Journal of Positional Chess Ideas: Winning Long Games

By Scott Elliott

This book is for intermediate tournament chess players wanting to raise the level of their positional play. Superior positional play triumphs over an opponent who makes no tactical blunders which requires incrementally accumulating positional advantages in the opening, middle game, and endgame.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312499294

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Journal of Positional Chess Ideas: Winning Long Games

Journal of Positional Chess Ideas:

Winning Long Games

By

Scott Elliott

Journal of Positional Chess Ideas: Winning Long Games

First Edition

Copyright, 2014, Scott Alan Elliott

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-312-49929-4

Introduction and Information about the Author

You have likely not heard of Scott Elliott, and that is OK. I simply enjoy chess, desire to improve, and I am experimenting with the idea of being a writer of chess books and books on other topics. I write this book hoping that it can inspire whoever may read it and that it might be useful to them. Tennis and chess are two games which I love to play one for the body and the other for the mind. I am better at chess than tennis, but I play tennis to try to stay in decent physical condition. The reason I mention tennis is that I will make a couple of references comparing it with chess in the process of trying to improve one’s level of play.

This book has been a seven month project as my contract as an operations manager for an international development contract in Bangladesh terminated at the end of August 2014. My claim to fame as a chess player is that I won the Texas Junior Chess Championship at age 16 in 1979 held at the Trinity University Campus in San Antonio, Texas and the scan of the newspaper clipping which my mother saved is provided later in this introduction. It was my father who taught me chess when I was about seven years old. My parents divorced when I was five and I was an only-child, but in spite of their divorce I never doubted that they both cared deeply about me. I spent weekends with my father growing up and he introduced me to bowling, and he also took me to Austin, Texas chess club, located at the Hancock Golf Course club house. Unfortunately, he died when I was 15, and could not see me win the Texas Junior trophy.

I do not have the score sheet for that fifth round final match, but I remember opening with b3, the Larsen Attack. In the middle-game after doubling my opponent’s pawns of f7 and f6 by playing Bxf6 and his later playing e6-e5, I remember being able to position my knight on f5 and this was my only minor piece remaining and his only minor piece remaining was his king’s bishop. I do not recall the exact configuration of all the pieces on the board, but I do recall having a rook on the h-file, perhaps h3. My opponent’s king was on h8, rook on g8, and bishop on f8, and pawn on h7. I remember playing Rxh7+ sacking my rook. My opponent’s only move was …Kxh7. I had a pawn on g4, and although I do not recall where my queen was, maybe f3, I was able to play Qh3+. After this move, my opponent resigned. He had only two moves …Bh6, after which I would have played Qxh6mate or …Kg6, after which I would have played Qh5mate. This was a most satisfying way to conclude a 5-0 result in that tournament.

I learned chess about the same time as the Fischer-Spassky match. The first chess books I read were written by Fred Reinfeld whose books played a role in my initial chess development. Quite inspiring to me also was Think Like a Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov. Though never a world champion Kotov was able to articulate the need for analyzing variations comparing them to branches of a tree. This gives me hope as a potential writer. To be a good writer whose books are helpful to others one does not necessarily have to be the world champion. It is not the rating of the writer that determines the value of a chess book, but whether or not the book helps improve one’s level of play. In this vein I have written this book.

I think I was around age 19 when my USCF rating eclipsed at 1992. I was also an engineering student at UT Austin, and trying to be a dedicated Christian. I do not want to blame the preachers that I listened to at the time and the problem was more likely with my interpretation, but I became convinced that my addiction to chess was a challenge to my allegiance to God, and I gave up chess cold turkey. I am not judging my decision as right or wrong or good or bad, but what happened is a fact of history which I cannot change. I suppose I did as a result of my decision have more time to study engineering and I completed my degree. Later in my mid-thirties, I followed the call to Bangladesh which is my present location. For various reasons my first marriage failed, and I entered a more secular line of work in my outgoing role as operations manager. I suppose several years ago without exactly knowing when, I slowly came to the conclusion that chess was not of the devil. I ordered a Fritz 13 CD, and started practicing again.

Though the local Bangladesh Chess Federation has presently five GM’s, there are not the same opportunities for tournament play as I would have in my home country, but you can look me up on fide-dot-com if you are so inclined. I suppose I am mentioning these things in case you might be asking the likely question: What qualifies you to write a chess book?

I am not sure I have the final answer to that question, and I admit writing this book is a test for me. You the reader can be the judge of whether or not this book is helpful. This book is probably most helpful for those players rated below USCF expert level. However, what I am advocating is a process. It is extremely simple and players at any level really of any sport can implement it. I call it journaling, and thus the title of this book is The JOURNAL of Positional Chess Ideas. What I try to do whether playing chess or tennis is keep a diary of ideas. Inside that diary, I staple all the score-sheets from tournament games which I have played. I also jot down ideas I learn from playing Fritz 13.

Playing Fritz is like playing the wall in tennis. I play tennis at the American Club in Dhaka, Bangladesh, but when the courts are full, I head to the wall. There has been painted on this particular concrete wall a thick black line about tennis net height which also in the same way dips a little in the center. I know it sounds quite boring, but I try to hit the ball against the wall until the courts are free or until I hit 1000 balls whichever comes first. The wall never misses and always returns whatever I hit and my ground-stroke play has improved considerably playing against the wall. Like the wall Fritz 13 never misses anything tactically. The only way I can win against Fritz is by playing superior positionally combined with replaying moves when I make tactical blunders. What I try to do is win as White and at least draw as Black. I replay the moves as