Chess

The numerous reasons why I love Edinburgh include the following: Edinburgh is beautiful; I met my wife there; some of my best friends reside there; the first and last of the seven Scottish Chess Championships that I have won (so far!) took place in Edinburgh. This year's championship begins today in the LifeCare Centre located at 2 Cheyne Street, and from a distance of approximately 9,500 kilometres I will follow the games with great interest while on a family holiday visiting my wife's relatives in Shenzhen, China.

If our players believe in the late Bobby Fischer's famous statement that "1 e4 is best by test", and also in the idea of not letting White go unchallenged in trying to get e4 and d4 on his or her first two moves, then we could easily see a lot of games beginning with 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 or 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6. In the former case it's well-worth considering 3 Bb5, which is rightly described as "a powerful anti-Sicilian that avoids tons of theory" in super-GM Victor Bologan's brand new book, The Rossolimo Sicilian – check out www.newinchess.com for further details.

Now in the latter case, it's certainly fun to try out the Evans Gambit 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4!?, just as Sweden's GM Jonny Hector did very successfully against a strong Danish IM earlier this year.

White: J Hector; Black: M Antonsen. Opening: Evans Gambit.

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4 Bxb4 5 c3 Ba5 6 d4 d6 7 Qb3 Qd7 8 Nbd2!?

Out of well over 4 million games currently in my main chess database, this very interesting sideline features in only ten, but it has brought White an impressive 6.5 points so far. By closing the a5-e1 diagonal, White nullifies any 'threat' of ...cxd4 while also accelerating his own development and creating possibilities of Bb5 and Nc4, or Ba3 and 0-0-0 as happens in the actual game. 8...Nh6 9 dxe5 Nxe5 10 Nxe5 dxe5 11 Ba3

Preventing Black's king from castling to safety. 11...c6 12 0-0-0 This bold choice by the "Swedish Tal" – as Hector is often called – was not initially top of the list of candidate moves examined by my computer's analysis engines, but later the machine 'realised' that Black has serious problems. 12...b5 13 Nf3! Qb7 White wins easily after 13...bxc4 14 Rxd7 cxb3 15 Re7+ Kd8 16 Rd1+ or 13...Qc7 14 Bxb5! cxb5 15 Qxb5+ Bd7 16 Rxd7 Qxd7 17 Qxe5+ Qe6 18 Qb5+ Qd7 19 Qxa5 followed by Rd1. 14 Rd5?!

This is flashy, but a simpler and stronger path is 14 Nxe5! bxc4 15 Qxb7 Bxb7 16 Rd7 with decisive threats. 14...f6? Necessary was 14...cxd5 15 Bxd5 Qc7 16 Bxa8 Qxc3+. 15 Rxb5!! Bb6 15...cxb5 16 Bxb5+ wins because of 16...Kd8 17 Rd1+ Kc7 18 Bd6+ or 16...Bd7 17 Qe6+ Kd8 18 Bxd7 Qxd7 19 Rd1. 16 Nxe5! Storming in with all guns blazing! 16...Qc7 17 Nxc6 Good enough, though 17 Rd1 followed by Bd6 is even better. 17...Bd7 18 Ne7 Qf4+ 19 Kb1 Bd8 20 Nf5 Qxe4+ 21 Ka1 Bxf5 22 Bd5 22 Rb7 Bd7 23 Rxd7 Kxd7 24 Rd1+ wins too. 22...Qe2 23 Bxa8 Or 23 Bxc6+ Bd7 24 Bxd7+ Kxd7 25 Qd5+ Ke8 26 Rb7. 23...Be6 24 Bd5 Black resigned.