King's Arena online bullet tournament

Attended and streamed the 2 hour long online tournement on chess.com. Taking into account my lag, the result was not so bad☺ And the games were quite interesting!


You can see the results and final standings here -
https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/arena/arena-kings-10-week-1-63015?players=3?ref_id=26489968
And here is the video -

Catalan opening in Carlsen vs Karjakin, St Louis 2018, answering student's question

Q: Black has just played 8......Nc6 giving himself temporarily a tripled c pawn in return for the exchange of White's Bishop on g2. This move looks very anti-positional.The previous Black move 7....dxc4 looks bad for Black as well as 8.....Nc6.

Could you please comment about these two strange Black moves.

A:That's a nice question! Yes, these moves by Black do look weird at first glance. But they also have positional background, even that executed in a very dynamic way. First we can have a look at the capture dxc4. This is the case when Black is already developed rather well, casled etc, and now he can consider this capture, because it opens the file D to his Queen, which already makes a direct pressure on centre and keeps d4 at sight. Then Black usually hopes to do something like c5 in these schemes, with even more pressure there. And Nc6 has a similar idea - a clear one - to put more pressure on centre, and also the file b opens after the exchange, and Rook can take it someday; and one more important point - Black gets a chance to sac the extra pawn he has now back but to obtain activity and dynamic in exchange. In this case this can be an exchange of one of the most active White pieces - either Bishop g2 or Knight e5. And if White accepts it, then his position instead of a typical solid Catalan-like positions can go in another direction. And for the tripled pawns he has a compensation like open b and d files with views of pressure on important pawns there, and White can get busy defending those and can lose in general mobility of pieces and simply have no time to hunt for the tripled pawns comfortably.

Answering a student's question

Q:
Could I ask you about this position (Danis v Skora Corr 1977)?

In this variation of Black's 21-st move, White has just played 25. g3! Why has the annotator has given this an exclamation mark? What is the idea behind this move( if 25.Kc7 then 26.h4 h6 and still W cannot get control of f4 for his Queen)?This plan is slow and will fail for White.

A:

Here it just looks like some missplelling or a typo. I guess that the move was Qg3!!  there,  with irrefutable kingatack, and not g3. Also White is a piece down here, and g3 is just useless there, it looks like he had sacrificed a piece previously somewhere in order to obtain this opportunity of King-attack with Qg3. A nice position and example, indeed☺

Answering student's question on French Defense

The French Defense Question:

If the opening goes :

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5  3 Nc3 Nf6  4. e5 Nfd7  5 Qh5 c5  6.Nf3 ( with  the threat of the dangerous 7. Ng5 )

How does Black refute White's premature  5 Qh5?


The answer:

Against the 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7

5. Qh5 c5 6. Nf3 it can be simply g6, and now White fails to coordinate his Queen and Knight in time to attack f7. 

7. Qg4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Nxe5

9. Qg3 Bg7 g6 is also a place for the Bishop to be fianchetted and make pressure on centre. 

10. Bf4 Nbc6 11. Nxc6 Nxc6 12. for example Bd6, to try to delay the castle;  a6

13. O-O-O Ne7 theratening Nf5 and at the same time insisting in castle. 14. Ba3 O-O 15. h4 h5 16. Ne4 Nf5

17. Qh2 Qb6 18. Bxf8 Bxb2+ 19. Kd2 dxe4 with winning position for Black.

Answering a student's opening question

Q:
Could I ask you about a Queens Gambit Declined opening query?

What is the best reply for White if Black plays the antipositional move 5..... dxc4?

If White replies with 6. Qa4+ followed by 7.Qxc4 , doesn't this cause the white Queen to be exposed to attack by the Black pieces later on losing tempi?

I would be glad of your comments please.

A:

Yes, here in this position the most optimal seems the refrained 6.e3. Dxc4 by Black in this case makes some sense, because in this situation it is not just giving the centre up, but since he has already a pawn on c5 too, which is making a pressure on d4, the move dxc4 is helping him to open a way to Queen from d8, for more pressure on d4. As to Qa4, - right, sometimes in such cases the Queen can become an object of attack by minor pieces. In Queen's Gambit on a move number 2 let's say 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dc, 3.Qa4 is also not the best because of that reason, and White prefers to take the pawn back with minor pieces instead, like after e3 or e4 with Bishop. It depends concretely, sometimes Qa4 is best and sometimes some other ways to take the pawn back are better. Here too - the Qa4 may be playable, but taking the pawn with Bishop instead of Queen would be preferable, especially that the position is getting open and there are dangers for the Queen in the centre of the board. 

Now I'm also on Telegram!

I've recently created my new Telegram channel, where I'm already sharing some beautiful chess puzzles for practical players.

The adress is t.me/maryanahuda.

Come and visit it☺

A question on Spanish game which I get quite frequently from my students

Avebakh vs Smyslov, Zurich 1953

Q:

White has just played 9. h3 to prevent  9......Bg4.

What if  Black played this move earlier( before castling) - 8......Bg4 instead of 8.....O-O? Then how does White go about to get rid of this troublesome pin? Is it by 9.h3 followed by 10.d3 followed by Nbd2 , Nf1 , Ng3?

A:

All the key idea to undertand it is that the pin  Bg4 in this case is dangerous only in case White makes the move d4 (then the Bg4 does there a concrete job - takes part in the pressure against the d4 pawn and White's centre at the same time). 

Thus it becomes clear too that White makes this move h3 because he wants to continue with d4, which he usually makes there on a following move.

And when the pawn in not moved yet to d4, or just to d3, then Bg4 makes much less sense, and on the contrary Black usually avoids making this pin, because the Bishop itself can become an object of attack there, and will be at a risk either to be exchanged for the Nf3 (which means a loss of Bishop pair for Black and weakening a complex of important light squares around his Kingside), or to retreat via h5 to g6, where it often turns out to be more like a burden when it comes to defense of Kingside rather than a help, and especially when the pawn e4 will be protected by another pawn d3 it may be very limited on that diagonal, unlike in case the pawn is already moved to d4 (then the e4 one can become a target for the Bishop on g6 and the whole diagonal is much more open). And also White can make his pawns rolling on Black's Kingside by means of g4-h4-h5 while driving the Bishop away this way. 

And right, the right plan against this pin is the normal development for this scheme by means of d3,  Nd2-f1-g3, h3 (or in some cases h3 can be made earlier too), and this is the case the Bishop already finds itself in an awkward position;  the square h5 is not that convenient for it  anymore because of the Knight standing on g3. That's it.

Answering student's question

Langeweg (IM) v Ivkov (GM) Wijk aan Zee 1972

Q: 
In this game White (an IM) has just won a pawn by playing 10.N x c6  winning a pawn in a Catalan opening which has gone badly for Black (a GM!). There appears to be no compensation for the Pawn for Black here. I wonder why Black (a GM) did not resign here. Instead the game carried on until move 93 before Black resigned (two Pawns down in a K +Rook +2P  vs K + Rook ending) when the Pawn was about to queen!

A:
 Nowadays Ba6 is considered as better instaed of Bb7 in this opening. Yes, it should be won theoretically, but well - there may be some small compensation for Black, like the hanging pawn on d4 and c4 is not so secure too, and he tried to use open files and heavy pieces against them. And the advantage convertion isn't that easy for White, and took many moves, and looks like White played technically well, and without a chances for opponent. Well, of course it is hard to play or hope for a win on a high level as Black there, but practical chances for a draw there still are, and he hoped that for example he will oppose that extra pawn with his activity or will get some theoretical ending with extra pawn not sufficient to be converted, like a Rook ending where extra pawns not always mean guaranteed win, or exchange of all pawns of opponent that there was no queening possible etc with the same objective. Advantage convertion in such technical positions is not always that easy including on a high level, that's why Black kept up playing there. Even the final position with the 2 side Pawns in the Rook ending is known to have some technical problems to be overcame to be converted for a win and has some well-known traps on this path, including stalemate ideas, even in case when seems that a lot of work is already done and the King of weaker side is driven to a corner. By the way, interesting example to be practiced against an engine and I can recommend to try it.

My public interactive study for beginners

I've jus made one of my private Lichess studies public, and also this is an interactive one. Hope the players who will solve it will have lots of fun☺

The title of the study is "Exercises on the themes of centre and pieces development for beginners", and is like a set of elementary exercises for the other public studies I published previously.

It can be accessed by this link -

https://lichess.org/study/vzLB5yP9

New Twitch channel

Now my Dad, Master Candidate at chess, has got his own one -

https://www.twitch.tv/hudajaroslaw

Welcome ☺

My new channel on Goodgame

I've just got a new channel on a famous Russian-speaking platform -

https://goodgame.ru/channel/MaryanaHuda/

Here also planning to host my own chess streams and also play of my father!

Welcome and thanks for watching!☺

Answering chess questions

Q:

With a positional sacrifice 1.Ncxd5,  if Black accepts the sacrifice by playing 1.......exd5  White can either play 2. e6+  but the e pawn will be lost later so 2.Nxd5 looks better followed by 3.Bc4 looks good for White. Is this correct?

A:

Here, if White to move,the both continuations can give a solid advantage to White. But the first one - with e6 - looks like more clear and convincing one. The decisive point is the win of the pawn on d5 with Knight from f4, after the exchange on d7. Thus White ends up with a clear extra pawn + save his positional pluses and have an easy-to-play position. As to line with Bc4, it is more risky to do on practice, and White still has to prove his advantage and to play very accurately further in order not to miss some counterplay and not to get his passed central pawns blockaded.

Answering student's question

Q:
In the game Balashov - Platonov (USSR Championships 1971) Black has just played 23........ Q(e7-d6).  
Could you explain the purpose of 23....Qd6 as it appears to leave his black pawn on e4 unguarded.
It is attacked three times and defended twice so White by playing 24. Bxe4 can trade his Rook for two Black minor pieces.
Shouldn't 23 ......Re8 be played first?

A:

Yes, as I understand, that here Black aimed to get some close to endgame position after the exchange of all the pieces, with strong passed  pawn d4. Similar to the case of advantage transformation - from one kind of advantage into other. Trying to provoke the exchange but to get smth other in exchange. And also the Bf5 in pair with the Q can be strong in attack against Bk King. That's why Black agrees to get it exchanged, even by cost of one of his passed pawns. For the pawns it may be still long to go, and white is threatening Qh5 somewhere. King safety was the first consideration,  since White also had still his play there.

Answering student's questions

 The position is from a game Pachman-Bronstein Prague 1946.

Q:

If  19.  f4   then 19.....h4!

The reply by White 20.gxh4 would be anti-positional for White.But how does Black then go about capturing the h pawn. Would  Black then play 21.....Bf6 ? In trying to capture the h4 pawn Black would take the pressure off d4.

A:

First of all, having sacrificed a pawn like this, the side not always hurries to take it back immediately on a following moves, it can be like a long-term sac, for example with intention to weaken that pawn and then it can be a long-term burden to opponent, which then can make his pieces to watch this pawn all the time and to be tied up with its defence, and in the meantime the side who made the sac can be active on any other part of board, having a superiority in forces and activity there. thus to defend this pawn all the time can be bad to opponent, and to give it back can also be not good. GMs often sac such pawns with composure and use positional advantage connected with it. But there is also one condition, when sacrificing it, that it is better that such pawn wasn't mobile then, because sometimes it can be possible to take and then to advance the pawn, like after Bf6 move that you considered W can do it. So it could be good to have N on f6 to prevent it from moving or smth like this, and in this case after the capture Bk has also to fight against this possibility as well. Well noted by you, that bf6 takes to many time to get this pawn back and can get a bit misplaced. Then Qd8 maneouvre followed by Qh4 can be good in this case, especially that White's K-side got weakened after this capture, along with f4 pawn move (like it was in some of your games, that the move f4 can be connecetd not always with initiative but also can weaken K-side sometimes). Thus Qd8 h5 Qf4 with double attack on f4 and h5.

Also it is very common to continue with attack in the centre after such a sac, and another alternative can be 1... Rxa1 2. Rxa1 Nce6 3. Nde2 Nxf4 and white is positionally broken, or 1... Rxa1 2. Rxa1 Nxb3, everything based on vulnerability of W's centre.

My personal website is finally launched!

Working on it!

You can visit it here:

https://gudachess.wixsite.com/maryanahuda

Welcome☺

Titled Tuesday online tournament, July

Yes, I played in it; the result this time could have been much better, but the quality of games overall was pretty good, and there were a lot of interesting games there with very strong players, which I'm going to put on new videos with analysis soon. Stay tuned!

Here is a coverage of  the whole process itself:

My brief chess bio

I started to play chess at 11, taught by my father, who is Master Candidate at the game. Of course I had been offered by him to learn and pay more attention to the game earlier, but that time I was too busy with my school life - was the best pupil there, had a lot activities and intensive life every day (won local contests there, painted, wrote poems and prose, had interest in entomology, made beading on a high level, hand craft etc). But yet the game was quite popular and prestigious in my locality at that time, and I finally took it, and liked it, and started to train seriously, travel to tournaments, both in my country and abroad.

Made a quick progress at the beginning - achieved my 1-st category (class A) only in 8 months after learning the moves of pieces and rules of the game. And Master Candidate title in about 2 years. And then at the age of graduating from school I got all my WIM and WGM norms. Then, during my study at University, tried myself as chess coach, and liked it too, and since then combining the play in pro tournaments with my own chess tranings and preparations and coaching of my students. ☺

Titled Tuesday online tournament, June 2018.

This time I took part again in the traditional Titled Tuesday chess online tournament, held by chess.com website. I played after an intense working day at late night, and this time took 5 points out of 10. Had not a bad start - 4 out of 6. Also I made a live coverage of the process on Youtube and Twitch.

Here is a link -

Final standings - https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/-titled-tuesday-blitz-965556?ref_id=26489968


Also I made a couple of videos, both in English and Spanish, making a brief analysis of some of the games afterwards. Here they are:

Enjoy! ☺

My public Lichess studies

I have recetly made some of my Lichess studies public, and now anyone can reach and go through them.

The studies are lectures for beginners, written by me, covering themes like centre, pieces development, opening repertoire for Black and White, in details and explained.

Enjoy it, comment, and like☺

Here are the links:

https://lichess.org/study/oPTsIN7c

https://lichess.org/study/b0ZqKFLd

https://lichess.org/study/zZA5hIIE

https://lichess.org/study/j0Y34Heu

Titled Tuesday online tournament

1-st of May 2018 I took part in the traditional Titled Tuesday blitz tournament, held by chess.com website, with some of top GMs participating there. Was a fun☺. Took the 1-st place among women there, and shared 39-th (and resulted to have 58-th) place overall, with 6 points out of 10 with about 300 participants.
 Here is the link to the tournament's standings and results -
https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/-titled-tuesday-blitz-954936?ref_id=26489968

Interview with Steve Dagonia

The interview covers some interesting points about professional chess along with teaching methodology, and of course sharing of methods on to work and improve your chess.

My new official Facebook page

Welcome to my new Facebook page! Thanks for visiting it and enjoy the latest updates! ☺

https://www.facebook.com/pg/MaryanaHuda/posts/?ref=page_internal

My Twitter page

You can visit it and follow updates here - https://twitter.com/MarianaGuda?lang=ru

I'm going to be more active there as well :)

My public Instagram page, dedicated to chess, is finally launched too :)

Here it is, and now you can follow updates there - https://www.instagram.com/maryanahuda/


I'm going to share the chess-related content here and my personal experience in the chess world, and hope you will enjoy it and thanks for visiting it! :) 

Finally my Youtube channel is launched!

Now I'm also chess streamer and videoblogger ☺

The link is

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbNfqV8aXdS3JRR9bvl8fkQ

I plan to make live streams (including with my online games and tournaments) there and publish videos with my chess lectures.

I hope you enjoy it :)

As well my new Twitch account is maryanahuda.

https://www.twitch.tv/maryanahuda

I've launched also live chess streams there - besides lectures on chess and coaching there are as well just playing streams - now I do play online chess, and also sometimes how I do play collectively together with my father (Master Candidate in chess and he's a coach too), and also with my pupils (kids), which visit me by that time☺

My Lichess.org streamer's page - https://lichess.org/streamer/Morshynska1

Thanks for visiting it!

Black to make a draw.

A really nice chess problem!

Black to move and win. Enjoy!

Solved this chess problem myself and liked it ;)

White to move and win☺

Quite an easy chess problem, but a good one for a warm up!

Black to move and win.

How about solving this chess problem? Any ideas?

White to move and win. Good luck!  Post your answers in comments.

Ways to contact me to have a chess lesson with me

I have my coaching profile on the lichess.org website, with info and students' reviews -

https://lichess.org/coach/Morshynska1


Chess.com page -

https://www.chess.com/member/morshynska?ref_id=26489968


ICC handle - Morshynska

Just drop me a message on one of them, or on my mentioned there email as well.

Cup of Lion 2017, Lviv city, photos

Interview time :)

Closing ceremony

I was first place among women in classical time control tournament, and 3-rd in rapid.

Photos from women's chess European Championship in Slovakia, April 2018

Just a couple of off chess board photos in Vysoke Tatry :) Enjoy!