The Victorian Junior Chess Championships finished last week with IM James Morris dominating the U/18 section with 9/9 and Karl Zelesco doing like-wise in the U/12 with 7/7. The time control was 75 minutes plus 30 seconds per move which is a fairly leisurely rate compared with the 15 minute games that most players play these days. This should give players plenty of time to check their moves before they play them but, alas, many young players just rush their moves and suffer the consequences.
In today’s puzzle, Max Lee Chew is playing David Cannon in the U/18 section. Max finished runner-up, a very good result, and in the position below he has already castled and has a lead in development. However, it is Black to move. Should he too rush to castle with 1…Bg7, or perhaps control a bit of the centre with 1…Nbd7 first, or just go for broke with 1…h5 and start an attack on White’s King. The move chosen by Black turned out to be a blunder. The puzzle is which move did he chose and why was it a blunder?
rn1qkb1r/pbp1pp1p/1p1p1np1/8/4P3/2N3P1/PPPPNPBP/R1BQ1RK1 b – - 0 1Black to Play
