Following on from Yesterday

Yesterday, I wrote about a Korchnoi game I looked at. I asked a few questions about some positions.

1.

This position was from Honfi-Korchnoi, EU ch 1961. Korchnoi, as black won the game after 38..Qd3, but he had a much fancier win. 38..Bxf4+!! 39.Bxf4

39..Rxe2!! A great follow up offering the queen. 40.Bxd6

Now black wins using a "Windmill" tactic. 40..Rxg2+ 41.Kh1 Rxa2+ [Necessary so that white can't block a check with the queen on d5] 42.Kg1 Rg2+ 43.Kh1 Rg5+ 44.Kh2 Re2+ 45.Rf2 Rxf2#

2.

This is a simple black to play and win from the game Kipping-Pindar Manchester 1861. Black sacrificed the exchange to win bigger fish. 31..Rcxc6! 32.Nxc6 [32.bxc6 was an alternative, though the c-pawn is never going to be a threat. 32..Qe4 33.Rg1 Qb1+ 34.Qe1 Qxa2 35.c7 Re8 saves the day]

Now black has 32..Qe4 simultaneously hitting h1 and b1. White resigned

3. 

This was one of the maddest games I saw yesterday, and I'll post the whole game after. White played 16.Bb5 here but was swiftly blown away by 16..Nxf3+! 17.gxf3 Qxf3

What a transformation over the last diagram. White's king has no cover, nowhere to run, and little help in stopping black's forces. This is a textbook attack on the king in the centre by Kazimdzhanov as black. 18.Rf1 Bh4+ [Attack with as many pieces as possible] 19.Bf2 Qe4+ 20.Be2

All white can do is block the checks, but now e2 is very weak. The game finished 20..Bg4 21.Qc4 Rd4 22.Qxd4 Qxe2# A shame for white who had stared very well against a very strong opponent, but it just goes to show how even one slip can count against a strong player, and how we must be vigilant about opportunities to attack an unguarded king, or ways of opening a king's defence, even if it means a sacrifice.

4. The last position from yesterday was from a game Corden-J Littlewood Hastings 1969. The Littlewood family produced a number of good players, and they had a reputation for attacking flair.

So what did black play here? John Littlewood played the crazy looking 32..Rh3! [The rook can't be taken 33.gxh3?? Qe4+ 34.Kg1 Bd4+ 35.Rf2 Qxb1+ etc winning a mass of material] 33.Rbe1

And now came the king hunt! 33..Rxh2!! 34.Kxh2 Be5+ 35.Kg1 Bd4+ 36.Kh2 Qh5+ 37.Kg3 Qh4+ 38.Kf3 Qf4+ 39.Ke2 Qe3+ 40.Kd1 Qd3+

Another transformation in position. Black has successfully dragged white's king out into the open and has 2 attackers while the king has no defenders. Black managed to successfully chase the king around until this final position was reached.

White did have a chance earlier to give back material to go into a worse endgame that would have offered some chance of resistance, however this was the final tactic. Black finished off with 51..Qc3+ 52.Ka4 b5+, a discovered attack which wins white's queen, and forced him to resign.

All of these great tactical games were seen by me because I looked at an old game and followed up by looking at some games that happened in a similar opening. I therefore have learned a bit about an opening, and have also added some tactical motifs into my knowledge base. There were a load of fairly boring games that I also looked at, and few others of interest that I'll look at tomorrow, or the next time I post.