Echesspedia

DEFENCE

Defence is the correlative of attack. Emanuel Lasker used to say: the art of strengthening obstructions, of giving firmness to your position,and of averting the blow directed against you.

A move or moves played with the object of countering the opponent’s threats.

A description of an opening, or an opening variation, initiated by Black. The name does not necessarily imply passive play: some defences are aggressive.

Composers use the word defence in a special sense: in a direct mate threat problem any move by Black that forestalls White’s threat (using this word in its problem) is a defence.

THE DEFENCE

Novel by the Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) about a chess master who becomes obsessed with the game and loses his mind. Originally written in Russian (1930) as Luzhin’s Defence, under the pseudonym V. Sirin, it appeared in English in 1964.

DEMONSTRATION BOARD

A large chessboard mounted vertically, showing the position of a chess game, used either for a lecture or in a tournament. There are flat representative pieces and attendants move these pieces shortly after the moves are actually played. This allows spectators to see clearly what is happening on the actual playing board. Some demonstration boards also have clocks showing the two thinking times used.

There are now electronic wall-board and TV monitors that react instantly via a connection with the actual board and make it easy for an audience to be completely involved in the action. The first demonstration board, 4 ft (1.2m) square, was designed by Lowenthal in 1857 and used by him to illustrate his lectures.

Kramnik analyzing his game at Tal Memorial 2010

DESCRIPTIVE NOTATION

A form of notation sometimes called Anglo-Iberian or Anglo-American. A system used in the English-speaking chess world until the 1980s. The 8 files were called QR (for queen’s rook), QN, QB, Q, K, KB, KN and KR. The rows of ranks were numbered 1 to 8, but from each side of the board. Thus every square had two different names. For example the square f3 in algebraic was, in descriptive, called KB3 from White’s point of view and KB6 from Black’s point of view. A Spanish descriptive notation also exists. So the Ruy Lopez will be: 1.P-K4 P-K4, 2.N-KB3 N-QB3, 3.B-QN5 P-QR3 4.BQR4

DEUTSCHE SCHACHZEITUNG

German chess magazine founded under the name of Schachzeitung by L.E. Bledow in 1846, published in Berlin then in Leipzig. The name was changed to Deutsche Schachzeitung in 1872 (the name was already used during 1846 and 1848) and it became the oldest chess magazine (with a break of five years at then end of WWII) until until it merged in the Deutsche-Schachblätter – Schach-Report in 1989. Since 1998 the magazine appears under the name of Schach.

Among the prestigious editors were:  L.Bledov, V. Hanstein, O. von Oppen, A. Andersen, M. Lange, K. von Bardeleben, S. Tarrasch, I. Berger, K. Schlechter, J. Mieses, L. Rellstab. The magazine was suspended from September 1944 until October 1950  R. Teschner edited it from 1950 till the magazine merged with ShachReport (1975-1996) in 1988.

DEVELOPMENT

The process of moving pieces from their original squares to positions where they can better aid the player’s plans. One can be ahead in development (have more pieces in play) or one can be better developed (have pieces more effectively placed). Either one usually confers an advantage.

DIAGONAL

A continuous line of squares. Identification is made by naming the squares at each end. The diagonals a1- h8 and h1- a8 are known as the long diagonals.

DIAGRAM

Diagram, a pictorial representation of the chess board. Usually White plays up the page and Black down the page. The typical king is shaped in the manner of Queen Victoria’s royal crown. The queen is shown as a spiky coronet, with pronounced points varying in number from three to five and horse’s head facing (with very rare exceptions to the left.

Staunton’s Chess Player’s Chronicle, the example used being from 1841

DICE CHESS

A variant of chess described already in 1283 by Alfonso X of Castile. The number one to six shows the move of Pawn, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Queen and King.

DICTIONARY or ENCYCLOPEDIA of Chess

Three encyclopedic works were published in the 1800s: J. de la Torre, Diccionario del juego del ajedrez (Barcelona, 1837); Alexandre, Encylopedie des echecs (Paris, 1837); and E. Carlo Usigli (1812-94), Miscellanea sul giuoco degli scacchi (Naples, 1861). The first contains the laws of chess based on Philidor’s book, definitions of chess terms and illustrations of the chess board, names of squares, standard notation, and a Knight’s tour. The second contains only  opening variations. The third is the nearest approach to a comprehensive encyclopedia.

A team of Russian experts, including Kubbel and Levenfish, wrote Slovar shakhmatista ( Leningrad, 1929, 6 000 copies), and for the first time there were entries for people and events. This lead, not followed by Sanchez Perez, Diccionario ilustrado de ajedrez (Madrid, 1934), the first in English, and by all subsequent authors.

Since then there have been works in English, German, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, Danish, Czech, and Russian. Among the more recent is Szachy od A do Z ( 1986-7) by Litmanowicz and Gizycki, running to about 1 650 pages, and Shakhmaty entsiklopedichesky slovar (1990), a Russian  work edited by a team co-coordinated by Roshal and Averbakh.

Other types of book are Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess Games (1981) by David Levy and Kevin O’Connell; which contains the scores of 3 773 games played between 1485 and 1866, and Chess: the Records (1986) by Ken Whyld, which gives the results of all major events.

DIVAN (THE)

London major chess meeting-place in the 19^th century located at 101 The Strand in London. The Simpson’s restaurant first opened in 1828 as the ‘home of chess’, later to be renamed ‘The Grand Cigar Divan’. Chessplayers would lounge on sofas and divans to play their games. Adolf Anderssen, Howard Staunton, Paul Morphy, Johannes Zukertort, Wilheim Steinitz, and Emanuel Lasker were among the regular members. In 1860 Louis Charles Mahe De Labourdonnais was engaged for playing visitors. The chess tradition died out early last century (1903) but was revived in 1980 mainly by the English Grandmaster Ray Keene. Apparently in 1849 the Divan was the place of the first chess tournament but was definitively the venue of the London Tournament of 1862.

DRAW

An outcome of a game or match involving two sides where no party wins. In a game this may be a result of an agreement by players, stalemate, triple repetition of a position or the so-called 50-move rule.

Up to 1863 tournament games that were drawn had to be replayed but since Dundee 1867 the rule was replaced with a half point given to both players. In 1929 in the first rules of chess published by FIDE the rule required a minimum of 30 moves before agreeing to draw. The requirement was abolished in 1952, reintroduced in 1962 and finally abandoned in 1964. More recently, in 2005 at the Super Tournament of Sofia, the players could only conclude a draw after a positive answer by the tournament director (Zurab Azmailparashvili).

There where some ‘specialists’ of draw games: In 1929 Maroczy drew all his nine games. Alberic O’Kelly drew all his nine games at Beverwijk in 1959, in 1971 Unzicker at Berlin draw all his 15 games. In 1999 at the Petrosian Memorial there were only 3 decisive games out of 90 games played and five players, Vasily Smyslov, Boris Spassky, Vlastimil Hort, Mark Taimanov and Yuri Balashov drew all their 9 games at an average of less than 20 moves. The precursors were Georg Marco and Carl Schlechter in their match played at Vienna 1873 they drew all their 10 games.

Among some greatest draws:

Englisch-Blackburne London 1883

Halprin-Pillsbury, Munich 1900

Schlechter- EM. Lasker (7) wch 1910

Alekhine-Capablanca (22) wch 1927

Capablanca-Bogoljubow, Calsbad 1929

Euwe-Capablanca,  (8) match 1931

Spielmann-Lasker Moscow 1935

Alekhine-Botvinnik Nottingham 1936

Botvinnik-Euwe 1946

Bronstein-Botvinnik (18) match 1951

Fischer-Tal, Leipzig ol 1960

Gligoric-Tal, Bled 1961

DRAWING MASTER

Title given to draw specialist like Carl Schlechter, Petar Trifunovic, Tigran Petrosian, Arthur Dunkelblum, Ulf Andersson, Gennadi Sosonko, Iosif Dorfman and in the 80’s to Boris Spassky…

DUPLEX

A chess problem, in which both Kings are mated, having usually two help-mate solutions. In one solution Black plays first and helps White to mate the Black King.  In another solution White plays first and helps Black to mate the White King.