The Chess Mind

Take a look at the following position:



My student has Black here. It's his move; what did he do? When you're ready to check your answer, click here.

In the previous post, we took a look at Lukov's clever 15.Ke2!, exploiting the suddenly precarious position of Leburgue's queen on h5. Clever, yes; original, no. The idea may have even earlier predecessors, but the one I'm most aware of is Kamsky-Karpov, Dortmund 1993.

Faced with a queen on h4 and a generally dangerous array of White pieces, Karpov produced a stunning novelty in the 4...Nd7 Caro-Kann: 11...Ke7. Just as in Lukov-Leburge, the enemy queen's position is suddenly precarious, thanks to the threat of pushing the g-pawn.

Kamsky's position after 11...Ke7 remained good, and although he eventually lost, he responded in the best way and maintained some advantage. Still, Karpov's ingenious idea expanded Black's horizons in the Caro-Kann, and introduced (or at least popularized, if he too had predecessors) a defensive/counter-attacking idea we can transport outside the confines of that particular opening.

It was a very light game, to be sure, but Lukov-Leburgue from the 20th Grand Prix du Touquet caught my eye. It's not every day one sees Black bring his king to e7 while still in the opening, especially in a reasonably open position with queens on the board. By itself, that would have been encouraged a raised eyebrow but probably nothing further, but then came White's winning reply: Ke2!

That wasn't enough to make the game a masterpiece, but it did tickle my funny bone and made the game blogworthy. Have a look, be amused, and learn a lesson: Qd8-a5-h5 doesn't guarantee any attacking chances against the White king; rather, the White king might help in the attack against the Black queen!

Not that she's guest blogging here, of course; the lesson is from her games. In the video section of ChessBase Magazine 107, an Indian TV program was shown (in English) recapitulating rounds 9 and 10 from the Wijk aan Zee tournament at the start of the year. (Usually the CBM videos have more recent material produced by the ChessBase staff, but this was an interesting change of pace.)

At the start of round 10 (of 13), Topalov was in great shape, leading the tournament by half a point and facing Judit Polgar (-1 up to that point) with the White pieces. Unfortunately (for him), he blundered in a good position, losing the game and ultimately finishing in third place. What Topalov missed, presumably, was that there were positions where his rooks - both unprotected - could be simultaneously attacked by the Black queen. (So another moral of the story is a reminder of Nunn's LPDO - Loose Pieces Drop Off.)

I guess that game didn't really make much of an impact on me back in January, but when I saw the recap on CBM, I immediately thought of an earlier Polgar game, her deciding loss in a 2002 rapid match with Polish GM Bartlomiej Macieja. Have a look for yourselves here, and remember that although losses and blunders are painful, they can and ought to be learned from. It would be interesting to know if Polgar herself thinks her earlier loss might have helped her set up the winning trap against Topalov - I suspect it may have.

We started with this position



and asked if White had anything special here. The goal was to test the reader, to see if he would find not only the continuation 1.Bxh6 Nxh6 2.Rxf7 Nxg4 3.Rxf8+ Kxf8 4.hxg4, when White has regained the pawn, but to keep looking and see that 4...b4 lets Black promote a queenside pawn. (Though I've left it as a second challenge to my readers to determine what the result should be, with best play, if we examine the position after 4.hxg4 and let it be White to move.)

White's best move from the starting position is probably 1.Bc1, threatening 2.Ba3, when Black's best is 1...Qe6. Enter astute reader Paolo Ragni, who very cleverly asks why not now 2.Bxh6?



The Black knight and g-pawn are both pinned, while 2...Qxh6 allows 3.Rxf5 and all is well, right? Not quite: Black can start checking, and with devastating result - 3...Qc1+ 4.Kg2 Qc2+ and Black wins the rook for free.

The moral of the story, ironically, is the same one applying to the 1.Bxh6 variation: when making a combination, it's not enough to calculate "your" portion of the combo; it's also necessary to see what's going on at the end of it. Your calculation might be perfect as far as it goes, but that won't do you much good if your assessment of the final position is dead wrong. Conversely, however, if you're the sort of player who is in the habit of calculating not just to the end of a combination but beyond as well, you will become a more dangerous opponent, able to win games by "falling for" your opponents' pseudo-traps.

In another event that went unnoticed by my usual sources (but caught by Chess Today), former FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimjanov played a 10 game blitz match with young Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, losing by the narrowest of margins. Chess Today (CT-1826) presented 8 of the games, and while there weren't any whiz-bangers in there, my Evelyn Wood-style "examination" of the games did locate one quiz-worthy position:



White is down a pawn, but his pieces are active and Black is pinned down. It's White (Kasimjanov) to move: can he exploit this? [For this one, you should not only not use your chess engines, but shouldn't move any pieces around, either.]

I've been offering a lot of endgame puzzles of late, so yesterday, in acknowledgement of the tactical realm, I presented the following position from the game Charbonneau-Friedel (US Chess League 2005) for the readers' solving pleasure:



White is clearly better, but it's hard to see, at least at first glance, how White can achieve anything dramatic. His queen, bishop, and the rook on c5 are all cooped up, while Black's king looks safe for the moment and his pieces are all protecting each other.

Still, Black has a problem. It's true that his king has some cover, in the form of the rook on f8 and the f-, g- and h-pawns, the dark squares around his majesty are terribly weak, so White immediately tries to exploit this:

1.e6!

This move unleashes the powerhouse on d4, and forces Black to play accurately to avoid a quick loss. Best now was 1...Qe4, when although 2.exf7+ Rxf7 3.Rxb5 cxb5 4.Qxb5 or 3.Rc1 leave White with a clear edge, Black can continue meaningful resistance.

1...fxe6?

Now White wins by force quite elegantly:

2.Rxb5! cxb5 3.Qe7 Rf7 4.Qe8+ Rf8 5.Qxe6+ Rf7 6.Qe5!



Sometimes queen + bishop attacks have a ring-around-the-rosies feeling to them: the attack goes on forever, but without the assistance of a third unit, there's no way to push the opponent over the edge. Not so in this case: the threat of 7.Qh8# costs Black the Rf8.

6...Kf8 7.Bc5+ Kg8 8.Qe8+ Kg7 9.Bd4+



1-0

In a US Chess League game between IMs Pascal Charbonneau and Josh Friedel, the players reached this position after Black's 31st move (31...Ra8-a2):



White stands better, but his pieces don't seem to attained their full harmony, and meanwhile Black threatens ...Ra2-f2-f1-h1. That takes several moves, though, but what can White do in the meantime? The answer will come in a day or two.