Chess Tactics « Chess Kids – Chess Coaching and Chess Lessons

Chess Tactics

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #129

Written by Robert Jamieson on 18th May, 2012

Anand v Gelfand 2012

It should be an exciting time in the chess world at the moment as we are in the middle of a World Chess Championship match between Anand (champion) and Gelfand (challenger). The match being played in Moscow with games starting at about 9pm E.S.T. here in Australia. I’ve watched most of the games live at www.anand-gelfand.com but to-date we have had 5 relatively boring draws. Not quite as exciting as Spassky v Fischer 1972 but there are still 7 games left to provide some entertainment.

The best part of the live games is that they have a top grandmaster commenting live on the action. GMs such as Nigel Short and Jan Timman do the commentary, who themselves have been very close to the top of the chess tree, and it’s great to see what they talk about and how they think.

Game 4 was almost interesting and it looked like we may get some tactics, but as compensation we had a very unusual sight of all 8 squares on the “d” file being occupied by pieces, like a tower of pieces stacked on top of each other. I enjoyed game 5 also as Gelfand played my favourite Pelikan variation of the Sicilian Defence, an opening that our junior training squad is studying at the moment.

I guess the defending champion, Anand, now being in his 40′s has become a solid player, but I’m sure he still has a good eye for tactics. Take a look at the following example from Anand v Gerber 1988:

3k4/5pb1/2P5/pN5P/1p6/1P3p2/1P6/4K3 w – - 0 1White to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #128

Written by Robert Jamieson on 11th May, 2012

Last night was an interesting night on “ChessKids On-Line.” CheckNorris and I were continuing our debate about one of his games. I tend to base all of my moves on positional considerations whilst Check just focuses on tactics so we often disagree in our assessment of positions. Rookbane butted in to our discussion to ask me how he could improve his Chess Tempo rating, which was “stuck” around 1600. I suggested that instead of analysing variations he just “looks” for good moves.

About this time DarkKnight came on and asked everyone to help her with her English homework. She had to write a poem about “Winter”. I went to work and came up with :

Oh Winter, dreary, cold and grey,
I wish that you would go away.
The birds have flown, the sun has set,
My mind it has but one regret.
I moved my knight and lost my queen,
A worse chess move is seldom seen.
I blame the cold, my mind it froze,
A good excuse I do suppose.

Not bad I thought, and it has a chess theme. I finished the evening with a quick game against Rookbane. I was struggling early (he has improved a lot) and we reached the diagrammed position. Without much thought I played 1.Nd6. Here CheckNorris asked me why I played 1.Nd6? I replied “It’s a good square for the Knight.” I don’t think he understands about good squares and was probably looking at some tactical line instead. The game only went 3 more moves before one of the players resigned. Today’s puzzle is to tell me what the 3 moves were to finish the game after 1.Nd6.

5rk1/p1qr1pbp/bp2p1p1/2pnP1B1/2N1Q3/2P3P1/PP3PBP/R2R2K1 b – - 0 1White plays 1.Nd6. Find the next 3 moves to finish the game.

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #127

Written by Robert Jamieson on 4th May, 2012

I had a call from GM Ian Rogers the other day. He was organising a fund-raising auction for the Australian 16U team going to Turkey later in the year and was wondering if I’d like to bid for some of the chess memorabilia. I ended up bidding $100 for Bill Egan’s new book “The Doeberl Cup – 50 years of Australian Chess History” (retail $39.95). My bid was successful. It may have cost me $60 more than the retail price, but I figured if it helped to get “Check Norris” (the #1 ranked player on Chess Kids On-Line) out of the country for a few weeks it was money well spent. That would give me a chance to catch up to him!

I’ve discovered that the book comes with a CD in the back, with 6000 chess games from the Doeberl Cup as well, and it’s a big book with 336 pages, photos, games and player profiles. It’s a great read that I’d recommend to everyone, even juniors who know only the digital age. It’s nice to learn a bit about the background of Australian Chess rather than just the current players. Better still you get to see pictures of Australia’s top players before they became fat, bald and old. Ian Rogers and Guy West look much the same but the rest of us have changed somewhat!

Speaking of Guy West, I don’t think Guy ever won the Doeberl Cup, but he has provided us with a nice puzzle for this week. Guy is playing White against Alistair Anderson and clearly has a good attack going. Can you find a pretty finish for White?

6nr/Rnrq1pbk/3p3p/1pp1pNP1/1P2P2R/1BPP1Q2/3B1PK1/8 w – - 0 1White to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #126

Written by Robert Jamieson on 27th Apr, 2012

Justin Tan wins MCC Anzac Day Weekender

The Australian 16U Chess Team (the “Chessaroos”) recently played an on-line match against Indonesia as part of their training for the 16U Chess Olympiad to be held in Turkey in a few months time. Unfortunately Australia went down 3.5 – 6.5 but we did not have our strongest team playing as several players were playing in other events.

Justin Tan, our no.2 player 16U, was participating in the MCC Anzac Day Weekender for instance where he had a outstanding tournament. He finished outright first on 6.5/7 winning the $500 first prize. Along the way he beat the top seed, IM James Morris, who had to be content with second place and 6/7. As well as being good at chess Justin is one of Australia’s top gymnasts in his age-group but, at the moment, hopefully chess is winning the battle for his time.

For today’s puzzle let’s see if you can match Justin’s tactical ability. The diagram shows Justin as White in his game against Tony Davis. Justin is trying to win a piece by trapping Black’s stray Knight. Your task is both to win the piece and find Black’s defence. Good luck.

2k4r/2p2pbp/2N1p1p1/1B6/2P2P2/6P1/1n5P/1R4K1 w – - 1 25White to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #125

Written by Robert Jamieson on 20th Apr, 2012

Last week I mentioned the Doeberl Cup in Canberra played over Easter, and the following week Australia’s best players moved on to Sydney for the Sydney International Open. I was hoping to follow the games and find some nice puzzles to show you but the slack organisers didn’t get around to uploading the games onto their website. All the more disappointing as our better players are all fighting hard for a place in the Australian Olympiad team and it would have been great to see all their games.

What to do? A couple of weeks ago one of my on-line opponents, Check Norris, sent me a puzzle from one of his own games which I was able to use. Fortunately this week another of my on-line mates, Murray Beard, has sent me a puzzle that he thought may be of interest. It’s Black to play and win and it’s got me stumped. I’ve been studying the position for quite sometime and I can’t find a checkmate for Black. Worse than that, it dawns on me that Black is a Queen down so if he can’t checkmate he’s clearly going to lose. Perhaps Murray has sent me the wrong position and left off the black Queen by mistake? If so, which square should the Queen be on to solve the puzzle? Clearly, I need your help to solve this puzzle. Can you explain what has happened and whether or not there is a win for Black?

3rr1nk/pR6/3b3p/5p2/2Pp1PpP/P2n4/6BK/1RBQ2N1 b – - 0 1Black to play and win

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #123

Written by Robert Jamieson on 5th Apr, 2012

Easter is a great time for chess in Australia because 50 years ago a Canberra builder named Eric Doeberl decided to sponsor a chess tournament in Canberra over the Easter break. The event became the “Doeberl Cup”, Australia’s biggest and strongest adult chess tournament, which of course is celebrating 50 years with the 2012 tournament. The field boasts 8 GMs, 1 WGM, 13 IMs and 1 WIM in the 78 player “Premier” division. It’s a great opportunity for our leading players and juniors to test themselves against international opposition and certainly many Victorians juniors are making the trip to Canberra. Fortunately you’ll be able to follow the games on-line at home also as David Cordover is going to Canberra to use Tornelo to record the results and games (just search under “Tornelo – Australian Trial”).

One Victorian junior making the trip is Laurence Matheson who finds himself paired against GM Czebe Attila 2477 from Hungary in the first round. Laurence has been training for the big tournament by playing 2 minute games on “Chess Kids On-Line” and blitz games on the ICC website against strong opponents and has kindly sent me one of his victories against “some Spanish IM”. (See Diagram). Clearly Laurence as Black is winning comfortably and could just play safely to ensure the win. Laurence however has other ideas and wants to win quickly even if he has to take risks. Can you help him to finish the game quickly?

2r2rk1/5pp1/3p3p/p2qpP1N/1p2n1P1/4QN2/PPP5/1KR5 w – - 0 1Black to play and win?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #122

Written by Robert Jamieson on 30th Mar, 2012

Harran v Henry, Novice Tournament Board 1

Last Sunday was the Novice Tournament at Monash University which attracted an excellent field of 91 players many of whom were playing in their first tournament outside of their school chess club. The surprise winner was Henry Bayliss who beat several higher ranked opponents then conned William Maligin into accepting a draw in the last round because William mistakenly thought he had to allow triple repetition. If only William had taken my advice to look at more candidate moves in critical positions!

There were a number of strong players playing but I noticed in particular how poorly almost everyone played in the endgame. This is something that Carl and I are going to focus on in our lessons next term, so we may as well start early and set you an endgame puzzle today.

One of the most dreaded endgames you can get is R+B v R which is meant to be a draw with best play but even grandmasters have failed to defend properly. Fortunately I’ve never had this endgame in my own games. I remember that you have to force the King to the corner covered by your B and I remember also there is something called “the second rank defence” which refutes White’s obvious winning attempt in the position below. Apart from that I can’t help you, so good luck! Can you win for White from the position below?

8/8/4KBr1/7k/8/8/8/4R3 w – - 0 1White to play and win?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #121

Written by Robert Jamieson on 23rd Mar, 2012

This Sunday we have the Chess Kids Training Squad “Run Down” at Monash University where Carl and I are going to summarise what we have been trying to teach the kids in term one. For my part I’ve been trying to stress the importance of playing carefully and when your opponent moves to always ask yourself “what are they threatening?” When you have decided on your move, you must then have a quick look around for unexpected replies and check that your move is OK before you actually play it. This should eliminate most of the blunders that decide games between juniors.

I’ve now played through all the games from the recent Ballarat Open weekender and it and seems that some of our leading senior players would have done well to follow the above advice! IM James Morris was in an ending with R+B+2P v R+B+P where he was a little better but he forgot to ask “what is he threatening” when his opponent made his last move. James made a natural looking rook move whereupon his opponent immediately pounced with Rh2 and James King was in a mating net. He could easily have avoided mate had he seen it coming.

Similarly IM Leonid Sandler was coasting along a pawn ahead in an ending when his opponent left a N “en prise”. Leonard decided to take the free N but forgot to asking himself “what will my opponent reply” (and look at all checks and captures in particular). His opponent immediately jumped in with Qc8+ with forced mate in two moves. Oh dear! Even the great Stephen Solomon was not immune. He was playing White in the position below and his opponent has just played 19…b4. Should Solo play 20.Na4 or 20.Nb1 or something else?

3r1rk1/1b1Bbppp/p1p5/2q1p3/1p2P3/2NR4/PPP1QPPP/3R2K1 w – - 0 20White to play?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #120

Written by Robert Jamieson on 16th Mar, 2012

Bobby Cheng at the Interschool Tournament

I had a strange experience yesterday at the Bayside Interschool Tournament.

The tournament was very strong with Melbourne High, led by Bobby Cheng, scoring an impressive 27.5/28 to take first place. I was trying to record some of the games on my iPad so as to publish them in “Knight Times” and was entering the moves for one of Bobby’s games. It was quite interesting as Bobby had blown the exchange (for nothing) and was trying to fight back. His opponent I gather was the sort of chap who focused on what he could attack, without paying too much attention to his opponent’s possibilities. Bobby walked away from the board for a moment and his opponent quickly moved and pressed his clock. Perhaps it then dawned on him that his move may be a blunder, so he pressed the clock back again and retracted his move! Not a good idea, particularly when an arbiter is recording the game behind you on his iPad.

Needless to say I forced him to play the original move, and after 3 more moves Bobby had an easily won game. He gave mate 4 moves later, so the attempted cheater got his just desserts.

This week’s puzzle is to work out, from the evidence that I’ve given you, what were the next 3 moves played in the game. My friend “CheckNorris” often complains that my puzzles are too easy. So from him, I want the next 7 moves to finish the game!

1rbq1r1k/pp2p1bp/2p1Pp2/6p1/2BPN3/5N2/PPP1Q1PP/5RK1 b – - 1 15What were the next 3 moves?

Jammo’s Chess Puzzle #119

Written by Robert Jamieson on 9th Mar, 2012

I play a bit of on-line chess at play.chesskids.com.au and its great fun …. but there is a problem. Sometimes players seem to improve rapidly out of the blue and start beating everyone. The suspicion of course is that they are using a chess computer to help them, but how do we catch them out? We can put the moves of the game through our own chess engine afterwards and see if they are the same, but chess is such a complicated game that even chess computers don’t always agree on what is the best move. And what if our sneaky opponent is only using the computer at the critical part of the game?

I recently had a complaint from several players that a certain “J-Rules” was cheating. I played through a lot of his games and certainly he went from being an average player to winning 42 out of his last 45 games, some against very strong opposition. The fact the he generally played 15 minute games (instead of a faster game where there is less time to consult a computer) was suspicious. The clincher for me however was the following position. J-Rules, playing White, is winning easily. Black is attacking the N on f3 but White has several promising lines to choose from. My candidate moves would be 1.Qxe6+, 1.dxe6, 1.Bg5 or 1.Nd4 all of which look good. The line played by White won quickly and was quite pretty, but could an average junior playing a relatively fast game have found such a nice variation? I doubt it. Have a look at the position yourself a decide what you would play and compare that with the actual line played. And, of course, NO CHEATING, or you may end up in my next blog.

r2qkb2/pbp3r1/1p1pp2Q/3P4/2P3p1/2N1BN2/PP3PPP/R4RK1 w q – 0 16White to play and win.

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