MARK RUBERY CHESS

Alexander Kotov (1913-1981) was a strong Soviet grandmaster that like many of his generation lived under the towering shadow of Botvinnik. Kotov was known for his ability to develop attacks against the enemy king and enjoyed his greatest triumph when he won the 1952 Interzonal in Saltsjobaden, three points clear of the field. In the west he was better known as the author of the classic book ‘Think like a grandmaster’ from which the terms ‘candidate moves’ and ‘tree of variations’ are now part of a chess player’s vocabulary. In his book he described a situation which he calls the ‘Kotov syndrome’ when a player thinks very hard for a long time in a complicated position but does not find a clear path, then running low on time quickly makes a poor move, often a blunder

Here is a lesser-known brilliancy of Kotov’s against the legendary Estonian player, Paul Keres that fully displays his attacking prowess.

Kotov - Keres Budapest, 1950

1.c4 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3

Nc6 6.f3 b6 (a sound if ponderous method of playing the Nimzo-Indian) 7.e4 Ba6 8.e5 Ng8

9.Nh3 Na5 10.Qa4 Ne7 (10…Qe7 11 Bd3 0-0-0 worked out well for Black in Liardet-Tukmakov, 1997) 11.Bd3 0-0 12.Bg5 h6 13.Bh4 d5 14.Bb1 (Giving up the pawn and preparing a massive attack against the king)… g5 15.Qc2 Ng6 16.Nf4!

‘I selected from tournament books those games in which the greatest complications had arisen. Then set myself the task of thinking long and hard so as to analyse all the possible variations. I would sometimes write down the variations I had examined and then I would compare them with those of the annotator.’ – Alexander Kotov

What distinguishes a Grandmaster from a master? Chess-lovers often ask questions like that. To many people it seems that Grandmasters simply calculate variations a little deeper. Or that they know their opening theory slightly better. But in fact the real difference is something else. You can pick out two essential qualities in which those with higher titles are superior to others: the ability to sense the critical moment in a game, and a finer understanding of various positional problems. – Artur Yusupov