A Reader’s Request

By master

This just in, by email:

Could you please add a replayable game link for the game covered in your Chessbase Show? Not the comments you make during the show, just the game itself.

I often want to play over the game as soon as you describe it, to see how your comments match up with the game play.

Thanks

The answer to this request is that I could, but I won’t. Why not?

First, part of the fun of the presentation is the dramatic aspect. If people know what’s coming, that disappears.

Second, I’ll regularly stop at a given point in the show and ask people to guess the next move (it’s usually a tactic, but not always). Again, if the game is already known to the audience, that becomes a pretty pointless exercise.

One might respond that not everyone looks at the game beforehand. That’s true, but there’s an unfortunate tendency of those who do know the game to share their knowledge with the audience, ruining it for those who are trying to figure it out on their own. I’d prefer not to foster that.

Third, unless it’s a really obscure game (e.g. a game from a club tournament), it’s easy as pie to find it using a search engine. (Generally speaking, you’ll almost always be able to find a game on chessgames.com or on ChessBase’s online database.)

Having explained why I am not interested in posting direct links, I do think the questioner’s aim is commendable. The viewer will get the most out of my show, from a training perspective, by finding the game first, analyzing it (without a computer, obviously) as deeply as possible, and only then watching the show. (Only at that point, if mysteries remain that the viewer can’t figure out for himself, would it be appropriate to switch on Frybka.)

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