Chess Tactics « Chess Kids – Chess Coaching and Chess Lessons

Chess Tactics

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #115

Written by Robert Jamieson on 9th Feb, 2012

Over the recent holidays we not only had the Australian Championships but also the Australian Reserves Tournament for players deemed not to be of Championship standard. This event was particularly exciting this year largely because of the participation of 3-times Australian Champion Doug Hamilton, now in the veteran category, who decided to forgo the Championship and play in the Reserves. How would the veteran go against the up-and-coming juniors and players around 1900 rating in the Reserves?

Doug managed to fight his way to the top board by round 10 but, as so often happens when we get older, was brought down by a blunder just before the time control in his game against Frank Lekkas. Doug has always been a perfectionist, seeking after the very best move in each position, but his old enemy of time trouble stepped in to bring about his downfall. Can you, I wonder, without any time pressure, do better?

White is a pawn ahead but must defend hi “h” pawn. What should he play?

5rk1/1b3pp1/p6r/2pPq1p1/2B3Q1/1P3P2/P1R3PP/5RK1 w – - 0 1Should White play 1.h3, 1.g3 or 1.Qg3

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #114

Written by Robert Jamieson on 7th Feb, 2012

Schools are back and Chess Kids is now in full swing for 2012. One new thing that I’m very excited about is that we have an Aus. Junior Training Squad consisting of around 25 aspiring juniors spread over three states who are already in training for the 2013 Australian Junior Championships in Queensland. My role is to do an online training lesson each Thursday night which involves me having one junior receiving a private lesson “online” with the other squad members looking on and commenting. It should be fun and hopefully the kids will learn a lot over the course of the year. We have promised them each a 200 point rating increase so the pressure is on! The squad even has its own website, www.chessstraining.com.au, which will include recordings of the lessons for the kids to playback at their leisure.

Part of the program requires the squad members to play games at Chess Kids Online and thus supply me with material for their lessons as well as a chance for them to implement their new ideas. I was online last night going through some games and I stumbled across a very interesting position that may contain a brilliant tactic that the players missed. Have a look and see if you can spot it.

r1bqkbnr/pp4pp/2p2P2/8/2P1p3/2p3P1/PP2PPBP/R1BQK2R w – - 0 1Does White to play have a winning tactic?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #112

Written by Robert Jamieson on 16th Dec, 2011

Tonight is the Chess Kids Xmas Party! Yes, all the Chess Kids coaches and staff get together at the Guru’s house for a lavish party with gourmet catering by the Guru’s lovely wife, Kate. And what do we do at the party? Play chess of course! I particularly like catching up with Frank Meerbach, who coaches in the Doncaster area, as Frank always has a few chess puzzles to challenge and enthral his audience. It’s also good because he is the only person there who is older than me!

This year I’ve been preparing some puzzles of my own to try and catch Frank at his own game. My method is simple. I go onto “Chess Tempo” and find the most difficult puzzle that I can’t solve and make that the one that I give to Frank. I must warn you, the one I have chosen is pretty hard, though not very deep, so you can have a go at solving it yourself if you like. I only ask one favour. If you do solve it, please don’t tell Frank!

8/1P1RN1PP/3r1PK1/4q3/2P1p3/4bp1Q/1p2kp2/8 b – - 0 1Black to play (moving up the board) and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #110

Written by Robert Jamieson on 2nd Dec, 2011

Allen Yu v Luke Li in the final round

I’ve just come back from an exciting three days of chess at the Campaspe Downs Resort (near Kyneton) including the final of the RJ Shield for 2011 and the National Schools Open featuring teams from all over Australia and New Zealand.

Auckland Grammar brought across a very strong team of players over 2000 rating and ran out easy winners but Glen Waverley Secondary also did well to finish second and be the top Australian Team. The full scores are available on the tornelo website.

At the other end of the room, on the bottom boards of the Primary Competition, play was not quite at the same level. I watched one game (which I then included in my lecture on blunders) where, in 13 moves (for White and Black) White missed capture of a rook, a stalemate chance and allowed mate in one. Black in turn blundered his rook, allowed a stalemate chance, missed mate in one then stalemated his opponent when a rook and pawn ahead. It’s hard playing chess when you don’t look even one move ahead!

There was some good chess played on the top boards however. My favourite game was Kingsley Chung v Allen Yu which will be published with Allen’s notes in the next issue of “Knight Times”. I glanced at the game whilst walking past and ended up standing there for five minutes trying to work out all the complications. Allen played like Mikhail Tal (fondly dubbed the “Magician from Riga”) to finish on top in the complications. Here is a position from the game with Black to play. He is ahead on material but the position is still a bit messy. What is his next “killer” move that wraps up the game.

1k1r3r/ppp2ppp/2P5/7B/1b2p1Q1/2P1B2P/PP3PPq/2R1K3 b – - 1 17Black to play

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #108

Written by Robert Jamieson on 18th Nov, 2011

We have an exciting couple of weeks coming up with the RJ Shield and the National Interschool Open being held near Kyneton from 27 Nov – 29 Nov. Playing at a country resort instead of Monash University will be a bit of a change, but New Zealand are sending over four strong teams to challenge Australia’s best teams so it should be a great competition.

Meanwhile, over in Brazil the World Youth Championships start today. The Australian team includes Victorians Justin Tan (in the U14) and Karl Zelesco (in the U/12) whose results I will follow with great interest. Karl in particular is very good for his age and must have a chance for a high placing. I watched his games at the State Finals recently and he played like a master for most of the time.

To compete successfully at that level you have to have a keen eye for tactics. The basic advice that I give students is to “examine all checks and captures” but at a higher level that is not enough. Some combinations are based on themes such as “overloaded piece” which do not involve either check or captures and so are much harder to spot. Let’s see how you cope with this harder sort of problem in today’s puzzle.

2k5/2p5/1p1rn1p1/5p2/q2b4/6P1/P2RQPB1/3R2K1 w – - 0 1White to play

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #107

Written by Robert Jamieson on 11th Nov, 2011

World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik thought that lightning (5 minute) chess ruined your normal chess so he advised his students against playing this fast form of the game. I love lightning chess, but I find myself fighting a losing battle trying to persuade the players at Chess Kids On-Line that 2 minute chess is a waste of time. “It’s a test of who can blunder fastest” is my usual comment.

Indeed chess is a strange game in that a player can have many fine wins in a tournament, yet one bad loss will be so painful as to erase the joy of many wins. I remember stories of one Melbourne player whose initials are DH who allegedly, after a big blunder, would walk outside the Melbourne Chess Club and keep hitting his head against a lamppost!

No doubt this is how Denmark’s top player, GM Sune Hansen, must have felt after his game against world #3 GM Lev Aronian in the European Team Championship. Hansen was White in the position in the diagram below and he has a crushing attack, but is in time trouble. He must chose between 1.Rxg7 or 1.Rg6 or 1.fxe8=Q or 1.Ng5 or 1.Kh2. All of these moves win except one. Your task is to find the one losing move played by Hansen and his opponent’s reply.

4nr1k/5Pr1/b1p2p1p/p3pP1Q/P3N2P/2P1q3/2B2R2/6RK w – - 0 1White to play and blunder

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #105

Written by Robert Jamieson on 28th Oct, 2011

As noted in my blog last week, it was a big week of chess at Monash University from Saturday to Tuesday with the Vic. Youth Championships followed by the Interschool State Finals. I’ve finally learnt how to set a digital clock, but it was hard work – 4 days of non-stop walking around as a arbiter. The compensation was seeing some really good chess and every player came away with a trophy or a certificate. 7 year-old Yoni is pictured proudly displaying his trophy on the left.

My support for “Bubblegum” in the Vic Youth worked reasonably well as he quickly zoomed to the lead but unfortunately faded a little against some of the stronger players. Karl Zelesco (the “Z-Kid”) as expected crushed everyone. I watched some of his games an he already plays like a master even though he is only 11 or 12 years old. Even in the State Finals, which was the strongest field for some time, Karl gave Bobby Cheng a hard game before blundering a rook, and Karl won all his remaining games to finish in second place, half a point behind Bobby. Bobby of course is already a veteran at 13 years of age and has the FM title and the Victorian State Championship under his belt.

For today’s puzzle I have a position from Bobby’s game against Ari Dale. Bobby is White and has a better position, but how did he finish off the game quickly with a neat idea?

r1r3k1/p1p2p1p/1pnbp1p1/8/3PP1N1/2P1BPPq/P3Q2P/1R1R2K1 w – - 9 32White to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #104

Written by Robert Jamieson on 21st Oct, 2011

This week is an exciting time at Chess Kids as we have the Vic. Youth Chess Championships on this weekend at Monash University followed by the Primary Interschool and Middle-Years Interschool Finals on Monday and Tuesday. Four days of chess fun!

There are 91 players entered in the Vic. Youth to date, so my big problem is who should I barrack for? I’d like William Maligin to do well as he is very good for his age, but I think I’ll end up barracking for “Bubblegum.” “Bubblegum???” you say? That is the Chess Kids on-line handle for one of the players who is only 11 years old but has raised his on-line rating to around 1400. He plays a lot and is very keen, but still has a few “rough edges” in his play. One of his recent games (as Black) for instance started 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h5?? Hopefully Bubblegum will attend one of my lectures at the Vic. Youth and find out why such moves are not the best.

He needs also to work on his tactics a bit. I was playing through his game (as Black) against “Tomahawk713″ last night which Bubblegum duly won, but which included a big mistake which his opponent failed to spot. From the diagram play continued… 38…Kf5 39.h4 Rxe5 40.Rxe5 Rxe5 41.Rf1+ Ke6 42.Kh3 Re3+ 43.Kg2 Rxd3 44.Rf3 and Black eventually won. Today’s puzzle is can you spot the big mistake.

4r3/4r3/6p1/p1p1P1kp/PpPp4/1P1P2KP/4R3/4R3 b – - 0 38Find the big mistake

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #103

Written by Robert Jamieson on 14th Oct, 2011

I’m very proud of myself today. I wanted to buy the new iPhone 4S but when I went to the Apple Store at Chadstone there was a queue of 100′s of people lined up ahead of me. What to do? Using my chess player’s lateral thinking I went downstairs to the Optus shop, walked straight in and bought one! It’s great. Now I can lose to Shredder at chess twice as fast as I used to!

Back here at Chess World now, I’ve been browsing through some old issues of “Chess World” to find a puzzle for today. I’ve decided on a position from the match between Cecil Purdy and Lloyd Fell in 1948 (see diagram). Purdy was a small, fit-looking man, bald as a bat but wearing a silly toupee and an eyeshade so that his opponent couldn’t see where he was looking. Fell by contrast was also small in stature but with a huge pot belly and his trousers were kept up with braces. He too was bald, but without the toupee, and spoke in a strange, high-pitched voice. Purdy had been the Australian Chess Champion. Fell had been the Australian Draughts Champion. Let’s see who won their encounter. You can be White and help Cecil Purdy. Black has just played 1… e5. Can you find a winning continuation for White?

2r1r1k1/1p3pn1/3B1bpp/p3p3/P1B1PPP1/1P6/3R3P/3R2K1 w – - 0 26White to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #102

Written by Robert Jamieson on 7th Oct, 2011

Chess is a game where all of the players are continually under pressure. If you are playing a much stronger opponent you are probably a bit afraid and intimidated by your opponent. I remember my first game in an Australian Junior Championship and I couldn’t stop my legs from shaking with nerves because I was playing one of the top seeds. It’s easy not to play your best against a stronger opponent as you assume that you will be outplayed and you have very little chance in the game.

Being the stronger player on the other hand has its problems also. You are expected to win and should you draw with or even lose to your “bunny” opponent think how many rating points you will lose and the embarrassment of such a result. Sometimes players get into drawn or level positions and the stronger player is therefore forced to take risks to try to still beat his inferior opponent, but how much risk is too much?

The world’s highest rated player, Magnus Carlsen, was faced with this dilemma in the Grand Slam Master tournament in Brazil. He was playing the Spanish GM Paco Vallego who you lost all his games so far in the tournament, but the position was even. Carlsen thought hard to find some way to still win and he came up with an idea. Was it a good idea which wins or a bad idea which loses? That is today’s puzzle.

6k1/2p2p2/6p1/p3b2p/2N1q3/P2r2PP/1PQ2P1K/2R5 b – - 1 5Black plays 1...Qd5. What should White reply?

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