The Rookie

The weather in Athens is pleasingly warm in December. I only point this out to annoy the kibitzers on the chessgames.com website who have been attacking my efforts to take the principles of good chess to the masses. "I can't understand why the Guardian would pay this guy to fly over to Greece every week to get drunk with Short, which is all they seem to do," moans "KingG". A point, I have to admit, that some of my so-called colleagues at the Guardian have raised too, though in my defence I would point out that I do not go to Greece every week, just every couple of months when a new batch of columns is needed. But I do recommend December: warm enough to eat your souvlaki at a pavement table.

For my latest encounter with Short, I had the bright idea of taking a batch of games I had played recently and getting him to analyse them. I've started playing on the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) website. I've adopted the playing name - or handle, as the webbies style it - AlecHyne, an allusion to the great Russian-born world champion Alekhine. Among my rivals on FICS are Botchvinik and Nitwitzowitsch (homages to Mikhail Botvinnik and Aron Nimzowitsch). All clever stuff, though Short points out that Alekhine had a dodgy Nazi period in the war and died soon after of cirrhosis of the liver. Ominous.

The idea proved less bright than I had hoped, because in the harsh light of an Athens morning, most of the games looked rather desperate and blunder-ridden. They may, indeed, be among the worst games ever published. KingG, who calls The Rookie "the biggest load of nonsense I have ever seen - there is nothing there that would help the beginner or average player", will no doubt feel vindicated.

So the squeamish should look away now. The first game is a grisly example of my inability to defend against Queen's gambit:

"TimShea" v "AlecHyne", Nov 2005

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 e6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. g3 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O dxc4 8. Ne5 Nd5 9. e4 Nxc3 10. bxc3 Nd7 11. Nxc4 h6 12. Be3 Nf6 13. Qc2 Nh7 14. Rad1f5 15. Rfe1 Bg5 16. f4 Be7 17. Ne5 Bd6 18. c4 g5 19. d5 cxd5 20. cxd5 Qc7 21. Qb3 Bxe5 22. fxe5 Qxe5 23. exf5 Rxf5 24. Bd4 Qd6 25. dxe6 Qe7

I am too embarrassed to show the rest of the game. Under time pressure, my opponent blundered away a bishop and, half a dozen moves later, I blundered away a rook. The latter lost me the game, but the real point is the crushing attack that he had built up because of the dozy, passive manner in which I had played. Enough pain. Next week, we will look at where I am going wrong.