Queen vs. PawnBy Bruce PandolfiniKing and queen against a lone king? No contest. With the move (it might be important to have the move to avoid stalemate), the force of king and queen wins hands down. But what if the inferior side has an extra pawn about to promote? Is it still a forced win? Well it often is, with some notable exceptions.Having the move, the queen can beat either a center pawn or a knight pawn usually without much trouble, even if the friendly king is a distance away. The winning idea is to give a series of checks, leading to the defending king's forced obstruction of its own pawn. That gives the attacker a tempo, which can be used to bring the friendly king a square closer. … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2015
A Nice Win by Nakamura
This month we present a lightly edited excerpt from Chess Evolution Top GM Secrets Newsletter #164. Top GM Secrets is released every Friday of the week. The newsletter contains twenty-plus pages of great chess material written by top grandmasters Arkadij Naiditsch and Csaba Balogh, along with theoretical articles by GM Alexander Khalifman, puzzles, endgames, and more.A Nice Win by NakamuraBy Csaba BaloghTroff,Kayden W (2532) - Nakamura,Hikaru (2798)ch-USA 2015 Saint Louis USA (8.1), 09.04.2015Modern Benoni [A62]Nakamura has convincingly won the U.S. Championship. Let's examine one of his victories. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 [FEN … [Read more...]
Queenfest V: Harem Scarum
Queenfest V: Harem Scarum By Jeff Coakley Queenfest rolls on with more puzzles involving multiple queens. The task is to arrange the queens on the board to achieve certain goals. The first part of the first puzzle is very easy, but figuring out the number of possible solutions is perhaps an interesting challenge. Queenfest #16 (four queens) [FEN “8/8/8/8/8/8/8/8”] Place four queens on the board so that each queen is defended by every other queen. How many solutions are there? Earlier Queenfests can be found in the archives: A Royal Heyday, Second to None, We Will Rock You, Breaking Free. The next puzzle explores the lower limits of queen mobility. Except for 17a, all … [Read more...]
A Very Strong Tournament
A Very Strong Tournament By Bo Bredenhof We are closing in on the fifth anniversary of CC Chronicles. It has been fun all the way. I hope you think the same. All previous columns can be found in the ChessCafe.com Archives. This month I will look at one of the strongest ever CC tournaments: the Witold Bielecki Memorial, which finished recently after over three years play. Thirteen players with ten GM's and three SIM's with ratings between 2561 and 2729. The crosstable can be found at the ICCF website via their "Tables and results" page. There were many interesting aspects to this tournament: one was that two players shared first place with identical results and SB points. Both Dr. … [Read more...]
Master and Patron: Frank Marshall and Herman Behr
Master and Patron: Frank Marshall and Herman Behr By John S. Hilbert Love of chess takes many forms. Some very lucky individuals have the combination of ability, opportunity (some might say necessity) and personality that allows them to become great masters. Others love the goddess Caissa just as deeply, but are unable or unwilling to devote the lifetime of toil required by her for the highest honors. And sometimes lovers of the game are in a position to offer material assistance to those whose devotion has cost them material gain. Such was the case between Frank Marshall, long-time national champion of the United States, and Herman Behr, long-time lover of the game. When Marshall … [Read more...]
Zwischenschach
Zwischenschach by Karsten Müller Zwischenschach is German for in-between-check, which is an important technique in the rook endgame. 164.01 Fabian,Jaroslav (2275) - Pinter,Erik (2196) SVK-chT3B 0001 Slovakia (9), 2001 [FEN "8/8/8/5K2/8/6P1/r7/1k6 b - - 0 52"] Black must play the zwischenschach 52...Rf2+! But not the other check 52...Ra5+? 53.Kf6 Kc2 54.g4 Kd3 55.g5 Ke4 56.g6 Ra6+ 57.Kf7 Kf5 58.g7 Ra7+ [FEN "8/r4KP1/8/5k2/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 59"] And now the stalemate defense 59.Kg8!? Kg6 60.Kh8 Rxg7 stalemate is the best technique. 53.Ke5 Rg2! 54.Kf4 And only now Black's king can come: 54...Kc2 55.g4 Kd3 56.Kf5 Kd4 57.g5 Kd5 58.Kf6 Kd6 59.g6 Rf2+ 60.Kg7 Ke7 … [Read more...]
Two Classical Sacrifices
Inside Chess 1997/15 Two Classical Sacrifices: Made and Unmade by GM Leonid Shamkovich The classical Bxh7+ sacrifice is one of the first, and most useful, "stock" sacrifices we all learn. Here are two examples of this recurring combinational theme. Shamkovich,Leonid - Hunt,D U.S. Amateur Team (ch), 1997 Caro-Kann Panov-Botvinnik [B14] 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nf3 Be7 A fashionable move is 6...Bb4!?. 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd3 Nc6 9.0-0 Nxc3?! 9...0-0 10.Re1 Bf6 is better. 10.bxc3 0-0 11.Re1 11.Qe2 and 11.Qc2 are also good for White. 11...b6!? 12.Be4!? 12.Qc2 g6 13.Bh6 Re8 is ECO D41/30; 12.Qe2 is Inf. 2/152. 12...Bb7 13.Ne5!? Na5?! … [Read more...]
Cyclotronic Overdrive: Gearing Up
Cyclotronic Overdrive: Gearing Up By Jeff Coakley This column features seven cyclotrons. Please fasten your seatbelt. These puzzles sometimes spin out of control. A cyclotron is a three-way switcheroo. Instead of switching two pieces, we switch three. In case you’re new to this type of puzzle, here are the rules. CYCLOTRONS Switch the position of three pieces so that Black is in checkmate. No actual chess moves are made. The pieces simply swap squares. The pieces trade places in a “cycle”. Piece A goes to square B, piece B goes to square C, and piece C goes to square A. Any three pieces can trade places. Colours do not matter. The cycled pieces can be all white, all … [Read more...]
The Return of the Aeroflot Festival in Moscow
The Return of the Aeroflot Festival in Moscow By Geurt Gijssen After a break of some years there was again an Aeroflot Festval in Moscow, and again at the Hotel Cosmos, a large hotel with 1,700 rooms. The main organiser of the event is Alexander Bakh, who deserves praise for his efforts to revive the Festival. Without him it would not have been possible. There were again three tournaments: Tournament A was for players with a rating over 2549; Tournament B was for players with a rating higher than 2299 and lower than 2550; and Tournament C for those with a rating lower than 2300. Each tournament had a different time control: Tournament A: 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 … [Read more...]
Determining Candidate Move Safety
Determining Candidate Move Safety By Dan Heisman Quote of the Month: “Whenever you think you have lost the meaning of life, look around you for those in need of your help and you shall find it.” I consider the most important issue on a chess board to be safety (off the board it is having fun, but that’s another story...). Students often cite after a lost game: “...I lost because I missed a tactic...” ...whereupon I usually provide a follow-up question, which they did not consider... “That’s ambiguous: Did you mean that you missed, and thus allowed, a tactic for the opponent that won the game for him, or did you fail to see a tactic for you that would have won, or saved the … [Read more...]