Walking the Pattern(s) by Taylor Kingston GM RAM: Essential Grandmaster Knowledge, by IM Rashid Ziatdinov and Peter Dyson, 1998 PROChess, Spiral-bound paperback, English algebraic notation, 97pp., $10.00. In the Amber novels, a fantasy/sci-fi series by Roger Zelazny, is found "The Pattern", a geometrical design of such complexity and magic that all realities are implicit within it, and one who can walk through its perilous maze of curves and angles is thereafter endowed with supernatural powers. On the comedy album Monty Python's Previous Record is found the skit "How-To-Do-It Lessons", wherein we are told how to master certain difficult tasks. For example, playing the flute: "Blow in one end, and move your fingers up and down the outside." Curing all known diseases? "Become a doctor, invent a marvelous cure for something, and when the medical world really takes notice, you can jolly well tell them what to do, make sure they get everything right, so there will never be diseases again." A future lesson promises to tell how to irrigate the Sahara. In chess we're all trying to work our way through complexities and figure out "how to do it," i.e. attain mastery. IM Rashid Ziatdinov, a recent emigre to America from the former Soviet Union, now makes a startling claim: that within the pages of his small, very modest-looking manual are implicit all things required to reach Grandmaster strength. In the preface he states "My research into what is most important to know has led me to identify what I consider to be the essential knowledge of a Grandmaster. The positions around which this knowledge is based are provided in this book." And, like one who has walked the Pattern of Amber, "Once you understand the positions in this book, your chess pieces will have new powers ... My opinion is that if you memorize all of them, you will be a 2600 level player." An amazing assertion, which I was at first tempted to regard as Zelaznian fantasy or a Pythonesque joke. However, on further reading I decided against such an abrupt dismissal. It has long been known that pattern recognition (which Ziatdinov refers to as "tacit knowledge" or "RAM" -- Random Access Memory) is an essential chess skill. Study of well-played games builds up in the student's memory a store of patterns, which, when a similar position occurs in actual play, can be recalled, either consciously or subconsciously, to help him find the right move or plan. Take for example the following position, which occurred in a game between two class B players at my local club. White: Kg1, Qe2, Rd1,Rf1, Nb3, Bd3, Bd4; pawns - a2, b2, c2, e5, f4, g2, h2 Black: Kg8, Qd8, Rc8,Rf8,Nb4,Bd7, Be7; pawns - a6, b7, d6, e6, f7, g7, h7 Here play continued 16. Rf3?! Nxd3 17. Rdxd3? Bb5, but in annotating the game for the club newsletter, I found myself thinking "Why not 16. ed6 and sacrifice on h7?". Sure enough, a little analysis showed that 16. ed6 Bxd6 17. Bxh7+! Kxh7 18. Qh5+ Kg8 19. Bxg7!! Kxg7 20. Qg4+ Kh8 21. Rf3 intending 22. Rh3+ etc. would have been decisive (thus Black would have been forced into 16. ed6 Bf6 17. Bxf6 Qxf6 18. c3, which is still rather bad). I felt a sense of deja vu while working out that line, and checking an old book, I confirmed the source: the famous game Lasker-Bauer, Amsterdam 1889, which from an essentially similar position White: Kg1, Qe2, Ra1,Rf1, Ng3, Bd3, Be5; pawns - a2, b3, c2, d2, e3, f4, g2, h2 Black: Kg8, Qc6, Ra8, Rf8, Nf6, Bb7, Be7; pawns - a6, b6, c5, d5, e6, f7, g7, h7 proceeded 14. Nh5! Nxh5 15. Bxh7+! Kxh7 16. Qxh5+ Kg8 17. Bxg7!! Kxg7 18. Qg4+ Kh7 19. Rf3 e5 20. Rh3+ Qh6 21. Rxh6+ Kxh6 22. Qd7 etc., 1-0, 33. It is likely that Tarrasch felt the same deja vu as he played a more complex but similar sac against Nimzovitch at St. Petersburg, 1914: White: Kg1,Qc2, Rc1, Rf1, Bb2; pawns - a2, b3, e3, f2, g2, h2 Black: Kg8, Qe7, Rd8, Rf8, Bc6, Bd6; pawns - a7, c5, d5, f7 g6, h7 18. ... d4! 19. ed4 Bxh2+! 20. Kxh2 Qh4+ 21. Kg1 Bxg2! 22. f3 Rfe8 23. Ne4 Qh1+ 24. Kf2 Bxf1 25. d5 f5 26. Qc3 Qg2+ 27. Ke3 Rxe4+! 28. fe4 f4+! 29. Kxf4 Rf8+ 30. Ke5 Qh2+ 31. Ke6 Re8+ 32. Kd7 Bb5#. So the worth of pattern recognition is clear. However, unlike Zelazny, Ziatdinov requires one to walk not a single pattern, but 256, and unlike Monty Python, he makes it clear it is anything but easy. Like Capablanca and many other authorities, Ziatdinov says proper study of chess begins at the end. Thus the first 136 positions are endgames. Of these 52 are basic King-and-single- pawn or Rook-and-single-pawn endings, beginning with relatively simple Lucena and Philidor positions, and progressing to more difficult ones with subtle distinctions, such as diagrams 49 and 50: White: Kd5, Rh7; pawn - e5 Black: Ke8, Re1 White: Kd6, Rh7; pawn - e5 Black: Ke8, Re1 which differ only slightly. There are six Queen endings, 56 minor piece endings, 12 of Rook vs. minor piece, and nine examples of "fortresses", such as diagram 136 White: Ke4,Qd5; pawn - h5 Black: Kf8, Rf6; pawn - g7 where the materially superior side cannot win against best play. After the endgame section come 120 middlegame positions. These are derived from 59 classical games, the full (unannotated) texts of which follow in an entirely separate section. Some games get several diagrams, some none, and the diagrams are not in the same order as their corresponding games. In some cases the position is a decisive combinative moment: White: Kg1, Qg4, Rc1,Re7, Ng5; pawns - a2, b2, f2, g2, h2 Black: Ke8, Qd7, Ra8, Rc8; pawns - a7, b7, d5, f6, g6, h7 In other cases it is not: White: Kg1, Qe2, Ra1,Rf1, Nc3, Nf3, Bc4, Be3; pawns - a4, b2, c2, d3, e4, f2, g2, h2 Black: Kg8, Qd8,Ra8, Rf8, Nc6, Ng6, Bc8, Be7; pawns - a6, b7, c5, d7, e6, f7, g7, h7 There are two interesting aspects to these games. One, in contrast to many other chess writers, Ziatdinov advises outright memorization of them, claiming "If you know just one of the important classical games, you will be able to become a 1400 level player, know 10 games and you will be 2200 level, know 100 and you will be 2500." Two, and as a chess history buff I am delighted to see this, the most recent of the games is from 1936, 45 of the 59 are from the 1800s, and most of those were played while Abraham Lincoln was still alive. The names Anderssen, Morphy, Steinitz, and Chigorin predominate. "The thing which hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." -- Ecclesiastes 8. By the way, the aforementioned Lasker-Bauer position is on page 87. You will note we have not supplied any solutions to the above positions, nor even mentioned which color is on move. Neither does Ziatdinov! There's the rub -- while he gives you the positions, you have to work almost everything out for yourself! (What, you thought you were going to get True Enlightenment for 10 bucks?) Thus GM-RAM provides not a set of pat answers but an outline for a course of study. What you get for your 10 bucks, says Ziatdinov, are the right positions to study. The final page provides a list of recommended references where one can find the answers, such as all six volumes of Averbakh's Comprehensive Chess Endings, Benko's Chess Endgame Lessons, Fine's Basic Chess Endings, Keres & Kotov's The Art of the Middle Game, Alekhine's My Best Games of Chess 1908-1937, and Kmoch's Pawn Power In Chess. Whether this method actually works, I have no idea. Given that Ziatdinov's methods closely resemble those of GM Lev Alburt (see for example the review of Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book in the Chess Cafe archives), and that this sort of once- secret Soviet training helped make the USSR the greatest national chess power in history, it would appear to have very good credentials. In addition to being a course outline, however, GM-RAM is also a litmus test of one's commitment. To follow its course to any length, except perhaps just to play over its games at leisure, requires a high level of interest and desire. It is designed for the serious-minded and ambitious. Ziatdinov promises some improvement even from casual study, but if you find yourself losing interest in a short time, like a rookie football player who gets cut in training camp, you probably were not destined for the big time anyway. However, GM-RAM is also a motivator. Just having seen those positions, tantalizingly with no solution, makes me want to find the answers. It is possible to study chess very hard and see relatively little increase in playing strength. Some players (including on occasion this writer) are like a man who keeps pouring more water on the woodpile and then wonders why his fire won't start. Ziatdinov may be the guru such players need. While it would probably have helped much more when I was 16, I'm eager to give it a try, and I recommend it to anyone who still harbors any real chessic ambition. If after a while you read of a middle-aged life-long mediocrity suddenly qualifying for the Interzonal (or even just making an OTB 2200 rating), you'll know Ziatdinov's method really works.