Sunday, August 09, 2009

How to play the English Opening (Karpov)



When we were in London a few months ago my lovely wife picked up this great book by Karpov for me. It is 30 games annotated by him, mostly on the King's English but also has a great section on the Hedgehog. The games are instructive, and many are quite spectacular. I have learned alot about the English and already some of the lessons learned in the games of the 12th World Champion (and others) have been used by me.

Here is one of the most spectacular

Karpov-Topalov 1994



Karpov - Topalov, Linares 1994

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. g3 Nc6 6. Bg2 Bc5
7. Nb3 Be7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. O-O d6 10. Bf4 Nh5 11. e3 Nxf4
12. exf4 Bd7 13. Qd2 Qb8 14. Rfe1 g6 15. h4 a6 16. h5 b5
17. hxg6 hxg6 18. Nc5 dxc5 19. Qxd7 Rc8 20. Rxe6 Ra7 21. Rxg6+
fxg6 22. Qe6+ Kg7 23. Bxc6 Rd8 24. cxb5 Bf6 25. Ne4 Bd4
26. bxa6 Qb6 27. Rd1 Qxa6 28. Rxd4 Rxd4 29. Qf6+ Kg8 30. Qxg6+
Kf8 31. Qe8+ Kg7 32. Qe5+ Kg8 33. Nf6+ Kf7 34. Be8+ Kf8
35. Qxc5+ Qd6 36. Qxa7 Qxf6 37. Bh5 Rd2 38. b3 Rb2 39. Kg2 1-0



We were in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago and stopped at Chess and Math and picked up Fischer's 60 Memorable Games...the 2008 edition in algebraic and unadulterated :) I'm gonna fly through this one...i'm feeling my urge to play chess coming back, maybe I'll get a tournament in during the year 2009. Cross your fingers! I've been playing all sorts of things as White...I started the English because I felt that 1.g3 d5 was strong for Black :) As Black I'm mostly playing the Caro again, but I will be trying out the hedgehog v. the English and I've partially returned to the Nimzo. I suspect after playing over Fischer's games I will be playing the Najdorf and KID again :) We'll see