To specially reward those of you who really value my e4-e5 site by subscribing to it, I have introduced another new feature. Subscribers are hereby invited to send me at any time their own particular requests regarding opening lines (stemming from 1 e4 e5) which they would like to see analysed in extra detail on this site. From the subscribers' requests which come in by e-mail to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com, I'll choose (at least) one every month and do a special feature on it. That's what Y.E.S. P.L.E.A.S.E. is all about: Your Extra-Special Pet Lines Extensively Analysed. Super-Effective!!

For example, game G9.16 is dedicated to Tom Banks, who is a really big fan of the Scotch Game for White.

Clearly, I may not be able to answer all requests immediately, but I can promise you that none of them will be ignored. All subscriber requests will be answered as quickly as possible to the very best of my ability.

I look forward to receiving your topics by e-mail, and I thank you for your continued interest in this site.

With Very Best Wishes,

Paul Motwani.

Announcement

The e-pawn emperor's next e4-e5 'monthly update' will be posted on this Internet site towards the end of February, and in the meantime he will, as always, reply personally to as many e-mail messages as possible which come to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com.

Right now, though, there's a tasty new collection of fresh games, puzzles, and other treats to bring you endless hours of enjoyment in a mega bumper-size January update. So let's swiftly move up a gear or two to tackle the first challenge coming rapidly towards us...

Mr Mo's January 2001 Bonus Brainteaser

The opening of the game R.Molander-A.Ornstein at the Rilton Cup tournament in Stockholm, Sweden 2000, was a King's Gambit which led to the following position after White's 17th move:

Black then proceeded to win very swiftly in a devastating way which you are invited to find. A solution will appear on this site at the end of February.

New Index of Openings

Solution to Mr Mo's December 2000 Bonus Brainteaser

The brainteaser was as follows:

The opening of the game H.Berliner-L.Friedman at the 1946 USA Junior Championship was the same line of the Two Knights Defence that featured in game G12.6. After 12 moves, the following position was reached:

White then played 13 g3?, allowing Black to win in a way which you are invited to find.

Solution:

Black wins very quickly and simply with 13...Nd3+ followed by ...f5 (or first ...Nxc1) because White cannot save his e4-knight.

The Birthday Game

This regular feature puts the spotlight on a player of the past or present whose birthday was or still is a day in the current month. For example, Ukrainian GM Oleg Romanishin (born on 10.1.1952) is a truly world-class 'January birthday' player, and for our game G9.15 I've chosen his very recent emphatic victory from Reggio Emilia 2001 as Black in the Scotch Game against Italy's top-rated GM, Igor Efimov.

Would YOU like to star in The Birthday Game? If so, please send an e-mail to MrMo@ChessPublishing.com sometime between the 1st and 15th day of the month preceding your birthday month, and include the following information to be considered by Mr Mo: your name, date & place of birth, and one of your own games starting with 1 e4 e5 (or another acceptable move-order such as 1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 e5 or 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 e5). Although annotations are not strictly necessary (since Mr Mo will always analyse the game too), your own personal notes would certainly be most welcomed. Please do mention where and when the game was played, and also state the players' names (together with ratings, if applicable).

Don't be shy-let us celebrate YOUR birthday too!

By the way, since James Bond is about the same age as myself- we both 'arrived on the scene' in 1962, as my delivery doctor knows like 007's Dr No!- I'll conclude this section with 'Happy Birthday' in 007 different languages that I've had at least some exposure to:

Happy Birthday (English)

Shengri kuai le (Mandarin)

Heureux Anniversaire (French)

Gelukkig Verjaardag (Dutch)

Herzliche Wünsche zum Geburtstag (German)

Buon Compleanno (Italian)

Felicidades (Spanish)

Thanks

Special thanks this month to Scotland's IM Roddy McKay, who sent me very useful information which certainly enhances the quality of this e4-e5 Internet site.

Dedication

This sixteenth update (since the initial launch material in September 1999) is dedicated to my friend IM Roddy McKay, who also stars as our newest Hero of the Month.

New Highlights

Tons of fresh mouth-watering goodies await us, including a triple helping of Ruy Lopez games in the tricky trio G13.63, G13.64 and G13.65, where you'll also find other handy supplementary bonuses.

The vivacious Vienna Game always provides lots of excitement too, although this time round White has all the fun in G3.12, G3.13 and G3.14, and the same is true in the scorching Scotch Game of G9.16!

To be fair, Black strikes back strongly with a pulverising pair of wins in G9.15 & G9.17, and he again really means to get even against the Evans Gambit in G12.22---a very recent clash of the titans starring super-GMs Alexander Morozevich and Michael Adams.

In general, the action-packed battles are made even more irresistible by the presence of related challenging puzzles, which can also be seen in the section called "Puzzle Paradise".

And the feast is still far from over yet...! Further courses include the very select stimulating material that appears in the Reflection Zone, but only subscribers can access that section and all the juicy annotated games too.

M.O. Moves

It's a personal choice, but for me three of the Most Outstanding Moves from the games within this month's update material are Richard Reti's sizzling sacrifice 17...Bh3!! which blasted Dr Max Euwe in game G9.17, and Alexander Alekhine's 10 Nf6+!! which was a nightmare for the same opponent in G3.14!

Rewind Reward

The key idea here is that (although in general we focus on recent happenings) it still pays off to study some memorable older material. For instance, the late great Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine (1892-1946) and Richard Reti (1889-1929) both star in this month's update. Clearly their battles actually happened many years ago, but the games being selected again now are still highly instructive (and entertaining too!).

January 2001 Hero Puzzle

Two of my favourite creative chessplayers are IM Roddy McKay and GM Oleg Romanishin. Which one is the older of the two, and by how much?

Answers will appear in next month's 'update', but meanwhile enjoy all the goodies awaiting you now on this site...

Solution to December 2000 Hero Puzzle

The puzzle was as follows:

Our Hero of the Month, GM Jon Rowson, was born in 1977- the same year when Jon Arnason, a then 16-year-old future GM, won the Icelandic Championship and also the World Under-17 Championship (in Cagnes sur Mer, France) ahead of Garry Kasparov. Your puzzle is in three parts:-

(i) Which World Championship match was held in Iceland?

(ii) Which Icelandic GM was once the President of F.I.D.E. (the International Chess Federation)?

(iii) For a very small country, Iceland has a lot of grandmasters, but can you name the first-ever Icelandic GM?

Answers:

(i) Fischer vs. Spassky, Reykjavik 1972;

(ii) Fridrik Olafsson;

(iii) Gudmundur Sigurjonsson

Motto of the Month

The previous launch and update material laid the foundations for further enjoyable adventures with 1 e4 e5 as our chosen starting point. This month, the fresh games feature a feast of delightful artistic moves by great young and old masters. So, my chosen motto this time comes from Pablo Picasso, who stated "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up".

Codename Olivetto

The title sounds like a James Bond assignment, but it's actually much less dangerous! At the special request of subscriber Livio Olivetto, from July 2000 onwards all new main or complete games on this e4-e5 site have been labelled with an ECO code from the range C20-C99, to match the particular opening variations featured. The codes provide an extra means of identifying games containing one's own favourite opening lines, and so the codes are being given in the Index of New Games. Some people may like to construct, for their own personal use, a complete index of games according to ECO codes, but since I know that many readers would find its appearance to be rather abstract, I shall leave it as a project to be done at home only by people who are really big fans of ECO codes!