Tactics Friday

Yes, I know it's Sunday but I was so exhausted at the end of the week that the Friday tactic had to wait unto today.


Both queens are en prise, but it's white's move. 1.Bxh7+ Kh8 [1..Kxh7 2.Qd3+ wins a queen] 2.Qg4 leaves black insurmountable problems. The game ended quickly: 2..d4 3.Ng6+ Bxg6 [3..Kxg7 4.Qh5+ Kg8 5.Nxe7#] 4.Bxg6 and black resigned as he will have to lose too much material just to avoid immediate mate, Samsonkin-Inigo 2011

Today's Puzzle:

White to play and win

Answer tomorrow;)

Tactics Thursday

Yesterday's position came from the recently concluded Condom GM event, and in a fit of schoolboy giggles, I had to choose a position from this tournament (I was looking for a prophylactic move, but couldn't find one...) Black to play came up with 1..Rxf2 which busts white as he cannot take the rook. The game concluded 2.e4 Rxg2+ (no half measures here) 3.Kxg2 Rb2+ (the point in all lines) 4.Qf2 Qg5+ 0-1 Barsov-Demuth Condom 2011


Today's Puzzle:

White to play and win

Answer tomorrow ;)

MCC Openings Group 27/07/2011

Tonight we had a good number of people at the Melbourne Chess Club discussing the recent novelty played by Aronian against Harikrishna at the World Team Championship. Aronian's 10.h4 (in the position above) looks to our amateur eyes as the start of a mad king side attack. A closer look at the game shows that it may just be a space gaining operation on the king side.
The question that was posed was "is 10.h4 a move that black should really be scared of?" In the game Harikrishna never really got going, dropped a pawn and still hadn't developed properly. In the end, Aronian's advanced king side pawns tied black's king and rook to the back rank leaving black with nothing.

So we looked at some candidate moves starting already from move 10. In the end, it seemed the idea of 10..Nd7 followed by e5 was ok, and the exchange sequence seems forced, but the following moves weren't so hot.

In this position Frank Lekkas suggested 14..e4 with the idea of 15.Nd2 hxg5 winning a pawn. It looks mighty dangerous for black to open the h-file, or to encourage white's pieces to the king side, but it appears that black is holding.

a) 16.hxg5 Rh5 17.Qg1 (Lekkas again) and we couldn't find anything for white.
b) 16.Qh5 (Kerry Stead said that he'd heard Alex Yermolinsky talking up this move on ICC) 16..g6 (16..g4 was also touted as an idea) 17.Qxg5 (17.Qh6 g4 18.h5 g5 and white's going nowhere) 17..Qxg5 18.hxg5

This is the position we looked at mostly. Black has a weakness on d5, but it isn't easy to get at, while white has a weakness on g5, which again is difficult to attack. The position appeared to be balanced to the group. I reckon this position may see some games in master practice over the next 12 months, and it will be with interest that we will look at these games.

Tactics Wednesday

On Monday the British Championship started, which is always usually good for some tactics during the games. Yesterdays puzzle came from the British Championship in the year I was born, 1966.


Black to play was Sir Stuart Milner Barry who played the elegant 1..Bc2 attacking a rook, but more importantly, trapping white's queen. So white doesn't have time to move the the rook away, or black will simply play 2..Nb6.

Todays Puzzle

Black to play and win

Answer tomorrow ;)

Tactics Tuesday

So the plan is now to offer a tactical puzzle every weekday (I have already failed yesterday!)

First the solution to the last puzzle:


1.Bg5+ forces mate in 3. 1..hxg5 2.Qxg5+ Kd7 3.Qf5+ Ke7 4.Qe6# Zukertort-Anderssen Breslau 1865


Todays puzzle:

Black to play and win

Answer tomorrow ;)

Malitis Memorial Round 2

The day before the second round of the Malitis Memorial Tournament I received a message to say that David Lacey had to withdraw from the event. It is regrettable that anyone has to withdraw and I hope that David is ok. But in one respect it made the tournament easier as we now had an even number of players, meaning that I could carry on my role as arbiter. However, on the day of the second round, Tristan Rayson-Hill joined the tournament and I was back in the field playing as a reserve if someone doesn't want a bye. This will be my role in this tournament from now on, fulfilling the role of stand by if the numbers become uneven. So hopefully next week, I'll be back to doing a live blog from the MCC.

As I was playing, I didn't get to see as much action as I would normally have seen. I did hear a draw offer on about move 7 in the game between Thai Ly and Anthony Hain. It was a Najdorf with 6.Be3 Ng4. Thai retreated his bishop to c1 and Anthony took his knight back to f6 and they repeated moves, though I don't think the same position was reached 3 times. There was a rearranged game in the draw. With David Lacey's withdrawal, and with Michael Addamo out of the country, Paul Kovacevic and Jim Papadinis agreed to play each other so they both got a game. The result was the second longest game of the night and a hard fought draw. The longest game of the night was once again played by Jack Puccini, who has no sympathy for his mum who comes to pick him up, and invariably ends up waiting for young Jack for hours. The one time she decides to risk turning up later, at say 10.30pm, he will no doubt finish by 8pm!

The top games had carbon copies, and I did my best to decipher the moves. I found it impossible in the game between Robert Franczeskos and Ari Dale which is a shame, as this looked the most interesting the back room. The full scores can be found on the MCC website.

Tactics 4

This was from one of my games. As white I had some inspiration and found 1.Nf5 and after 1..exf5 2.Nd5 threatens 3.Nc7# and costs black a load of material to prevent mate.

Today's Puzzle:

White to play and win

Answer on Monday ;)