Echesspedia

B

Symbol used for the Bishop

BABSON TASK

Problem-task created in 1913 by Joseph Babson. A problem in which black promotion defenses to all possible pieces are answered by white promotions to the same piece black has promoted to. An extreme form of Allumwandlung. The years passed, and the composers managed to present Heterodox problems with the Babson task but failed to construct Orthodox (direct-mates) problems. It has been searched for in vain for half a century. The greatest composers thought it would never be created but in 1983 a 26-year old soccer trainer from Kazan, Russia named Leonid Yarosh, a complete unknown in the problemist world composed the first of this kind.

BABY

Name given to problems with a maximum of 5 pieces.The problem below shows a helpmate in 2 moves with any black piece on a6

BACKWARD PAWN

A pawn which cannot be guarded by a pawn, or which cannot advance to such a position.

BAD BISHOP

This is a Bishop whose mobility is blocked or restricted by its own pawns. In the following position the young French Grandmaster has a Bishop stuck on b7 which he can’t move.

BATTERY

Doubling Rooks on a file or a Queen and a Bishop on a diagonal. With a battery on a file, you can have up to three pieces. With a battery on a diagonal, you can have two pieces.

When the first piece moves, it uncovers the attack from the piece behind it. The first piece is called the firing piece.

A battery is direct if aimed directly at the opposing King and indirect if aimed at the King’s field.

BATTERY –Play THEMES (mechanisms).

Tactical ideas based on the battery-play – two one-colored pieces in one line: line discovered (queen, rook or bishop) and any (except for queen) discovering.

If an opponent’s king stands on the thematic line, then B – direct, if a king stands on the other side from the line – B – indirect.

Thematic game is based on the moves of discovering piece; its name is given to BP.

There are white, black, mixed or masked B (two or more discovering pieces), half-battery and third-battery (accordingly two and three discovered pieces of the color of discovering piece)

S. KRJUCHKOV

1^st Prize “BCM”, 1935-I

Mate in 2 moves (11+13)

1. Qg3! – 2. Qf3#,

1…dxc5 2. Sb4#, 1…e5 2. Sf4#. B – direct : S+R,

1…Ke4 2. Sb2#, B – indirect : S+B,

battery function changes :

1…Rxb3 2. Se5#,

1…Sf6 2. Sc1#

mechanism of two pieces – on B. S+R two pieces influence (Rb1 and Bh8); black neutralizes one of them, and white knocks out the other on the check mate move.

If black pieces controlling white battery self-connect, we have a Manssquare mechanism.

Berger theme – one of the controlled lines from black’s pieces, having retained control, takes up the unfavorable position, and lets the discovering piece knock out both black pieces.

Moscow theme – black defenses from the threat by double check, taking up one of the thematic lines and controlling the other at the same time.

Elimination battery – due to the discovered piece leaving the thematic line;

Choice of battery – the discovered piece ambushes by preliminary moves following some discovering pieces.

BP is more various in three-mover problem, for instance, consecutive game of an opening piece at 2^nd and 3^rd moves, game of half-battery and two-step B.

S. VORONOV
1^st Prize “64”, 1969
Mate in 3 moves (11+5)
1. Bg1! (2. Rf5+ Kd6 3. Bh2#), 1…Kxb6 2. Rb2+ Sc5 3. bxc6#, 1…Bxe8 2. Rd2+ Kd6 3. Bf5#, 1…Qxe8 2. Rf6+ Kd6 3. e7#, 1…Kd4 2. Rf3+ Kc3 3. Be4#, 1…Bf3 2. Rd2+ Kd6 3. Be4#.

Two-step battery-play-The consecutive reiterated game of one B is famous in the more-mover problem, the change of the discovering piece with the same discovered piece, the interplay of two Bs, assisting each other.

J. VLADIMIROV

1st Prize “Revista de Sah”, 1966

Mate in 5 (8+14)

1. Ra3!

1…d1=R 2. Sxg6+ Kc4 3. Se5+ Kd5 4. Sg7+ Kd4 5. Sf5#,

1…Rf8 2. Sxc7+ Kd4 3. Se6+ Kd5 4. Sd7+ Kc4 5. Sxb6#,

1…Sg3 2. Sxf4+ Kd4 3. Se6+ Kd5 4. Sg4+ Kc4 5. Se3#,

1…Sd3 2. Sxd3+ Kc4 3. Se5+ Kd5 4. Sxf4+ Kd4 5. Se2#.

BEROLINA Pawn or BERLIN Pawn
A Fairy pawn invented by E. Nebermann in 1926 that moves diagonally (c2-b3) and captures orthogonally (c2xc3).

BIND

A grip on the position, usually held by pawns, e.g. the Maroczy bind arises from one variation of the Sicilian defence.

BISHOP

A minor piece represented by a character B. Initially, each player has two bishops that can be moved on diagonals of their colors and capture the same way. Conventionally, a bishop is equal to a knight or three pawns in its power. Double bishops, however, are more powerful than, for instance, double knights, especially in the open middle and end game. Originally, this piece was called elephant (Arabic – alfil) and could move diagonally and leap over one square. It was not until the late 15^th century when it finally became the bishop we know. Bishop is translated Fou in French, Alfil in Spanish, Alfiere in Italian, Slone in Russian and Läufer in German.

BISHOP of Opposite Color
A situation where each side has only one bishop left and those bishops travel on squares of the opposite color. The significance of this situation is that it often brings about a drawn endgame, even if one side has extra pawns.

Bi-VALVE
A theme in composition in which the movement of a defending piece to block an attacker automatically clears the way for a second attacker.

BLACK CORRECTION mechanism.
Very famous mechanism with interrelated complex of four elements of the consecutive game:

- initial threat;

- defending the threat with a weak move of the black piece;

- new, secondary threat, that appeared because of the weakening due to the previous black move;

- accurate, correcting move of the black piece, which parries the initial and secondary threats but leads to the new (used by the whites further) weakening of the black position.

Synthesis of the black and white correction.

BLIND CHESS

What are the main modifications to the equipment used by the chess players?
In the chessboard, all the Black squares are raised about 3-4 mm above the white squares. The player can feel the raised or the lowered squares to figure out whether the piece is on a black or a white square.
Each of the chess pieces has a downward projection (nail) at the base, which fits into the squares on the Board having a hole in the center.

Through touch and feel, the player can determine whether the piece is a Pawn, Rook, Bishop, Knight, Queen or King.
All the Black pieces have a pin fixed on their heads. The touch of the pin on the pieces helps the player from distinguishing a white piece from a black one.
The player is therefore able to have a clear picture in his mind of the position on the Board. The player is now ready to take on any opponent, sighted or otherwise.
As per FIDE rules, a player is required to announce every move made, so that the opponent gets to know of the move. When the visually challenged play chess, instead of writing the moves on a Score Sheet, they record the same in Braille or on a tape recorder.

In 1950 Sir. T. Thomas was the first blind player to play in an Olympiad (Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia). The International Braille Association was formed by the blind player R. Bonham. The first World Blind Correspondence Championship began in 1955 and was won by R. Bonham. James Slagle won the first US Championship for the blind in 1971. The American master Albert Sandrin (1923-) participated in the World Chess Championship for the Blind and played all his games from memory, without use of a board. In the later 60s the Soviet Union had 150,000 blind players in its Braille Chess Association.

Piotr Dukaczewski from Poland. The world champion in 1986 and in 2004

Every four year since 1966 a World Championship for blind player has been arranged. FIDE award automatically the title of International Master to the winner.

Since 1994 FIDE gave the blind and visually impaired chess players inscribed in its international Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) the possibility to participate to the Olympiads

In 1994 IBSA finished 80/124, in 1996 73/114, in 1998 42/110, in 2000 82/130, in 2002 86/134.

BLINDFOLD CHESS
Buzecca, a Muslim, was the first blindfold player in Europe, playing two games blindfold in Florence in 1265. It took 518 years before three games were played blindfold, by Philidor in 1783. One newspaper wrote ‘This exertion of Mr. Philidor’s abilities appear one of the greatest of which the human memory is susceptible’. In 1858 Paul Morphy played few times against eight players.

In 1859 Louis Paulsen played fifteen games blindfold simultaneously (+12=2-1). In 1874 the Czech Jan Dobrusky (1853-1907) won the first blind fold tournament. In 1876 Johannes Zukertort improved the record by playing with 16 players (+12=3-1). In 1902 the American H.Nelson Pillsbury one of the best players of his time know for his fabulous memory played against 20 opponents (+3=11-3). In 1919 the Czech Richard Reti improved for the first time the world record with 24 games. The Hungarian Gyula Breyer played 25 opponents in 1921 (+15=7-3). In 1924 three days after the great New York tournament Alexander Alekhine will play 26 players (+16=5-5) then the following year 28 players (+23=2-2). The same year Reti will add one more unit to the record of Alekhine (+20=7-2).

In 1931 the Belgian Georges Koltanowski was the first to break the number 30 (+20-10). In 1934 for the last time Alekhine held the record with 32 opponents (+19=9-4) but three years later in 1937 Koltanowski got it back with 34 players (+24=10). In 1943 in Argentine, the local Master Miguel Najdorf in 17 hours and 35 minutes broke the number of 40 opponents (+36=1-2) four years later after an exhibition of 24 hours he will increase the number to 45 games (+39=4-2). Finally in 1960 in Budapest, the Hungarian Master Janos Flesch will break all the records with an outstanding performance of 56 opponents (+31=18-3).
Let’s also include in the list of blind chess masters the English Joseph Blackburne who from 1850 to 1870 played an incredible numbers of blindfold chess simultaneous exhibitions, the German Friedrich Sämisch and also problem composers like Sam Loyd, and Thomas Dowson.
No Soviet players were record holder as blindfold chess was forbidden by law in the former Soviet Union because it was considered artistically pointless and harmful to one’s mental health.

Since 1992 a blindfold tournament with the best world players is organized in Monaco/Nice every year. Each player used a computer screen with an empty chess board and a mouse to send the move to his opponent.

A similar tournament has been also organized in Bilbao in 2007.

Here is the regulation used for such event:

RULES OF BLINDFOLD GAMES

Play will be governed by the FIDE Laws of Chess, except where they are overrid­den by the following rules.

Players are not allowed to record the moves.

At the start of the game each player has twenty-five minutes on his clock. Before a player makes his move twenty seconds will be added to his remaining time.

The computer clock marks the end of the time-control period.

The monitor will show the players when the same position has appeared on the board three times or that the “50 moves rule” can be applied. In this case either player has the right to claim a draw.

If a player makes an illegal move, the monitor will display the message: “Illegal move, make another move”. In this case there is no need for additional action by the player.

If a player needs the assistance of the arbiter, he may call the arbiter. The arbiter will in this case interrupt the game; interrupting of the game takes about 5 seconds. In this situation the players may not leave the playing area of the playing hall and may not watch the position on the monitors.

Players, who leave the playing area without permission of the arbiter, will lose the game immediately.

BLITZ
From the German Blitz – lightning, a play with moves made in a rapid manner under a short time limit. In the late 19^th century such games are said to be played in London: each player had 30 seconds for one move, later it was reduced to 5 seconds. As the clock technology progressed, another time condition came to popularity: each player had 5 minutes for the whole game. Rules used for such games are almost the same as for a regular one, except for some minor alternations.
FIDE never published a blitz rating list, some tries where made by Walter Browne in the 1980’s and 1990’s. An unofficial world championship won by Mikhail Tal was organized in 1988 in Canada and Robert Fischer won Herceg Novi blitz tournament in 1970 which included at that time the best world players. More recently in 2009 Magnus Carlsen was crowned the World Blitz Champion in Moscow. In the last ten years the best blitz players were Garry Kasparov, Alexander Grischuk, Vasily Ivanchuk, Vishy Anand, Michael Adams, Vlad Tkachiev, Judith Polgar, Alexander Morozevich, Leinier Dominguez and Sergey Karjakin.

BLOCK

a problem in which the key provides no threat, but instead waits for Black to move and every move leads to a mate. In a complete block, all of black’s moves have mates provided in the set play and the key is simply a waiting move; in an incomplete block, not all black moves are provided with mates in the set play – the key provides for those that don’t; in a mutate some of the mates provided in the set play are changed following the key.

BLUNDER
A very bad move or mistake. A typical excuse for a game one has lost is “He didn’t outplay. I simply blundered”. Such excuses are not considered good form. Mason said: the root of brilliancy is blunder.

BOARD
Chess board, a square board of 64 (8×8) squares of two different colors, usually referred to as dark and light. Two players sit at the board on the opposite sides. If the board is oriented correctly, the extreme left square in the nearest to the player rank should be dark.

BREAKTHROUGH

A pawn or a pawn moves that creates open lines.

BREAK-UP SACRIFICE

A sacrifice to disrupt the defences e.g. Bxh6, gxh6. A means of penetrating the enemy position by a sacrifice involving pieces or pawns.

BRILLIANCY Game or Best Game

The first brilliancy game prize was awarded during the New York Clipper Tournament in 1876. A silver cup was offered by Mr. Lieders, proprietor of the cafe where the tournament was held, to Henry Bird for his game against James Mason.
The first brilliancy in a match game, 300 francs, was awarded to Wilhelm Steinitz against Mikhail Chigorin in the World Championship in 1889.
A record could be the one made by Akiba Rubinstein in 1921 at Teplitz-Schonau when he won only six games out of thirteen but was awarded four brilliancy prizes. His victims were Jacques Mieses, Paul Johner, Heinrich Wolf and Siegbert Tarrasch.
Few books have been published with brilliancies and awarded games. The best seller was the one written by Le Lionnais Les Prix de Beauté aux Echecs.

BRISTOL

A three-move problem mechanism invented in a composer tournament held in Bristol in 1861 by Frank Healey (1828-1906). A clearance move by a piece along a line and over a certain square, played so that a second piece may move in the same direction along the same line and occupy that square. The first piece is not used for the mate.

BRITISH CHESS CODE

There were no universal accepted laws of chess in the XIX century until the British chess code was compiled and released by Rev. E.E. Cunnington in 1903.

BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE

The monthly magazine continues the chess section of the Huddersfield College Magazine (1872), the first number of the oldest (active) chess magazine was issued in January 1881.
The Publisher were: Vol.1-, January 1881 Huddersfield, Leeds, London, Trench, Trubner ,1881-1919; London, Walbrook & Co.,1920; Leeds, Whitehead & Miller, 1921-37; London,Pitman,1938-April 1949 London (St. Leonards-on-Sea from July 1965), British Chess Magazine,1949 -.

Editors: John Watkinson(1881-87), Robert Frederick Green (1888-1893),Isaac MacIntyre Brown (1894-1919), R.C.Griffith (1920-1937) acting, September 1940-November 1940), Harry Golombek (1938-August 1940), Julius du Mont (December 1940-April 1949), B. Reilly (May 1949-1981), Bernard Cafferty (1981-1992), Murray Chandler (1992-1999), John Saunders (1999-2010), Steve Giddins (2010-). Also known as BCM.

BRITISH CHESS REVIEW

British Monthly Magazine Vol. 1-Vol.2 (no.1-18), from January

1853 until June 1854. Publisher London,C.J.Skeat, 1853-4. Editor Daniel Harrwitz.

BRITISH CHESS PROBLEM SOCIETY

One of the oldest chess problem society in the world was inaugurated on 10 August 1918 at St George’s Restaurant, in London WC. It exists to promote the knowledge and enjoyment of chess compositions The first meeting was chaired by Henry Ernest Dudeney and included also B. G. Laws, D’O. Bernard and P. H. Williams.

A short-lived “British Chess Problem Journal” was started by H. W. Butler in April 1919, then became the The Problemist and The Problemist Supplement in 1926. The BCPS website was lunched in 2002 at http://www.theproblemist.org/

BROOKLYN CHESS CHRONICLE,

American magazine. v 1-5, from October 1882 until September 1887.

Edited by JB Munoz, in cooperation with his brother Enrique M Munoz, this estimable if slim fortnightly journal provided good coverage of worldwide chess, with annotated games of Steinitz, Mackenzie and Zukertort among others. The five volumes have been reprinted in Olomouc by Morovian Chess.

BUCHHOLZ

Tie break system (also known as Solkoff system) using the total score of opponents in Swiss tournaments for individual and team events with several variations counting all opponents or without the extreme high and/or low scores.

BULLET Chess

A form of chess very popular on the Internet in which each side has less than 3 minutes for the entire game.

BULLETIN SHAKHMATNY (Chess Bulletin)

Soviet periodical editions –newspapers or magazines informing on a current chess events. They contain reviews of the competitions, some rounds, games texts (particularly with comments), biographical information about participants of the tourney, their sportive and creative achievements, final articles and theoretical reports, statistic data, historic and belles-lettres fiction (connected thematically with the tournament held), illustrations and a reference guide (for games, openings, endgames). First in the world they were published in the USSR in 1931.

BULLETIN of the Central Chess Club of the USSR (BCCC)

A periodical chess edition, first published in 1958, regularly published since 1962. 406 editions were published before 1988. It contained the information on activity of the Central Chess Committee of the USSR, a great attention to the correspondence chess publishing the results of the tournaments, some information on the creativity of the correspondence chess players, publishes the notes of the lectures devoted to the problems of chess and draughts, articles on chess theory , history, compositions…

BURSTEIN System

Pairing system developed by the Israeli International Arbiter Almog Burstein in 1993 and in use in all chess Olympiad since Moscow 1994. The idea of the system is to equalize the strengths of the opponents of each participant by pairing those with high Buchholtz score with those with low Buchholtz score.

BYE

A term applied to a player who has no opponent in that round. In a swiss system they may be an odd player left over for whom there is no available partner. He will then receive a ‘bye’ or a full point credit