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30-443: The opening was first played in the game Alexander Konstantinopolsky versus Viacheslav Ragozin , Moscow 1956. The Konstantinopolsky Opening is rarely seen at the top levels of chess, although some grandmasters such as Savielly Tartakower (who played many unusual openings) have experimented with it. Black is considered to achieve an easy game with the natural and strong 3...Nf6 4.d3 d5. This chess opening -related article

60-655: A Leningrad Young Masters' tournament, scoring 7½/14 in a strong field which played a double round robin format. Konstantinopolsky played several times in Soviet Chess Championships . In 1931, he tied for 3rd-5th (7th URS-ch semifinal), in Moscow . In 1934, he tied for 11th-13th in Tbilisi (9th URS-ch sf). In April/May 1937, he tied for 2nd-3rd with Viacheslav Ragozin , behind Grigory Levenfish , in Tbilisi (10th URS-ch), with

90-643: A creditable 5/9. He continued to work as one of the Soviet Union's most respected trainers well into his 70s. He introduced an opening which is named for him as the Konstantinopolsky Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.g3), against Viacheslav Ragozin at Moscow 1956. He published two chess books after age 70. Konstantinopolsky died in Moscow on September 21, 1990, at age 80. Konstantinopolsky defeats that year's Soviet champion. An exchange sacrifice sets up

120-501: A match against Lev Aronin (+6 –1 =5). In 1944, he moved to stay in Moscow. He played in the 1945 Moscow City Championship, probably on average the strongest such event in the world, scoring 9/16. After the war, he played in several more Soviet championships. In 1945, he tied for 1st-3rd in Baku (URS-ch sf), with Alexander Kotov and Iosif Rudakovsky , each scoring 10½/15. In June 1945, he tied for 4th-6th in Moscow (14th URS-ch), with 10½/18;

150-524: A score of 12/19. In 1938, he tied for 11th-12th in Kiev (URS-ch sf). In 1940, he tied for 4th-7th in Kiev (URS-ch sf), with a score of 9½/16. In September/October 1940, he tied for 13th-16th in Moscow (12th URS-ch), with a score of 8/19. During the late 1930s, Konstantinopolsky trained young players and amateurs in Kiev, at the Palace of Young Pioneers. He was widely regarded as a friendly and kindly man. His prize pupil

180-474: A very deep trap winning White's Queen; this line was eventually jointly named for Konstantinopolsky's pupil Bronstein. Lilienthal was one of the world's strongest players during the 1940s. Dutch Defence The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: Black's 1...f5 stakes a claim to the e4-square and envisions an attack in the middlegame on White's kingside ; however, it also weakens Black's kingside to an extent (especially

210-535: Is A83. Of course, like any other opening in chess, there are countless varaiations and lines, but the above three are considered part of the main theory of the Dutch Defense. The Stonewall Dutch enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the 1980s and 1990s, when leading grandmasters (GMs) Artur Yusupov , Sergey Dolmatov , Nigel Short and Simen Agdestein helped develop the system where Black plays an earlier ...d5 and places his dark-squared bishop on d6. Termed

240-401: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Alexander Konstantinopolsky Alexander Markovich Konstantinopolsky ( Russian : Александр Маркович Константинопольский ; 19 February 1910 – 21 September 1990) was a Soviet chess player, trainer and writer. He was a five-time champion of Kiev , and trained the world title challenger David Bronstein from a young age. He was awarded

270-509: Is played after g3 and Bg2; c4 is played after Nf3; and c4 is played after 0-0. Examples: White has various more aggressive alternatives to the standard moves, including Black sometimes starts with the move order 1...e6 to avoid these lines, although Black must then be ready to play the French Defence if White continues 2.e4, rendering the Dutch no longer an option. The Staunton Gambit remains

300-551: Is rarely seen today in high-level competition, although a number of top players, including Alexander Alekhine , Bent Larsen , Paul Morphy , Miguel Najdorf , Simon Williams, and Hikaru Nakamura have used it with success. Its most notable use may have been in 1951, when both world champion Mikhail Botvinnik and his challenger, David Bronstein , played it in their 1951 World Championship match . Elias Stein (1748–1812), an Alsatian who settled in The Hague , recommended

330-683: The King's Indian Defence into prominence, along with Boleslavsky and Bronstein. The variation had been considered suspect until the mid-1930s. During this time, he played one of the earliest games in the Yugoslav Attack against the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence , a line which would become very popular about 20 years later. He also defended the Dutch Defence with success at a time when it

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360-571: The Modern Stonewall , this setup has remained more popular than the traditional early ...Be7. Magnus Carlsen has used the Stonewall to score wins against Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana . Simon Williams is one of the leading practitioners of the classical Dutch and wrote more than one book on the opening. The traditional move order involves White playing 2.c4. More commonly, White will start with 2.g3. Some common variations are: c4

390-730: The Dutch Defense The following are several known main variations which are important to know if one wants to really learn and understand the Dutch Defense. The Leningrad Dutch, in the Leningrad variation of the Dutch Defense, black fianchettos the dark-squared bishop. From g7, this bishop will not only be a good defender of the king, but also an active piece on the long diagonal. The game may proceed 1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. Nc3 0-0 6. Nf3 d6 7. 0-0 Qe8. The g2 bishop helps protect white’s king against black’s possible kingside aggression, and this bishop would possible be blunted by

420-462: The Stonewall variation of the Dutch Defense are A90 to A92 : The third variation is The Staunton Gambit, a fairly combative approach with Black's pawn sacrifice after 2. e4!?. The Staunton Gambit is an aggressive attempt by White to sacrifice a pawn in exchange for rapid development and attacking chances against Black's Dutch setup. The ECO code for the Staunton Gambit in the Dutch Defense

450-707: The Stonewall), 6...d6, the Ilyin-Zhenevsky Variation (less popular today), or Alekhine's move 6...Ne4!? retaining the option of moving the d-pawn either one or two squares. The opening's attacking potential is shown in the Polish Immortal , in which Miguel Najdorf , using the Stonewall Variation, sacrificed all of his minor pieces to win by checkmate . Main Theoretical Variations in

480-462: The defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le Jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu . Siegbert Tarrasch rejected the opening as unsound in his 1931 work The Game of Chess , arguing that White should reply with the Staunton Gambit , with White being better after 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 c6 5.f3 ! exf3. White most often fianchettoes

510-417: The e8–h5 diagonal). Like its 1.e4 counterpart, the Sicilian Defence , the Dutch is an aggressive and unbalancing opening, resulting in the lowest percentage of draws among the most common replies to 1.d4. Historically, White has tried many methods to exploit the kingside weaknesses, such as the Staunton Gambit (2.e4) and Korchnoi Attack (2.h3 and 3.g4). The Dutch has never been a main line against 1.d4 and

540-532: The f5 pawn if it were instead to develop to d3. The opening code for the Leningrad Dutch in the Dutch Defense is A87 to A89 in the ECO ( Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings ) classification system. The second variation is The Stonewall Dutch in which black plays …d5 in the opening and secures a tight grip of the e4 square. A possible example is 1. d4 f5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 e6  4. Nf3 d5 5. c4 c6. The ECO codes for

570-608: The game. At the beginning of his career, Konstantinopolsky won the Kiev championships five consecutive times from 1932 to 1936. He played in seven Ukrainian SSR championships. In 1931, he tied for 3rd-5th in Kharkov (6th UKR-ch). In 1933, he took 3rd in Kharkov (7th UKR-ch). In 1936, he took 4th in Kiev (8th UKR-ch). In 1937, he tied for 3rd-4th in Kiev (9th UKR-ch), which was won by Fedor Bohatirchuk . In 1938, he took 3rd in Kiev (10th UKR-ch), which

600-489: The highest chess title. His best games show he could hold his own with anyone in the USSR, with victories over Botvinnik, Keres, Kotov, Boleslavsky, Grigory Levenfish , Vasily Smyslov , Salo Flohr , Alexander Tolush , Viacheslav Ragozin , Andor Lilienthal , Viktor Korchnoi , Yuri Averbakh , Ratmir Kholmov , Boris Verlinsky , and others. In 1948–1951, Konstantinopolsky won the 1st Soviet Correspondence Chess Championship. He

630-623: The king's bishop with g3 and Bg2. Black also sometimes fianchettoes the king's bishop with ...g6 and ...Bg7 (the Leningrad Dutch ), but may instead develop the bishop to e7, d6 (after ...d5), or b4 (the latter is most often seen if White plays c4 before castling). Play often runs 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.Nf3 (4.Nh3 !? is also possible, intending Nf4–d3 to control the e5-square Black plays the Stonewall Variation ) 4...Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 and now Black chooses between 6...d5 (the characteristic move of

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660-497: The title of International Master (IM) by FIDE in 1950, won the first Soviet Correspondence Chess Championship in 1951, earned the IM title at correspondence in 1966, and earned the title of Honorary Grandmaster in 1983. Born in Zhytomyr , Russian Empire , Konstantinopolsky was nearly 20 when he learned chess. This makes him one of the oldest top players in terms of learning the moves of

690-508: The tournament was won by Botvinnik. In 1947, he tied for 3rd-4th in Moscow (URS-ch sf). In 1948, he tied for 6th-9th in Moscow (16th URS-ch), with 9½/17; the tournament was won jointly by Bronstein and Alexander Kotov . In 1950, he tied for 2nd-4th in Tartu (URS-ch sf), with a score of 10/15. In 1950, he tied for 5th-6th in Moscow (18th URS-ch), with 7½/14; the tournament was won by Paul Keres . In 1952, he took 16th in Moscow (20th URS-ch), with 7/19;

720-562: The tournament was won jointly by Botvinnik and Mark Taimanov . He played in the Soviet Team Championship, Riga 1954, scoring 5½/10; this was his last really strong performance. His over-the-board play seems to have largely stopped about 1955, as he concentrated more on correspondence chess and on his job as a trainer and coach. He did play occasionally over-the-board in later years. The website Chessmetrics.com, which provides retroactive ratings for older players, ranks him as 11th in

750-511: The world in 1945. So, his best results in the Soviet national championships, which during that period were the strongest tournaments in the world, were four times in the top six (1937, 1945, 1948, 1950). In any virtually other nation in the world during that period, he would have been its national champion, and an almost certain Grandmaster. Because the Soviet chess talent was so deep, he never earned

780-413: Was awarded the title of International Master (IM) in 1950, that of International Master of correspondence chess (IMC) in 1966, and that of Honorary Grandmaster (HGM) in 1983. According to his game files, he only had one chance to play over-the-board in an international tournament outside the Soviet Union, the 'B' section of Amsterdam 1966, when he was well past his prime at age 56. Even so, he scored

810-546: Was rarely played by top players. Konstantinopolsky had a very wide opening repertoire with both colours, a very valuable attribute which he passed on to his prize pupil Bronstein. He was also a formidable strategist and tactician, as the games selection shows. He played in the tournament Leningrad / Moscow 1939, scoring an excellent 8½/17 against an exceptionally strong field. During World War II , he played in national tournaments. In 1940, he took 3rd in Lvov (Lviv, Lwów, Lemberg), which

840-523: Was the young David Bronstein , who eventually challenged for the World Championship title in 1951, drawing the match against Mikhail Botvinnik . Konstantinopolsky and Bronstein were close friends, and Konstantinopolsky served as Bronstein's second for the 1950 Candidates' playoff match in Moscow, against Isaac Boleslavsky, which Bronstein won by 7½-6½. He was one of the Ukrainian pioneers who developed

870-565: Was won by Abram Khavin . The war then seems to have stopped his chess activity for about three years. In February 1943, he won in Kuibyshev . In April/May 1943, he took 6th in Sverdlovsk , a very strong tournament, with 6½/14; the event was won by Botvinnik. In August/September 1943, he took 2nd, behind Boleslavsky, in Kuibyshev. In 1943, he won a match against Yakov Rokhlin (+7 –0 =1). In 1944, he won

900-456: Was won by Isaac Boleslavsky . In 1939, he took 3rd in Dnepropetrovsk (11th UKR-ch). In 1940, he tied for 8th-9th in Kiev (12th UKR-ch). Boleslavsky also won in both 1939 and 1940. Konstantinopolsky's early games from this period are largely missing from games databases. (portrait photo from his later years at bidmonta.com under Konstantinopolsky heading) In 1936, Konstantinopolsky played in

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