Revisiting blues

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 07 June 2010)

GM Ivan Sokolov (in photo) has had a very eventful life. A native of Bosnia-Herzegovina, he was on his way to Manila for the 1992 Olympiad when civil war broke out in his country.

The whole Bosnian team (Pedrag Nikolic, Sokolov, Kurajica and Dizdarevic) could not go home after the Olympiad and was forced to wander all over Europe for the next few years. Sokolov and Nikolic both finally settled in Holland, where they took turns winning the Dutch Championship.

While in Holland Sokolov tried his hand at writing and came up with a book on his best games in 1997. This was a bit unusual, for he was only 29 years old then and some would say a bit too early to be writing about a career that was still in full bloom, but nonetheless it was quite a good book and sold well. Obviously heartened by the public acceptance, he went on to write a few more, the latest being Ruy Lopez Revisited, which "contains in-depth but highly accessible analysis of the Jaenisch Gambit, the Delayed Jaenisch, the Cozio Variation, the Smyslov Variation, the Bird Variation and the Classical Variation."

The danger of writing an opening book is that your future opponents would read them and try to spot weaknesses which they in turn will use against you. In the recent Bosna 2010 tournament (won by GM Wang Hao) Sokolov tried out his book recommendations, and that is exactly what happened to him. Let us recap.

The Smyslov Variation. "The Smyslov Variation is a sound line, employed on a regular basis by former world champions Vasily Smyslov and -- in the 1980s -- Boris Spassky. White probably has a small advantage, just as White has a small advantage in most chess openings. Black can employ this line on a regular basis."

Geetha, Narayanan Gopal (2604) -- Sokolov, Ivan (2654) [C60]
40th Bosna Open Sarajevo BIH (10), 14.05.2010
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The Bird’s Defense. "A strategically very complicated line offering Black active play. It has been played on a regular basis by world-famous players like Spassky, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, to name just a few. White should have an opening advantage, but the position is complicated, difficult to handle in over-the-board play and some serious working hours invested by the black player are definitely bound to pay off."

Kovacevic, Aleksandar (2573) -- Sokolov, Ivan (2654) [C61]
40th Bosna Open Sarajevo BIH (8), 12.05.2010
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Please don’t get me wrong. The book is excellent, and you will have noticed from the above that his opponents adopted Sokolov’s ideas in defeating Sokolov. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.