move ideas no. 8

Here is another great idea courtesy of game I found on onlinechesslessons.net this time between two super GM's Aronian and Nakamura. The amazing idea is to actually block the bishops in the corner with your own pawns in a cat and mouse attempt to delay exchanging off the bishops in the corner until just the right time:

SP451 white to play: try to see black's ideas

Enjoy 960

Hint: black has managed to discourage white from moving either c4, d4 or e4.
If 3. d4!? white blocks the a1 bishop on the long diagonal allowing black to play 3 ... f5!
If white instead plays 3.e4?! the light bishop on h1 is trapped for a very long time.

Chess960: two move ideas no. 7

Thanks to onlinechesslessons.net I came across a really interesting bishops in the corner game played between Sergei Movsesian (2771) vs Viktor Bologan (2702). White has played out the queen early and black's response was 2....Ne6 preventing any problems later if Nxc7#. However black had another idea that Viktor did not choose:

SP451 white to play: try to see black's ideas

In the actual GM game, white's idea was to continue the long lasting stress on black's weak kingside and simultaneously push for control of the center to make it difficult for black to develop the knights. Black doesn't want to exchange off the bishops because this would prevent castling later. Black decided to develop the knight to e6, but this invites white to start a center pawn push via e3/d4 threatening to biff the centrally developed knight. So what can black do? There are various options but there is one very interesting idea that needs a bit of analysis!

Enjoy 960

Hint: ...Rh6 attacks the queen and the h2 pawn and the rook is developed and safe.
Note: the concept is that if white has wasted a developing move with Qh3, black is entitled to waste one as well!