Wide Open King

Taken from one of my recent correspondence games - white is down a pawn, but very obviously winning. The game concluded with:


24. Qh2 f6
25. Ne6!! Resigns since black must lose at least a piece to avoid mate.

However, there is a much simpler way to finish the game. I had calculated it out before, but didn't write it down anywhere, so when it came time to make my move days later, I had forgotten all about it!

Solution:
24. Rh8+!! Bxh8 (If ...Kxh8 then 25. Qh2+ and mate via Qh7#)
25. Ne6+! Bg7 (If ...Kh7 we have the same Qh2+ mating idea)
26. Rxg7+ Kh8
27. Qh2+ Qh4
28. Qxh4#

Ending with a flourish

I have a couple positions for you to look at from some of my recent games. The first position I will give the answer to, but the second one I will wait a few days before posting the answer. Try your best to solve both!

Position 1 - Difficulty: 2/10, white to move:


Answer will be posted in a comment.

Position 2 - Difficulty: 9/10, black to move:


The answer to this one is much more involved than the previous one. As such, I will give you a few days to work through it before I post the answer.

**EDIT** The answer to position 2 follows.

1. ...Bg4!!
Deep, precise, and devastating. The white queen has no squares.
2. hxg4 hxg4!
3. f5
Only way for white to keep playing on. This is where it is easy to get stuck since it is hard to find the follow-up.
3. ...Qh7!
This is actually the hard part.
4. Qf4
In the game, white played Qe4?? and then tipped the king over.
4. ...Rh8!
Here it is very difficult to find a move for white. I personally think that the best try for white is 5. Rff1!? making black earn it, but black should still be winning. Any differing opinions or comments?

Generic Title for Post

Its kind of funny how life gets in the way sometimes and certain things drop substantially on the priorities list. Making videos for this blog has been like that lately. I haven't forgotten about it, just haven't really had the drive to make them.

Anyway, I'm going to force myself to post a video by the end of this week. Until then, I will post a simple puzzle from one of my other games.

White to move:

The answer is (highlight the area after the colon to see the answer): Rxf6! then if gxf6 Qh6 will force mate. If anything else, just move the rook and white is a piece and pawn up.

Quick Post

Thought I would post a humorous position from my night game last night. It was a fitting end to a very long day of tough chess. White to move.


Things look bleak at first glance, however white can not only easily draw this, but he can do it with style. I played:

1. Rb6+! Kg7 2. Rg6+!! draw

The game is drawn because any capture on g6 results in stalemate. If the king moves, I can either keep putting my rook next to him giving checks or just take on g5 and have a very easy draw.

Imagination at its finest. Two more games today in the Iowa Open, then moving Monday and working Tuesday.

16. ...Qc5 17. Bxh6. And so it begins.

Down goes the h6 pawn. I decided to go ahead and spice the game up a bit after ...Qc5's 2-1 victory. I think Jason's ideas were more or less right if I played the position slowly, but this just looks so much more enticing. I am really looking forward to the debate on this move (particularly what all of the world leaders' insights are), which will produce a response from me on Monday.

9. ...Nxe4 10. Bxe4 and the Iowa Open

Here is your new position:


My next move will come on Monday, so cast your votes early (especially to win tiebreaks)!

I had a decent Iowa Open, scoring 3.0/5.0, though in the last round I messed up a pretty easy draw. I had a couple games which were interesting, and what is more than that, I had some pretty cool tactics come up. I will post some of these tactical puzzles and the solutions below. If you want to see the whole games (the one against Kende is worth seeing, a really complex middlegame) then just ask and I will put them up too.

Tactic #1: vs Bullinga (Black to move), difficulty: 2/10 for the tactic, 6/10 for the underlying idea:


Tactic #2: vs J. Zhang (White to move), difficulty: 4/10:


Tactic #3: also vs J. Zhang (mostly here because it is cute, not because it is hard) (also white to move), difficulty: :-)/10 :


Tactic #4: vs Kende (White to move), difficulty: 7/10:



Solutions:

#1: 1. ...Bh3+! seals white's fate 2. Kxh3 Qxf3 keeps the white king permanently on the side of the board where it is vulnerable. Seeing just this far is fine, but here is the real threat: 3. Be3?! (white is lost anyway) Re5! (mate is threatened via Rh5#) and the game concluded: 4. Qa4 Rh5+ 5. Qh4 Rxh4+ 6. Kxh4 Re8! (same idea) 7. Rad1 Re5 (there are a lot of mates here, so just playing one that you can see is more important than finding the shortest one) 8. g4 g6! 9. Rfe1 Rh5+!! (mate in 2 by gxh5 Qxh5#) resigns.

#2: White is better and will probably be able to win this ending anyway, but... 1. Rxf6!! gxf6 2. Rg1+ Kh8 3. Bd4! (threatens Bxf6#!) Rfe8+ 4. Kf3 Re6 (giving back the exchange by ...Re5 is better, but it is a lost ending in any case) 5. Nh6! (threatens Nxf7#) Rf8 which leads us to the cute part of the puzzle, which is the position in #3.

#3: I smiled when I saw how tied down black is. That is also why I made the difficulty :-) out of 10. Here is the hilarity: 1. b5!! Zugzwang! At best, black is forced to give up the exchange, when the queenside pawns are already too far along to be stopped. Black played ...Bf5 and resigned 3 moves later.

#4: Here is a slightly more challenging position. White is up some material, but can't quite break through... or can they? 1. b4!! (kicks the queen away from defence of the d4 square, which will result in a devastating check) Qxb4 2. Qd4+ f6 3. Rxf6 (gxf6+! is technically more accurate, but my opponent had less than 30 seconds left at this point, so I just made the most complicated move I could find that I was sure was okay.) and black flagged searching for a saving resource that was not meant to be.

Some Simple Tactics

Since I don't have anything else to post at the moment, I am going to post some of the fairly recent tactics from some of my correspondence games.


Tactic 1: Difficulty: 4/10. Black to move.



Tactic 2: Difficulty: 5/10. Black to move.



Tactic 3: Difficulty: 3/10. White to move.





Solutions:

In a few more lines the solutions will be displayed.

Make sure you are ready for them.

Although, if you cheat, I won't know.

It will not help you much if you don't work at them though.

Enough stalling, here they are:

Tactic 1:

The key to this is to note the weakness of the white king. The black queen looks a little overworked, but since the king has infinite value, this doesn't matter.

1. ...Rxc3+!!
a. 2. bxc3 Qxc3+ 3. Kb1 Bd3#
b. 2. Kb1 Bd3+! 3. Ka1 Qxe1+ 4. Nb1 Qxb1#


Tactic 2:

Looks simple but has some trickery in it.

1. ...Ne3? 2. Rxf7! and white is just fine.

1. ...Rxf1 should be easy to find.
a. 2. Rxf1 Rxf1 3. Nxf1 Nf4+ with an extra pawn and probably winning endgame.
b. 2. Nxf1 and here is the hard part:
2. ...Rf3+!
a. 3. Ng3 Nf4+ 4. Kh2 Rf2+ with a likely winning bind
b. 3. Kh2 Nf4 and either d3 or b2 will fall.
c. 3. Kg2 was played in the game, but fails to Rxd3! 4. Rxd3 Nf4+ with a winning ending.

Tactic 3:

This one is much simpler, but the variation is longer.

1. Qxg7+! Kxg7 2. Rxh7+ Rxh7 3. Rxh7+ Kf8 4. Rh8+ Ke7 5. Re8#

Hugh Myers Open and the Best. Combo. Ever.

**UPDATED WITH ANSWER AT BOTTOM**

First note, I posted the solutions to the previous problems in the last post, so feel free to look at them. As for today, I ended up t-1st at the Hugh Myers tournament, with 3/4. Now to the cool part. I played one of the most incredible combinations of my chess career in the last round. I am going to give you the position tonight and will post the solution on Monday night to give you some time to look it over.

Black to move and get a string of !!s:



Solution:

Are you sure you can handle this?

Really?

Ok, I warned you.

1. ...Nh5!!

a. 2. Rxe5?? Rf1# 0-1
b. 2. Rxh5?? Rf1# 0-1
c. 2. Qe1 Rxf5! 3. exf5 Nf3+!! loses K or Q.
d. 2. Qe3 Bc5! winning.
e. 2. Rxf8+ Rxf8 doesn't solve anything either.
f. 2. Qf2 Rxf5! 3. exf5 Ng4! also winning shortly.
g. 2. Qxe5 Qxe5! and the queen cannot be recaptured due to Rf1#.

2. Qg5 Rxf5!!

a. 3. Qxf5 Rf8! winning easily.
b. 3. Qxe7?? Rf1#

3. exf5 Nf3+!!

a. 4. Kf2 Nxg5 winning
b. 4. Kh1 Nxg5 also winning

4. gxf3 Qe1+! 5. Kg2 Qf1#

I actually missed the mate and played 5. ...Bf1+, which is also entirely resignable for white.

Chicago Open Highlights

**UPDATED WITH ANSWERS AT BOTTOM**

Since I decided that my games were not particularly stunning, I am going to post two highlight positions from my games. I am not going to post the answers for a day or two, but feel free to comment on the post with your answers. Also, if you really want to see any of the games, leave a comment and I will post something. Both problems are pretty easy, so don't over think them.

From Round 1:

Black to move and not lose (2 possible answers):


From Round 3:

Black to move and have a large advantage (I still can't believe after seeing this that I messed it up three moves later!):



What really happened:

1. I played 1. ...Bxc3! 2. Bxc7 Bxd2 and the game was shortly drawn. 1. ...Rxd6 is the other alternative that is not losing, but requires more precision on black's part.

2. 1. ...Nxe5! is the correct solution. Unfortunately, it would only be a matter of 3 or 4 moves before I found a way to drop a piece.

Recent Tactics

Hello again chess enthusiasts. Today I will provide you with some tactics from some of my recent online games. Don't worry, these ones are not too difficult. Enjoy, and remember to not look at the solutions (below the last problem) until you think you have the position done.

#1: Difficulty: Medium


#2: Difficulty: Idea: Easy, Continuation: Medium


#3: Difficulty: Easy


**Solutions**:

#1: 1. ...Qxg3!! is crushing. 2. Nxd4 (taking the queen loses a piece to 2. ...Nxb3) Qxf2+ 3. Kh1 Qxd4 4. Rad1 Nc5! 5. Qc2 (taking the queen still loses a piece) Bf5! 6. Qxf5 (finally white cracks) Rxf5 and white resigned.

#2: 1. Re8+! wins a queen for a rook and bishop. This is all you really had to see, but the conclusion is instructive as well. 1. ...Rxe8 2. Qxd3 gxf6 3. Qf5! Bg6 4. Qxf6 Re6 5. Qg5 with the eternal threat of f5, and in some lines f5-f6 with mates, black played 4 more moves before resigning with 5. ...h6 6. Qxh6 Be4 7. Qh3 Rd8 8. f5! Red6 9. Qg4+ picking up the bishop.

#3: 1. Rxd6+! Pretty straightforward from here. 1. ...Kxd6 2. Bf4+ Kc5 3. Qe3+ Qd4 4. Rc1+ Kb6 5. Qxd4+ Ka5 and black resigned before 6. Bc7# showed up on the board.

Some More Tactics

Sorry for the absence everyone (the 2 or 3 of you that read this). I decided to post a few more tactics before I really get back into frequent writing on here. Questions/Comments and Suggestions on what you would like to see on the blog can be sent to JellyBeanMasher@aol.com.

Tactic #1 Difficulty: Moderate, White to Move

Tactic #2 Difficulty: Moderately Easy, White to Move

Solutions:

#1: (Two solutions) 1. Qc8!! Qe7 2. Qxd8!! and white will win very shortly.;

1. Qc6!! (which was played in the game) Qe7 2. Qxd5 and the game concluded ...Nc7 3. Nf7+ black resigned.

#2: 1. Rxf6! black resigned since Nf7 is mate, ...h6 is the best move, but is equally hopeless.

Tactic Time!

This post will have quite a few tactics in it from some games I annotated earlier today. Solutions will be at the bottom of the post.

Tactic #1, Difficulty: Moderate, Black to move.

Tactic #2, Difficulty: Moderately Hard, White to move.

Tactic #3, Difficulty: Easy, Black to move.

Solutions:

#1: 1. ...Ng4!! 2. Qxg4 Qf1#. The only way to continue the game would have been 2. Qg1, but then 2. ...Qxc2 and white is lost in any case.

#2: 1. Rxh5! Re8 (1. ...gxh5 2. Nxh5 Qxe2+ 3. Kg3 and black can't stop mate) 2. Qxh7+ Kf8 with a strong initiative and material advantage.

#3: 1. ...gxh2! (not 1. ...hxg5 2. hxg3 and white stands better since the knight cannot move due to Rf8+ winning the rook.) White cannot stop the pawn from queening without giving up the rook for it, so white resigned.

Cool Finishing Tactic

The following is a tactic that I played in an online correspondence game which quickly leads to black's demise. Once you look at the position, don't check the answer until you have your own idea in mind.

So what do you think the solution is?

First you need to look at the weaknesses in the Black position.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the 7th rank weakness, and that the f-pawn is the only thing stopping mate. Any ideas yet?

Ok, here is what I came up with:

1. Ne6!!

Threatens an immediate mate on g7, and if fxe6 then Qxg7# is still mate.

1. ...f6

Only real way to stop the mate.

2. Rxc8!

This is the hard part of the tactic to see. Now if ...Rxc8 then Qxf6 and mate is unstoppable. If ...Qxc8 then Rxc8 and Black is lost. The last option is best, ...Bxc8, but then just Nxf8 and White is a whole rook up. Black resigned after 2. Rxc8.

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