Tactical puzzle #2

First of all, the answer of last puzzle: 1.Qxg8! Qxg8 2. Nxf6+ followed by Nxg8.

Igor Smirnov - Finding the best moves quickly

One of Igor Smirnov's free lessons. You can subscribe to his free lessons on his blog. The link to his blog is in the link section.

The art of attack in chess

Nowadays, one can easily find chess books on almost every topic: attack, endgame, tactics, on specific opening of course etc. Video lessons and databases are also popular. Having such a wide choice of material to study can be confusing. It's pretty hard to find the book thats fits our needs the best. This is why I've decided to make a serie of articles on this topic. The first book I want to talk about is a classic: The art of attack in chess, written by Vladimir Vukovic.

First of all, a few words on the author. He was born on august 26, 1898, in Zagreb, the capital of the Republic of Croatia. He was a chess player, theoretician and a player. He won the Vienna tournament in 1921 and played against the best player of the time: Alekhine, Rubinstein, Tartakower, Euwe and others. One of his notable game was against Arpad Vajda in 1925, which he brilliantly won with a well executed kingside attack. He died on  november 18, 1975, in Zagreb.

The art of attack in chess is a classic of chess litterature, and for good reasons. Vukovic explains every attacking principles in different categories, helping us to understand every key features of every attacking patterns. He goes through every subject with a concrete, easy to understand approach. Attack against the uncastled king, or against the king that has lost the right to castle are the first chapters of this book, probably because they are the funniest and easiest attack there are. Chapter 4 is a very instructive one, showing a lot of matting patterns, from very common to uncommon ones. This chapter is important to bear in mind, these patterns being pretty useful in every attack. I personnally started to conduct my attacks more precisely after reading this book, winning more games. I recommand reading it a few times to digest the information more easily. The only drawback of this book is that Vukovic made quite a few mistakes in his analysis, a few ones being pretty obvious. John Nunn republished the book, correcting these analysis with the help of computer showing that Vukovic' basic ideas were right, even if he miscalculated some variations. Every chapters of the book contain a lot of examples, with lots of commentaries and variations to support them.

To conclude, I would recommand this book to any players, between 1500 and the master level, who wish to raise their attacking skills to the next level. The patterns he teaches in this book are easy to understand and help to get better practical results. This is a "must have" book!

Tactical puzzle #1

A position I had in one of my blitz games on the internet. White to move

Alekhine-Mikulka

Here's one pretty game played by Alekhine in a blindfold simultaneous display. 

Alekhine-Mikulka


1.e4         e5
2.f4          exf4
3.Nf3 g5
4.d4         h6
The piece sac. line 4...g4 5.Bxf4 gxf3 6.Qxf3 gives good compensation for the sacrificed piece.
5.Nc3 Bg7
6.Bc4 Nc6
7.Nd5
Helps to hold on to the center. If g4 then c3! sacrificing a piece with good attacking chances.
7...           d6
8.c3         Nge7
9.0-0 Nxd5
10.Bxd5 Ne7
Black is planning to trade as much pieces as possible to transfer into an endgame with a pawn up.
11.Bb3 Ng6
12.g3!

I give a ! to this move because it's the only way to get an attack in this position. White is opening up the position in order to kill black on the kingside.
12... fxg3?
Doing what white wants to do. Better was to close things up, forcing white to sacrifice a piece to open lines with: 12...g4 13.Ne1 f3

13.        Nxg5!
This knight is immune due to 13...hxg5 Bxf7+ winning the knight on g6.
13... 0-0
14.Qh5 gxh2+
15.Kh1!
Using the black pawn as a shelter.
15... hxg6
16.Qxg6 Qe8?
Black could have played 16...d5! 17.Qh5 (17.Bxd5? Qxd5!) 
17.Bxg5 Be6
Now guess the move that Alekhine managed to "see"

18.Rxf7! Bxf7?
Pinning his own bishop to the king allowing a nice blow from white.
19 Bf6! 1-0
The only way to avoid mate is by giving up the queen with Qxe4+ so black resigned. A nice crush by Alekhine, without even looking at the chessboard!

Hope you enjoyed! This is my first analysis so please leave your comments!

Alekhine

Hi all! For my first post, I'd like to talk about my favortie chess player, whom is obviously Alexander "The Great" Alekhine.

 The attacking style and fighting spirit of this player was and still is fascinating me. He was always playing to win every single games without any fear of losing.  He was a feared attacker and, in my opinion, the best tactician there ever was. His calculating skill was simply amazing. He could turn any quiet position into a complicated one with one single move, throwing his opponent off the board in a whirlwind of combinations. He tried to attack with every moves, in every games, which makes his games highly interesting to analyze.

He played a lot of simultaneous display throughout his carrer, even playing some blindfolded.

His biggest one was one where he played 26 simultaneous blindfold games against very strong opponents, with the score of 16 wins, 5 losses, and 5 draws. Watch my next post to see an analysis of one of his most beautiful game.