The Chess Mind

Erich Eliskases isn't a household name for most chess players, but he was a strong grandmaster who enjoyed a long career. He's also one of a very few players who can count among his scalps tournament wins against both Jose Capablanca and Bobby Fischer.

The following little highlight [HT: Chess Today] wasn't against a heavy hitter, but it's cute and memorable. Here's the position before the final move of the game, with Eliskases to move against Franz Hoelzl, Austria 1931:



White to move and win - click on "(show)", below, to see the answer.

Actually, I already gave the solution in the original post, but my readers are so well-trained by my usual habit of waiting a day or two to provide the answer that at least some of them seem not to have noticed. Go to the end of the post, click on "(show)", and voila!

Very early Friday morning I presented this position, in which White can survive his desperate plight by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin:



But how? You need not huff and puff to find the answer; just click on the last word of this sentence. If you'd like a little hint first, then click on "Show":

From the game Palevic-Luzniak, corr. 1981.



White to move and draw; the solution will be given in a day or two.

In chess as in life, it's rare that you can have everything you want. We have goals, but to achieving one thing of value, we generally have to give up sacrifice something else - money, goods, time, the opportunity to gain some other thing, etc.

Occasionally, though, one can have everything - at least in chess. Here's a position from a blitz game I played at the club last night:



It's White to move, and, truth be told, just about everything wins. But still, I want to find a clean and quick kill if I can. Of course 1.Nd6+ came to mind, but I like the knight on e4 - it would be nice if a better version of Nd6+ would be possible later, and I might want to put it on g5. On the other hand, putting the knight on g5 means blocking the g-file, so my queen won't hit g6 any more. Naturally, Ne5+ would be ideal, but that darned knight on c6 takes care of that. Hmmm...if only there were some way to exploit all of those possibilities.

Figured it out?

Yesterday we saw this innocent-looking position, brought to us by the fertile mind of study composer David Gurgenidze:



It's White to move and win in this 1974 composition, and the solution seems absurdly obvious at first.

1.hxg7 looks like an instant winner, threatening both 2.f8Q+ and 2.gxh8Q. Yet if Black's rook wasn't on h8, the simple 1...Bxf7 would solve all of his problems. So here's the deal: we need to move the Rh8, but only if we can do so with check. And that in turn can happen only if White's king is lured to h1 or, much more likely, to the second rank. Black's rejoinder is thus 1...Rg2+!.

The adventures aren't over yet, but rather than spoil all the fun right away, I'll let you find the rest of the story here, when you're good and ready.

David Gurgenidze (not to be confused with Bukhuti Gurgenidze, who devised the system in the Modern with ...c6, ...d5, ...g6 and ...h5) is one of the world's leading study composers, and efforts like this one will help you see why.



It's White to move and win; the solution will be given tomorrow. (Don't comment the answer, please.)

A couple of days ago I presented this position, from the just-finished Gibtelecom Masters tournament in Gibraltar:



This is from the key game Efimenko-Bu Xiangzhi from the penultimate round. Had Bu won, he would have clinched clear first, and a draw would have pretty much guaranteed the same result. Efimenko is pressing, however, and Bu has real problems with his queenside pawns. Strangely, it might seem, my question asked about 40.g4, whether White ought to play it. At best, it seems utterly irrelevant to the queenside action; at worst, it may allow the tactical shot 40...Nxg4.

So is it the right move? To learn the answer, or at least Efimenko's answer, click here.