Home

By Lee Siew Fai

You too can Teach! XI

Mi and 2Rs

All good things must come to an end. After offering five Keystones over ten articles as a guest writer, it is about time to call for the closing off. Writing freely, I did not expect these two remaining Keystones be the finales. I truly have enjoyed hopping between the Keystones and demonstrated that the Keystones are a forgiving lot!

The Keystones are designed for children in mind. What better way to imbue “Conscious-Association”* then to be offering food that is popular among the children. The Mi Keystone deliberately uses the common staple food known as noodles a.k.a. mee (or Mi in Bahasa Malaysia).

The character building part calls for the strategizing of one’s intention after their learning and exploring stages. Being able to strategise is integral to playing competitive chess. The most important aspect of strategising is to set the direction in which the game will evolve over the onrushing moves. PAWN moves have a very critical effect on how the game unfolds! From the simplest, it is to play for or against the Kingside or Queenside Majority pawns formations. The other end of the spectrum would be the most difficult of pawn play. In an all-or-nothing struggle, to adopt the stand of playing with an Isolated Queen pawn!

Between these two ends would be all the pawn formations we are familiar with; the heroic gambit pawn; the glorious connected pawns chain; the shaky base support pawns (also known as the inviting 7^th rank pawns); the expectant passed pawn; the fragile double or triple pawns; the sorrowful backward pawn; and last but not least, the wicked poison pawn! Any which way you “fried it” (mi goring) or “boil it” (mi rebus), a pawn storm that is successful is delicious while a failed pawn storm indicates a badly burnt or spoiled dish!

Children can associate the Mi Buffet well. Thoroughly and cleverly fixing the coloured squares where the pawns may occupy! More or less of the dark soya sauce (kicap pekat) or egg whites (telur putih) will sock in a good or bad after-taste to the coloured bishops!

After strategizing, lets hop onto mastering the truly intriguing 2Rs Keystone. Only last month, the Malaysian Book of Records on Chess Simultaneous games was improved to 71 boards. I was there witnessing this feat and was asked by spectators on what were the Critical Success Factors (CSF) for the Candidate Master (who? You find out yourself-lah!) to be playing against that many players at “once”. I took on the chance to announce that it is all about the 2Rs! Recognised the position and Reading the position! Yes. I know it is in reverse order. For the master, it is always the difficult part first while for the learner; it is always a case of learning how to read the game before being able to recognize the various positions (remember my earlier reference to Susan Polgar’s ability to recognise in just 0.8sec positions seen previously and follow through with “accurate” moves).

Intrigue? Confused? Let me give you another good example. Please follow this game between two strong GMs and see at which move did you begin to recognize the position that can lead into a commonly known smothered mating combination. Be honest with yourself and test your position recognition capability to see how early you pick up this Pxxxxxxx’s Mate. Be consciously aware that it is at that instant, the very moment when you do recognize the position, the rest of the moves flashes through the mind at the speed of light! And THAT is the power of the 2^nd R.

1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 d5 6.O-O O-O 7.b3 Bd7 8.Ba3 Nc6 9.Qc1 a5 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.Nc3 Be8 12.Qe3 dxc4 13.bxc4 Rd8 14.Rfd1 Ng4 15. Qf4 Bf7 16.Rab1 e5 17.dxe5 Rxd1+ 18.Rxd1 Qc5 19.Ng5 Bxc4 20.Nd5 Nd8 21.e6 Bxd5 22.Rxd5 Qa3 23.Rd7 Nc6 24.Bxc6 bxc6 25.e7 Re8 26.Qc4+ Kh8 27.Nf7+ Kg8 28.Nh6+ Kh8 29.Qg8+ Rxg8 30.Nf7# 1-0

If you could not achieve this level of mastery yet, you can fall back onto the 1^st R; and that is to Read the game. It will take in more time and deliberations. If you are good at interpreting positions, you will be able to steer the game onto a winning path. The 1^st R thrive within these four distinct and yet inclusive factors for considerations. They are that of materials, position, tempo and activeness. The combination of how much of one or the other will dictate how one is to proceed with the struggle over the sixty-four squares.

For those who could not believe that the above game had taken place at GM level, the details are as such: Jan Timman - Nigel Short, 1990 Tilburg Tournament. Timman would have seen the mate way back before move 26^th!  For Nigel not to have seen it coming would simply be a rare “grandmaster oversight. Thanks to this game, many chess coaches around the world have had this “ready-made” lesson on smothered mate combinations.

To be fair to both GMs, perhaps I should also show a game where Nigel wins in a wonderful manner. In this game, it gives two very good lessons. Firstly, the game’s high point is the importance of pawn formations dictating the game’s tempo (Mi goring at its best!). If there is a single focal point to describe this game, it converges onto the fact that the e5 pawn is the central of the struggle (perhaps Nigel loves Mi too!). Secondly, the King is shown to be an attacking piece when it is at the “right” time!

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Bg7 7.Qe2 Nc6 8.O-O O-O 9.h3 a5 10.a4 dxe5 11.dxe5 Nd4 12.Nxd4 Qxd4 13.Re1 e6 14.Nd2 Nd5 15.Nf3 Qc5 16.Qe4 Qb4 17.Bc4 Nb6 18.b3 Nxc4 19.bxc4 Re8 20.Rd1 Qc5 21.Qh4 b6 22.Be3 Qc6 23.Bh6 Bh8 24.Rd8 Bb7 25.Rad1 Bg7 26.R8d7 Rf8 27.Bxg7 Kxg7 28.R1d4 Rae8 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.h4 h5 31.Kh2!! Rc8 32.Kg3 Rce8 33.Kf4 Bc8 34.Kg5 1-0

Finally, I must bid farewell and thank you all for reading my write-up in which I must admit can be at times difficult to follow. It was wonderful to be given the opportunity to write in a chess website while offering an unconventional way to popularise the teaching and learning of the chess game. Surely but slowly, I will continue to explore ways to bring more children into the wonderful world of competitive chess. The Seven Keystones to Competitive Chess shall sign off with its usual manner; a simple three paragraphs poem (on the mark, get set, go!).  

On offer a 2x9 table

In which it is capable

To allow as much depth

To soar clouds of ninth

  
Seven Keystones beneath

All that’s to hold your breath

Trust it to bring joy

Everyone shall enjoy

Learn hard, play well

Let the crowd swell

To Reach out, and teach right

Our CHESS future is bright

Adios!

Lee and YOU too can Teach Chess.

PS: For the U-16 players whom are still curious, you are most welcome to submit games to me and I take you up to the highest level of 1P and 0E; that is to perform “Opponents Profiling”. Minimum games played previously against this opponent is ten and if that is not possible, supplement with your opponent’s games against others. To avoid controversies, please show proof that these games have be in the public domain.