Chess News

Malcolm Pein on…Remembering Dvoretsky

Malcolm Pein

March 18, 2021

Malcolm Pein’s Daily Telegraph chess column pays tribute to the famous chess trainer Mark Dvoretsky today.

Malcolm Pein on…Remembering Dvoretsky

The Mark Dvoretsky Memorial took place in Moscow last month to celebrate the life of the legendary Russian trainer.

Mark Dvoretsky (1947-2016) was at one time known as the strongest IM in the world. In 1974 he was good enough to tie for fifth in the super-strong USSR Championship before winning the B tournament at Wijk aan Zee the next year. Remarkably, such results neither led to Dvoretsky becoming a grandmaster nor continuing as a professional player.

Instead, Dvoretsky quickly established himself as one of the leading Soviet chess trainers and, by the end of communism, was widely regarded as the world’s premier chess trainer. His most famous pupil was Artur Yusupov, who won the world junior championship, then thrice reached the semifinal stage of the Candidates, attributing much of his success to Dvoretsky with whom he would later write a number of acclaimed books.

A two-day rapid event attracted 10 of the great man’s pupils. Boris Grachev edged out Ernesto Inarkiev on tie-break after the two finished on 6.5/9.

Played in Dvoretsky’s Honor

B. Grachev – M. Kobalia
Chebanenko Slav

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.e3 a6 5.Nbd2 Bf5 6.Nh4!? Be6 (6…Be4 7.f3 Bg6 is solid enough for Black) 7.Be2 g6 8.0-0 Bg7 9.b3 0-0 10.Bb2 Ne4 11.Nhf3 (Dvoretsky would have approved. White improves his worst-placed piece and enjoys a pleasant edge. Black now switches to a Stonewall formation, but still fails to obtain any real counterplay) 11…f5 12.Rc1 Kh8 13.Ne5 Nd7 14.Nd3!

Further fine positional play from the Dvoretsky school. Exchanges would help to free Black’s position, whereas now White’s knights are bound for f4 and f3. 14…a5 15.a4 Qb6?! (15…Nxd2 16.Qxd2 Bf7 or 15…g5!? was a better try) 16.Nf4 Bg8 17.cxd5 cxd5 18.Bb5! (White occupies the hole Black has created) 18…Nb8 19.Ba3 Nd6?! 20.Rc5! Ne4? 21.Nxe4! (Simple chess, opening lines to favour White’s more active pieces) 21…dxe4 22.Bc4 Nc6 23.Bxg8 Rxg8 24.Ne6 Bf6 25.Rb5 Qa7 26.d5 Nd8 Black has been totally outplayed, but what coup de grâce quickly forced his resignation?

Test Your Strength

Highlight the space below this line to reveal the answer.

27.Bxe7! Nxe6 (27…Bxe7? 28.Qa1+ mates) 28.Bxf6+ Ng7 29.d6 1-0

Try Chessable for free

4.9 with 3.65K user reviews

Check them on individual course pages

Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes