The chess problem this week comes without a solution since it is the starter problem of the 2012-13 Winton Capital British Chess Solving Championship.

After the closing date of July 31, all entrants will be sent a copy of The Problemist magazine and those who successfully solve the starter problem will receive the (harder) postal round to solve.

The competition reaches its climax at the final held at Eton College early next year.

Competitors need only send White’s first move to: Paul Valois, 14 Newton Park Drive, Leeds LS7 4HH, together with a cheque or postal order for £3 payable to British Chess Problem Society and also send your email address if you have one. If you enter, please mention that you saw the starter problem in The Oxford Times.

Recent Everman Chess publications include the eagerly awaited follow-up to Johan Hellsten’s acclaimed Mastering Chess Strategy. In Mastering Opening Strategy Hellsten’s choice of chapter headings includes The Nature of Development, Crime and Punishment and The Battle for the Centre. Hardly radical stuff and this work is lighter in content than his earlier work. Hellsten writes about strategy more in the manner of Andrew Soltis and Paul Motwani than in the more profound and wordy tradition of the likes of John Watson, Alex Yermolinski or even Jonathan Rowson.

Nevertheless, Hellsten has annotated well over 200 games within the book’s 350 pages and the choice of material is as well selected as before.

The tough and instructive exercises also persist from the first book and working through these is almost guaranteed to make you a better player. This is highly recommended, as indeed is Hellsten’s earlier work. The first game of the book — one played in 2004 — features a typically brilliant and instructive performance from the then 14-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen — now the world’s highest rated player.

White: Magnus Carlsen Black: Sergey Dolmatov 1.Nf3 f5 2.d3!? Carlsen goes his own way as he often does.

2…d6 White clearly plans 3.e4 + but if Black had tried to prevent this with 2...Nf6 I'm sure Carlsen would have played it anyway, as a gambit. Thence after 3.e4 fxe4 4.dxe4 Nxe4 5.Bd3 White has good attacking chances for his pawn.

3.e4 e5 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.exf5! Bxf5 6.d4! Hellsten calls this: ‘… a key move that clears the centre before Black gets castled’.

6...Nxd4?! 6...e4 seems preferable.

7.Nxd4 exd4 8.Qxd4 Nf6 9.Bc4! c6 10.Bg5 b5 10...d5 can be met by 11.0–0–0!

11.Bb3 Be7 12.0–0–0 Qd7 13.Rhe1 ‘In just 13 moves he has mobilised all his pieces and now creates the concrete threat of 14.Bxf6 gxf6, 15.Qxf6.’ — Hellsten 13...Kd8 14.Rxe7! ‘...a lead in development has to be exploited by concrete means’, comments Hellsten. 14...Qxe7 15.Qf4! Bd7 16.Ne4! d5 17.Nxf6 h6 18.Bh4 g5 19.Qd4! 1–0.