Chess teachers talk a lot about identifting 'critical positions' in games. Then they spend a lot of time arguing amongst themselves about what a 'critical position' is. For me, a critical position is any position that tests the boundaries of your understanding of the game.
This game played yesterday is typical of how I lose at Chess. The first critical position is at my 19th move where I came up with the same two plans that Crafty considers. The idea in both is to utilise the half-open c-file pressuring the c2 pawn and later have play against White's extended King-side pawns. The direct way of doing this is 19. ... Na4 20. Nxa4 Bxa4 21. Rc1 Rc4 or 19. ... Na4 20. b3 Nxc3+ 21. Rxc3 Rxc3 22. Qxc3 Rc8.
Instead I chose the second way, first building up on the c-file before undertaking action. The decision was a result of my anxiety to develop the h8 Rook before commencing action. 19. ... Rc7 is not wrong, but it allows white to spark a tactical skirmish. My planned defence to the pin on my Knight was that after 26. Qf2 I would use the mating threat on the weak back rank to cover everything and have two acive minor pieces against rook and two pawns with a good game. But my opponent played 26. Qe3 attacking the Knight and defending the back rank, the second critical position (for me) because I immediately hit the panic button.
Having missed 26. Qe3, I didn't take the time to even consider the simple 26. ... Rd5 (Crafty: 0.00 at depth 16) and started looking for ways to swindle my way out of it with predictable consequences.
There's an old rule that the first mistake is rarely a game losing blunder, but that the blunder occurs in trying to correct the first mistake. As in this game, 19. ... Rc7 was fine it just didn't turn out as I had expected, so instead of calmly searching for a new plan I went into panic mode.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Warm-up Excercises
I probably should have played a few more standard time control training games this weekend, but that's how it often goes living in the Antipodes... just as I'm logging in, my European and North American team mates are logging off.
So I settled for a couple of 5' + 12" rated blitz games, before which I spent half an hour or so reviewing about 80 positions from "1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations". Prior to each Teamleague game I intend to use at least an hour doing this.
It worked quite well, but I will have to seriously consider my use of the French Defense in 'serious' games. I love playing the French. It is the ultimate game of counter-attack. The idea is that you practically give White the whole board and let him think he has the space advantage, the initiative, the attack, until he realises he can do nothing with it. And then you strike back. Either the central 'mess' of pawns becomes a 'mass', or the Queen breaks free with the support of a minor piece with unmeetable threats, or that beautiful 'bad' Queen's Bishop, so long trapped behind it's own pawns suddenly dominates the board (after, say, a timely d4 push).
It's walking the edge of the precipice - that's the fun of it. In my first game today my opponent employed the Nimzovichian strategy of sacrificing a pawn for the blockade, making my central mess block my own pieces. In the early middlegame I found an "anti-combination" that cost a piece for a couple of pawns, then in the late middlegame I saw one move further and won my piece back with a simple barrage / pin (thanks, Fred!). So I had a couple of extra pawns in the Rook endgame and nearly managed to botch it allowing a too-close-for-comfort pawn race. My saving grace was another neat little pin / decoy tactic (thanks again, Fred!) allowing me to promote first and settle the issue.
Normally against the Petroff I play 3. d4 which sometimes gets back into the mainline a couple of tempi ahead although in theory doesn't promise White anything more than anything else. So on the spur of the moment I decided to try an Italian 4-Knights (with Bc4) which is equally unenterprising but perhaps less likely the sort of game my opponent expected to be playing. After the usual sort of arguments around Black playing Nd4 and trying for the Bg4 pin (my Queen was already on d2), I was able to attack an immobilised piece and play a couple of simple pins and forks in successive moves which netted material and convinced my opponent to resign after 18 moves.
I could hardly say I showered myself in glory, but the technique of reviewing a few dozen tactics before playing paid dividends, it put me in the right fighting frame of mind to recover a bad position and press on in an otherwise equal one.
So I settled for a couple of 5' + 12" rated blitz games, before which I spent half an hour or so reviewing about 80 positions from "1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations". Prior to each Teamleague game I intend to use at least an hour doing this.
It worked quite well, but I will have to seriously consider my use of the French Defense in 'serious' games. I love playing the French. It is the ultimate game of counter-attack. The idea is that you practically give White the whole board and let him think he has the space advantage, the initiative, the attack, until he realises he can do nothing with it. And then you strike back. Either the central 'mess' of pawns becomes a 'mass', or the Queen breaks free with the support of a minor piece with unmeetable threats, or that beautiful 'bad' Queen's Bishop, so long trapped behind it's own pawns suddenly dominates the board (after, say, a timely d4 push).
It's walking the edge of the precipice - that's the fun of it. In my first game today my opponent employed the Nimzovichian strategy of sacrificing a pawn for the blockade, making my central mess block my own pieces. In the early middlegame I found an "anti-combination" that cost a piece for a couple of pawns, then in the late middlegame I saw one move further and won my piece back with a simple barrage / pin (thanks, Fred!). So I had a couple of extra pawns in the Rook endgame and nearly managed to botch it allowing a too-close-for-comfort pawn race. My saving grace was another neat little pin / decoy tactic (thanks again, Fred!) allowing me to promote first and settle the issue.
Normally against the Petroff I play 3. d4 which sometimes gets back into the mainline a couple of tempi ahead although in theory doesn't promise White anything more than anything else. So on the spur of the moment I decided to try an Italian 4-Knights (with Bc4) which is equally unenterprising but perhaps less likely the sort of game my opponent expected to be playing. After the usual sort of arguments around Black playing Nd4 and trying for the Bg4 pin (my Queen was already on d2), I was able to attack an immobilised piece and play a couple of simple pins and forks in successive moves which netted material and convinced my opponent to resign after 18 moves.
I could hardly say I showered myself in glory, but the technique of reviewing a few dozen tactics before playing paid dividends, it put me in the right fighting frame of mind to recover a bad position and press on in an otherwise equal one.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Teamleague 37!
Teamleague 37 is confirmed to start on September 30th! I don't know yet if our Great Dictator Plebusan will enter Current_Affairs in the U2000 or U1800 section, but we have some good talent to call on in either division. bash of course will be if he continues to maintain 'other interests' during the season, but I understand we welcome strong newcomer cynick to our higher boards. Mapleleaf, our dear leader Plebusan, and myself will be regulars on the middle boards, and we have blizkriegstryke, Mejdanblues, and chestutr to call upon when they don't have far less useful things to do.
So we thank blkmagic for taking over the mantle of Teamleague Tournament Manager after HyperMagnus' much appreciated tenure in that role.
NOTICE: Do not read the next paragraph if your name is Plebusan.
Unfortunately I'll be unable to play in round 2 due to an annual "boy's weekend away". While the lads are out trying to whack a little white ball down a tiny hole half a mile away, my task will be to see that the 19th is adequately watered (the game they play truely is "a good walk ruined"!), and to meet them at the 10th tee to ensure they have sufficient refreshments for the back 9. Plebusan, I told you not to read this paragraph. I am certain that the elbow bending exercise I get awaiting their return will fortify my performance in round 3.
NOTICE: Plebusan, you may continue reading here.
Unfortunately I'll be unable to play in round 2 due to an intensive weekend Chess training session I have organised with several top GM's coming over to my house to analyse my play, give me coaching, and pass their knowledge on to me by osmosis which will leave no time for tournament praxis. However, I am certain that this excercise will fortify my performance in round 3.
I left off with position #144 from Reinfeld last time, which no doubt you will have solved by now. 1. Qxg8 Rxg8 2. Nf6+ Ke7 3. Nxg8+ Ke8 4. Nf6+ Ke7 5. Nxd7 picking up the exchange (although crafty prefers to cede it with 1. ... cxd5). Why the problem? First time around I found it easily enough, but the part of my brain that recognises faces remembered a different position, and was hell-bent on finding the sacrifice on f7. As I mentioned in the last post, rote learning undoubtedly increases the number of ideas you can have in a position; but knowledge is no substitute for understanding. It is nothing without doing the work every time. 1% inspiration. 99% perspiration!
So we thank blkmagic for taking over the mantle of Teamleague Tournament Manager after HyperMagnus' much appreciated tenure in that role.
NOTICE: Do not read the next paragraph if your name is Plebusan.
Unfortunately I'll be unable to play in round 2 due to an annual "boy's weekend away". While the lads are out trying to whack a little white ball down a tiny hole half a mile away, my task will be to see that the 19th is adequately watered (the game they play truely is "a good walk ruined"!), and to meet them at the 10th tee to ensure they have sufficient refreshments for the back 9. Plebusan, I told you not to read this paragraph. I am certain that the elbow bending exercise I get awaiting their return will fortify my performance in round 3.
NOTICE: Plebusan, you may continue reading here.
Unfortunately I'll be unable to play in round 2 due to an intensive weekend Chess training session I have organised with several top GM's coming over to my house to analyse my play, give me coaching, and pass their knowledge on to me by osmosis which will leave no time for tournament praxis. However, I am certain that this excercise will fortify my performance in round 3.
I left off with position #144 from Reinfeld last time, which no doubt you will have solved by now. 1. Qxg8 Rxg8 2. Nf6+ Ke7 3. Nxg8+ Ke8 4. Nf6+ Ke7 5. Nxd7 picking up the exchange (although crafty prefers to cede it with 1. ... cxd5). Why the problem? First time around I found it easily enough, but the part of my brain that recognises faces remembered a different position, and was hell-bent on finding the sacrifice on f7. As I mentioned in the last post, rote learning undoubtedly increases the number of ideas you can have in a position; but knowledge is no substitute for understanding. It is nothing without doing the work every time. 1% inspiration. 99% perspiration!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Rote Learning
I've completed all the problems in chapters 1 to 3 (294 positions) at least a couple of times each, so here's the good and the bad of it.
Tonight at work I went through 143 problems (mainly pinning). I was mostly able to refrain from simply looking at the position and saying "the solution is Ne6", and paused long enough to identify "here is the pin, here is the decoy motif, the mating threats are here, here, and here...". The pattern recognition is coming along nicely - the three things that aid learning are repetition, repetition, and repetition.
Visualisation is improving too, I can see through the solution and the variations of nearly all the problems without too much trouble - identifying the specific threats at each move is an enormous aid to doing this.
So the 'database' is expanding, 'sight of board', and analysis skills are moving in the right direction too. This was the basic idea of doing this excercise with Fred. So far so good.
Towards the end however, I hit a couple of positions I didn't instantly recognise. Sad to say, my initial reaction was "OMG! what happens here?". Having got into the groove of projectile vomiting memorised solutions, switching gears and actually doing some work proved more difficult.
So comes the point of applying theory to practice. Rote learning of tactics undoubtedly increases the ideas one can draw upon during a game, but in a real game it is necessary to work through the motifs piece by piece, calculate the variations move by move. There is no "you to play and win" hint in a real game. "They" say an IM has an internal database of 50,000 positions, a GM has 100,000... I guess that means 98,999 to go for me. One day I'll dig out that Scientific American article about "how to be an expert in anything", written by an expert Chess player who's daughter is a WIM (iirc) - the conclusion was basically "work really hard at it". Well... duh!
Surely you didn't think I'd leave you without a pretty picture to look at today? This is the one I was pondering before I pulled up stumps at work tonight.
Reinfeld position #144
White to move
Tonight at work I went through 143 problems (mainly pinning). I was mostly able to refrain from simply looking at the position and saying "the solution is Ne6", and paused long enough to identify "here is the pin, here is the decoy motif, the mating threats are here, here, and here...". The pattern recognition is coming along nicely - the three things that aid learning are repetition, repetition, and repetition.
Visualisation is improving too, I can see through the solution and the variations of nearly all the problems without too much trouble - identifying the specific threats at each move is an enormous aid to doing this.
So the 'database' is expanding, 'sight of board', and analysis skills are moving in the right direction too. This was the basic idea of doing this excercise with Fred. So far so good.
Towards the end however, I hit a couple of positions I didn't instantly recognise. Sad to say, my initial reaction was "OMG! what happens here?". Having got into the groove of projectile vomiting memorised solutions, switching gears and actually doing some work proved more difficult.
So comes the point of applying theory to practice. Rote learning of tactics undoubtedly increases the ideas one can draw upon during a game, but in a real game it is necessary to work through the motifs piece by piece, calculate the variations move by move. There is no "you to play and win" hint in a real game. "They" say an IM has an internal database of 50,000 positions, a GM has 100,000... I guess that means 98,999 to go for me. One day I'll dig out that Scientific American article about "how to be an expert in anything", written by an expert Chess player who's daughter is a WIM (iirc) - the conclusion was basically "work really hard at it". Well... duh!
Surely you didn't think I'd leave you without a pretty picture to look at today? This is the one I was pondering before I pulled up stumps at work tonight.
Reinfeld position #144White to move
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Forking Pinning
I'm concentrating my attention on the first 3 (and longest) chapters of "1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations", 1. Pinning, 2. Knight Forks, and 3. Double Attack.
Chapters 2 and 3 are really the same thing and I breeze through the problems at an acceptable pace. Find the un(-der-)protected piece and fork it, usually to a check or mate threat. They represent the joy of being able to 'do' Chess.
As I mentioned at the outset, chapter 1, exploiting pins, gives me more trouble than it should and represents the frustration of amateur Patzerdom. The reason for this is that a pin is rarely a tactic in and of itself, it's a semi-static position feature requiring the discovery of additional dynamic tactical motifs for it's exploitation.
Reinfeld position #47
White to move
White is a piece down, a7 and Nc6 are pinned and natural attempts to capitalise on this with obvious moves like Nxc6 are resisted by the counter-pin ... Qd7. Getting tied up trying to work the pin, I too easily overlook other features of the position. Far from the main 'field of action', Rh8 is both unprotected and immobilised. Can anyone spell 'TARGET!'??
1. d5 clearance of the a1-h8 diagonal 1. ... exd5 2. Nxc6 completing the clearance 2. ... Qd7 the counter-pin 3. Na5 attacking both the unprotected Bb7 and g7 trapping the Rook.
It really shouldn't be that difficult, but the lure of the simple and obvious tends to provoke blindness. There were other things I had intended to work on before Teamleague starts up again, but I'm seriously considering using the next month to force myself through every pinning problem I can find.
Chapters 2 and 3 are really the same thing and I breeze through the problems at an acceptable pace. Find the un(-der-)protected piece and fork it, usually to a check or mate threat. They represent the joy of being able to 'do' Chess.
As I mentioned at the outset, chapter 1, exploiting pins, gives me more trouble than it should and represents the frustration of amateur Patzerdom. The reason for this is that a pin is rarely a tactic in and of itself, it's a semi-static position feature requiring the discovery of additional dynamic tactical motifs for it's exploitation.
Reinfeld position #47White to move
White is a piece down, a7 and Nc6 are pinned and natural attempts to capitalise on this with obvious moves like Nxc6 are resisted by the counter-pin ... Qd7. Getting tied up trying to work the pin, I too easily overlook other features of the position. Far from the main 'field of action', Rh8 is both unprotected and immobilised. Can anyone spell 'TARGET!'??
1. d5 clearance of the a1-h8 diagonal 1. ... exd5 2. Nxc6 completing the clearance 2. ... Qd7 the counter-pin 3. Na5 attacking both the unprotected Bb7 and g7 trapping the Rook.
It really shouldn't be that difficult, but the lure of the simple and obvious tends to provoke blindness. There were other things I had intended to work on before Teamleague starts up again, but I'm seriously considering using the next month to force myself through every pinning problem I can find.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Teamleague 37?
There's a rumour circulating that teamleague 37 might be starting at the end of September... fingers crossed.
I had a couple of training games against team mates this weekend. I managed to win, but I'm not terribly impressed with my play - totally superficial. In the second game I was getting nowhere and starting to go backwards so I played a psuedo-combination just because the idea had been staring at me for a couple of moves. It should have resulted in an unbalanced but even position with two rooks vs rook and two minors with pawns dangling all over the place... fortunately for me my opponent found a way to go wrong.
Then there were the rated blitz games... oh dear... I did swindle a draw against a 1200...
So some things need to change. No more random wood-pushing to wile away the hours, no more "setting my hair on fire". That experiment is complete. Every game now must be taken seriously, I can play poker or toss dice if I want to see a suprise random outcome.
I need to play some serious 45' 45" games with 1800+ opponents to see if any real improvement is happening. This was to be '100 Days to Chess Improvement'. We're about 70% of the way through that... the clock is ticking...
I had a couple of training games against team mates this weekend. I managed to win, but I'm not terribly impressed with my play - totally superficial. In the second game I was getting nowhere and starting to go backwards so I played a psuedo-combination just because the idea had been staring at me for a couple of moves. It should have resulted in an unbalanced but even position with two rooks vs rook and two minors with pawns dangling all over the place... fortunately for me my opponent found a way to go wrong.
Then there were the rated blitz games... oh dear... I did swindle a draw against a 1200...
So some things need to change. No more random wood-pushing to wile away the hours, no more "setting my hair on fire". That experiment is complete. Every game now must be taken seriously, I can play poker or toss dice if I want to see a suprise random outcome.
I need to play some serious 45' 45" games with 1800+ opponents to see if any real improvement is happening. This was to be '100 Days to Chess Improvement'. We're about 70% of the way through that... the clock is ticking...
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Praxis Practice 2
One of my TeamLeague team mates was good enough to give me a training game at 30' + 30" today. I won't bore anyone by discussing the whole game, but I did find two nice tactical points that I don't think I would have seen if I hadn't been doing this excercise.
SimianChatter (1793) vs TeamMate (1673)After 17. Ng5-e6
This is not a sacrifice at all, but a 'free hit', available because of the complete immobility of the Knight on d7 so after 17. ... fxe6 18. dxe6 followed by 19. exd7 White opens the a2-g8 diagonal and exposes d6 just for starters. I hadn't fully worked out the implications of 17. ... Be7, whether I could play N6c7, R or Qf3, or if the retreat Ng5 was necessary, but for the purposes of this game having those options was enough, later I will need to have it all worked out before entering into a line like this.
SimianChatter (1793) vs TeamMate (1673)White to move
Finding the killer... sniffing the possibility of 37. Qd7+ Zwischenzug is what convinced me to go into the line with 32. Be6, although I expect that something like 35. ... Qf5 is at the very worst holding for Black. None-the-less, from the diagram 36. Qxe6 Qxc3 37. Qd7+ wins a Rook.
A quick progress report...
Standard Rating: 1819, RD 116.9 (best: 1920)
Blitz Rating: 1598, RD 88.3 (best: 1618)
Finally moving in the right direction, but both still meaningless until those RD's are much lower.
I've now worked through about 600 problems from Fred Reinfeld's "1001 Chess Sacrifices and Combinations" at least once. From this week, I plan to make a small modification to the method of working through this book. I'll spend more time in the first few chapters that have simpler motifs and more problems to solve, with quick reviews of the shorter, later chapters most of which I've almost completed.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Queen's Fan, the King's Shield, and the Knight's Wheel
This position got me thinking about something I mentioned in an earlier post about the Queen being a Rook + Bishop in one piece. In that position the Rook and Bishop proved stronger than a Queen, here She shows their combined strength with something I decided to call 'The Queen's Fan'.
Reinfeld position #699
Black to move
White has a classic weak bank rank, so my first thought was to exploit it by removing the defender of Rd1 with 1. ... f5, but unfortunately then White has a defense in 2. Qf3. So with g6 guarding h5 and the Rook blocking d1, how do we cover the 'short diagonal' e2-f3-g4? The answer is the decoy 1. ... Qe4 when the 'Rook-Queen' covers e2 and g4, and the 'Bishop-Queen' covers f3.
Queen's Fan, King's Shield
This 'three square diagonal' or 'mini-Bishop' feature of the Queen's powers struck me because it reminded me of the way Kings look like they're holding a shield as they march down the board blocking an adjacent file, most commonly recognised in the 'direct opposition' above.
Knight's Wheel
While we're on the subject, we talk about Bishops and their diagonals, Rooks and their ranks and files, but when we talk about Knights we usually do so in terms of 'squares'. Rank, files, and diagonals are all groups of squares, and I've always thought we should see Knights in the way they control groups of squares, rather than just single points of interest. Above is a 'Knight's Wheel', something we will no doubt return to should I ever progress from tactics to a study of the positional elements of the game.
Reinfeld position #699Black to move
White has a classic weak bank rank, so my first thought was to exploit it by removing the defender of Rd1 with 1. ... f5, but unfortunately then White has a defense in 2. Qf3. So with g6 guarding h5 and the Rook blocking d1, how do we cover the 'short diagonal' e2-f3-g4? The answer is the decoy 1. ... Qe4 when the 'Rook-Queen' covers e2 and g4, and the 'Bishop-Queen' covers f3.
Queen's Fan, King's ShieldThis 'three square diagonal' or 'mini-Bishop' feature of the Queen's powers struck me because it reminded me of the way Kings look like they're holding a shield as they march down the board blocking an adjacent file, most commonly recognised in the 'direct opposition' above.
Knight's WheelWhile we're on the subject, we talk about Bishops and their diagonals, Rooks and their ranks and files, but when we talk about Knights we usually do so in terms of 'squares'. Rank, files, and diagonals are all groups of squares, and I've always thought we should see Knights in the way they control groups of squares, rather than just single points of interest. Above is a 'Knight's Wheel', something we will no doubt return to should I ever progress from tactics to a study of the positional elements of the game.
Monday, August 18, 2008
The Suicide Squad
When I become royalty, I'm going to get myself a crack squad of suicide troops like the Black King and Queen have at their disposal here.
Reinfeld position #582
Black to move
"Sir Cleric, I wish to see you snub the White Queen!" the Black King orders.
"By your command, Sire!" is the reply as the Bishop makes a short-lived rudish (he is after all a man of the cloth) gesture 1. ... Bb5 2. axb5.
"Excellent!" the King applauds "And now Sir Knight, I command thee to fall on thy sword!"
"Which of us, your Majesty?" the obedient pair respond in unison.
"Why both of you of course!" 2. ... Nhg3+ 3. Nxg3 Nxg3 4. hxg3 for they feared more than anything a lashing by His tounge.
"Now that Rook... throw it at their castle wall, I like to hear it go BANG!" 4. ... hxg3+ 5. Kg1 Rh1+ 6. Kxh1 Rh8+ 7. Kg1.
"Wait for it!" the King cautioned the impetuous Rook "First, that Bishop say blasphemous words upon their King." of course he could not refuse 7. ... Bc5+ 8. Nxc5.
Yet even before the Black King could again open His mouth to speak, the last Rook had rushed forth shouting an oblique reference in battle-cry "Oh No! More Lemmings!" 8. ... Rh1+ 9. Kxh1.
"Good show!" cried the Black King "But where did everybody go?".
Reinfeld position #582
Position after 9. Kxh1
"Oh husband!" admonished His Queen "Must I do everything myself?" 9. ... Qh8+ 10. Kg1 Qh2#.
Reinfeld position #582Black to move
"Sir Cleric, I wish to see you snub the White Queen!" the Black King orders.
"By your command, Sire!" is the reply as the Bishop makes a short-lived rudish (he is after all a man of the cloth) gesture 1. ... Bb5 2. axb5.
"Excellent!" the King applauds "And now Sir Knight, I command thee to fall on thy sword!"
"Which of us, your Majesty?" the obedient pair respond in unison.
"Why both of you of course!" 2. ... Nhg3+ 3. Nxg3 Nxg3 4. hxg3 for they feared more than anything a lashing by His tounge.
"Now that Rook... throw it at their castle wall, I like to hear it go BANG!" 4. ... hxg3+ 5. Kg1 Rh1+ 6. Kxh1 Rh8+ 7. Kg1.
"Wait for it!" the King cautioned the impetuous Rook "First, that Bishop say blasphemous words upon their King." of course he could not refuse 7. ... Bc5+ 8. Nxc5.
Yet even before the Black King could again open His mouth to speak, the last Rook had rushed forth shouting an oblique reference in battle-cry "Oh No! More Lemmings!" 8. ... Rh1+ 9. Kxh1.
"Good show!" cried the Black King "But where did everybody go?".
Reinfeld position #582Position after 9. Kxh1
"Oh husband!" admonished His Queen "Must I do everything myself?" 9. ... Qh8+ 10. Kg1 Qh2#.
Friday, August 15, 2008
So Much to See!
This is one of those positions where you just know there's got to be something on, even if Fred hasn't already told us so. If only we could get a pointy bit on the a1-h8 diagonal there's mate with Nh6, but attempting to get Black to leave the d- or e-files by say Re1, Rb2, or Rc2 meets stiff resistance. The solution turns out to be a wild ride through a lot of little combinations. The variation tree is straight, but quite long with a few side points.
Reinfeld position #563
White to move
First, White penetrates to the back rank to make a variety of pins and Rook forks using a clearance sacrifice followed by a decoy.
1. Rxb5 cxb5 2. Rc8 Qd5 if the Rook is captured, White gets his way with either Qa1+ or Qd4+.
Reinfeld position #563
After 2. ... Qd5
Now Black threatens Qh5#. 3. Qa1+ another decoy as now 3. ... Rxa1 4. Rxf8 Kg7 5. Bh6#. 3. ... e5 4. Bxe5+ now if 4. ... Rxe5 5. Rxa8 Black looks like a pin-cushion.
Reinfeld position #563
After 5. Rxa8 (variation)
4. ... Qxe5 5. Rxf8 Kg7 6. Rf7+ this Rook has done an amazing amount of work behind enemy lines without direct protection. It's reward is to go out in a blaze of glory by decoying itself again, in order to buy the Queen a tempo to win a Black Rook.
Reinfeld position #563
After 6. Rf7+
6. ... Kxf7 7. Nxe5+ Rxe5 the Queen is forking the two Rooks and will capture one next move.
And it all looked like it would be so easy when I first saw this problem...
Reinfeld position #563White to move
First, White penetrates to the back rank to make a variety of pins and Rook forks using a clearance sacrifice followed by a decoy.
1. Rxb5 cxb5 2. Rc8 Qd5 if the Rook is captured, White gets his way with either Qa1+ or Qd4+.
Reinfeld position #563After 2. ... Qd5
Now Black threatens Qh5#. 3. Qa1+ another decoy as now 3. ... Rxa1 4. Rxf8 Kg7 5. Bh6#. 3. ... e5 4. Bxe5+ now if 4. ... Rxe5 5. Rxa8 Black looks like a pin-cushion.
Reinfeld position #563After 5. Rxa8 (variation)
4. ... Qxe5 5. Rxf8 Kg7 6. Rf7+ this Rook has done an amazing amount of work behind enemy lines without direct protection. It's reward is to go out in a blaze of glory by decoying itself again, in order to buy the Queen a tempo to win a Black Rook.
Reinfeld position #563After 6. Rf7+
6. ... Kxf7 7. Nxe5+ Rxe5 the Queen is forking the two Rooks and will capture one next move.
And it all looked like it would be so easy when I first saw this problem...
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Definitions: Double Check
The definition's in the name, but I want to have a quick look at some implications of giving a double check.
Double Check: A piece moves giving check while simultaneously uncovering a second check by another piece.
The two main implications of this:
1. To defend a double check, the King must move.
2. Therefore, giving a double check temporarily immobilises the entire defending army.
Here is an example which also makes an interesting point about Queens, Rooks, and Bishops.
Reinfeld position #406
White to move
1. Qd8+ Kxd8 2. Bg5++ and now Black's only legal moves are 2. ... Kc7 3. Bd8# or 2. ... Ke8 3. Rd8#.
Note that when the Queen, constructed of a Rook + Bishop in one piece, arrived on d8 it was not mate because She was undefended. Yet when Her power was split between two 'lesser' pieces to form a barrage against d8, their combined power delivered checkmate.
Our man Fred describes this next example as "The most beautiful double check ever played.".
Reinfeld position #407
White to move
1. Rxg5 clearance of the h-file for the Queen's penetration 1. ... hxg5 2. Qh7+ Nd7 if 2. ... Kd8 3. Qh8+ followed by capturing one of the rooks 3. Bxd7 a liquidating combination, since after 3. ... Qxd7 4. Qxd7 Kxd7 5. Rxb8 etc, White will have 5 extra pawns. 3. ... Qg8 defending against a discovered check by attacking the unprotected White Queen. Another diagram for the finale:
Reinfeld position #407
After 3. ... Qg8
4. Rb7+ either decoying the King to a square from which the double check can be delivered, or interference with the Rook's protection of the Queen Kxb7 5. Bc8++ Kxc8 6. Qxg8+ and now Kb7 or Kc7 meets Qg7+ winning a Rook.
Double Check: A piece moves giving check while simultaneously uncovering a second check by another piece.
The two main implications of this:
1. To defend a double check, the King must move.
2. Therefore, giving a double check temporarily immobilises the entire defending army.
Here is an example which also makes an interesting point about Queens, Rooks, and Bishops.
Reinfeld position #406White to move
1. Qd8+ Kxd8 2. Bg5++ and now Black's only legal moves are 2. ... Kc7 3. Bd8# or 2. ... Ke8 3. Rd8#.
Note that when the Queen, constructed of a Rook + Bishop in one piece, arrived on d8 it was not mate because She was undefended. Yet when Her power was split between two 'lesser' pieces to form a barrage against d8, their combined power delivered checkmate.
Our man Fred describes this next example as "The most beautiful double check ever played.".
Reinfeld position #407White to move
1. Rxg5 clearance of the h-file for the Queen's penetration 1. ... hxg5 2. Qh7+ Nd7 if 2. ... Kd8 3. Qh8+ followed by capturing one of the rooks 3. Bxd7 a liquidating combination, since after 3. ... Qxd7 4. Qxd7 Kxd7 5. Rxb8 etc, White will have 5 extra pawns. 3. ... Qg8 defending against a discovered check by attacking the unprotected White Queen. Another diagram for the finale:
Reinfeld position #407After 3. ... Qg8
4. Rb7+ either decoying the King to a square from which the double check can be delivered, or interference with the Rook's protection of the Queen Kxb7 5. Bc8++ Kxc8 6. Qxg8+ and now Kb7 or Kc7 meets Qg7+ winning a Rook.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Progress Report 2
It's been a week of horrible results playing unrated blitz games, which I don't mind too much as I've been really trying to force tactical complications in positions where I know they're not justified (+1-9=0 at one point!).
I have played some rated 5 12 games recently, and my blitz rating has gone from 1442(E) to 1579(E) which might sound like progress, but in reality I got 60 points from adjudicating some old (some 5 years old!) adjourned games, and benefitted from my high RD beating ~1300 players for about 15-20 points a game. You'd call it eeking if you didn't know better. My blitz RD is still about 88, so that rating is a bit meaningless until I've played some more games.
Here's an example of the sort of fun I've been having when I do manage to pull it off.
SimianChatter vs RandomFICSer (1415 blitz)
11. Ne6 clearance of the h5-e8 diagonal, and the f-file for the follow-up sacrifice. 11. ... fxe6 12. fxe6 Bc8 Crafty says 12. ... Rf8 =, but that's no fun! 13. Rxf6 annihilation of defense. Now 13. ... Qxf6 should hold, but after my opponent played 13. ... Bxf6 14. Qh5+ resigns as 15. Qf7 will be mate.
I have played some rated 5 12 games recently, and my blitz rating has gone from 1442(E) to 1579(E) which might sound like progress, but in reality I got 60 points from adjudicating some old (some 5 years old!) adjourned games, and benefitted from my high RD beating ~1300 players for about 15-20 points a game. You'd call it eeking if you didn't know better. My blitz RD is still about 88, so that rating is a bit meaningless until I've played some more games.
Here's an example of the sort of fun I've been having when I do manage to pull it off.
SimianChatter vs RandomFICSer (1415 blitz)White to move
11. Ne6 clearance of the h5-e8 diagonal, and the f-file for the follow-up sacrifice. 11. ... fxe6 12. fxe6 Bc8 Crafty says 12. ... Rf8 =, but that's no fun! 13. Rxf6 annihilation of defense. Now 13. ... Qxf6 should hold, but after my opponent played 13. ... Bxf6 14. Qh5+ resigns as 15. Qf7 will be mate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
