A rare, but not unique combination: it happens every 34 years
Okay, it's probably more common than that, but I'm only aware of two - or maybe three - instances of this combination.
The first time I remember seeing it was back in 2001, at the time of the game Ponomariov-Volokitin from a juniors event in Lausanne. I recently rediscovered this game in Andrei Volokitin's excellent advanced tactics book Perfect Your Chess (Gambit 2007, co-authored by his coach, Vladimir Grabinsky) - it shows up as the very first and thus presumably easiest problem:
Ponomariov-Volokitin, Lausanne 2001; Black to move:
White's position looks quite good: even material, blockaded isolani, great bishop on d4, rook on the 7th, and e2 satisfactorily covered. It doesn't look like Black deserves to have anything in a position like this, but he does:
31...Ne4+!! 32.fxe4 dxe4 and now Ponomariov had to bail out with 33.Ne1 e3+! 34.Bxe3 Rxd2+ 35.Bxd2 Re2+ (so much for the adequately covered e2 square) 36.Kg3 Rxd2 and draw agreed. But why must White be so compliant? Why not 33.Nc1, covering the e2 square? The answer is the tactical theme of the day: 33...e3+ 34.Bxe3
34...Rf6+! and Black wins! (35.Kg3 Rxe3+ -+; 35.Kg1 Rf1#) This sideways checking idea is easy to overlook - it's an unusual pattern, made even harder to see by the rooks bearing down on the files.
When I rediscovered this example a couple of weeks ago, I was happy to solve it and remembered seeing the game, but that was the extent of my experience with the idea, until earlier tonight. Along came Chess Today, issue 2491, and one of the combinations was the following:
Westerinen-Larsen, Capablanca Memorial 1967; Black to move:
The first thing that catches one's eye are all the possible fork squares: f3, b3, and c2, but in the second moment it's clear that all those squares are satisfactorily covered. It's moment three that counts: 25...Nf3+! and White resigned, because after 26.gxf3 Rd5 27.Kc1 Rxe1 is mate.
So while it's a rare idea, it does happen. And then a few minutes before I started writing this post, I got a strong feeling of déjà vu. It's not a game I have any more, and in fact it may have been a casual game, but I believe I lost to this very idea back in 1983 or 1984. If the latter, then we can revise the subtitle of this post: it happens every 17 years!
The first time I remember seeing it was back in 2001, at the time of the game Ponomariov-Volokitin from a juniors event in Lausanne. I recently rediscovered this game in Andrei Volokitin's excellent advanced tactics book Perfect Your Chess (Gambit 2007, co-authored by his coach, Vladimir Grabinsky) - it shows up as the very first and thus presumably easiest problem:
Ponomariov-Volokitin, Lausanne 2001; Black to move:
White's position looks quite good: even material, blockaded isolani, great bishop on d4, rook on the 7th, and e2 satisfactorily covered. It doesn't look like Black deserves to have anything in a position like this, but he does:
31...Ne4+!! 32.fxe4 dxe4 and now Ponomariov had to bail out with 33.Ne1 e3+! 34.Bxe3 Rxd2+ 35.Bxd2 Re2+ (so much for the adequately covered e2 square) 36.Kg3 Rxd2 and draw agreed. But why must White be so compliant? Why not 33.Nc1, covering the e2 square? The answer is the tactical theme of the day: 33...e3+ 34.Bxe3
34...Rf6+! and Black wins! (35.Kg3 Rxe3+ -+; 35.Kg1 Rf1#) This sideways checking idea is easy to overlook - it's an unusual pattern, made even harder to see by the rooks bearing down on the files.
When I rediscovered this example a couple of weeks ago, I was happy to solve it and remembered seeing the game, but that was the extent of my experience with the idea, until earlier tonight. Along came Chess Today, issue 2491, and one of the combinations was the following:
Westerinen-Larsen, Capablanca Memorial 1967; Black to move:
The first thing that catches one's eye are all the possible fork squares: f3, b3, and c2, but in the second moment it's clear that all those squares are satisfactorily covered. It's moment three that counts: 25...Nf3+! and White resigned, because after 26.gxf3 Rd5 27.Kc1 Rxe1 is mate.
So while it's a rare idea, it does happen. And then a few minutes before I started writing this post, I got a strong feeling of déjà vu. It's not a game I have any more, and in fact it may have been a casual game, but I believe I lost to this very idea back in 1983 or 1984. If the latter, then we can revise the subtitle of this post: it happens every 17 years!