Tactical puzzle #5

The answer to the last puzzle was: 1. Bxg6+! Kxg6 2. Qa6+ Kh7 3. Qd3+ winning the hanging rook on b1

Puzzle #5 is quite nice. I've found it on Igor Smirnov's blog, in one of his free lessons. I couldn't resist the temptation to put it here too.

It is white's move. Try to calculate every variation to the end.

P.S. Here's the link to Smirnov's blog: http://gmsmirnov.com/#oid=1111_10

Kingscrusher's Blitz #1765 vs never-wins (2244) - French

A really nice attacking game played by white. A good example of the old saying "maintain the tension". Black releases the tension and white gets the initiative immediately. The moves are then natural...and deadly!

Kingscrusher's Blitz #1759 against FM Platyborg

A nice game from Kingscrusher against an FM. Nice attack in the end. Nice defence and attack with his queen.

Pawn Sacrifice!

I would like to make my second book review on an interesting book, written by a not so famous chess player: Timothy Taylor. The author is not as well-known as Vladimir Kramnik or Garry Kasparov, but the book he wrote is worth looking at. He shows "real" pawn sacrifices and explains how to come up with one in our games. By "real" sacrifices, he refers to Rudolf Spielmann's book: The Art of Sacrifice in Chess, in which Spielmann defined 2 categories of sacrifices. The real ones are those that can't be calculated to the very end.

“What interests me,” as Taylor wrote, “are the courageous, imaginative sacrifices that involve risk and have no clear result. This, to me, is really
playing chess!” He provides sixty-seven complete
games with an interesting method of analysis to help chess players understand under which circumstances sacrifices can be successfully achieved. In fact, Taylor examines them from three different perspectives:
    “Favourable Omens” – the factors that suggest a possible pawn
sacrifice.
    “Mr. Fritz” – whether computer analysis agrees with the sacrifice.
     “Author” – whether Taylor agrees with the sacrifice. (Perhaps
surprisingly, he does not always agree that the sacrifices he
presents were the proper course of action.)

Those real sacrifices are one of the rare things computers can't fully understand. With this in mind, a player can crush well-prepared opponents using one of those. In my opinion, chess softwares have been killing chess or tearing  it's soul apart, making 99% of chessplayers consider using their silicone friend rather than their brain! This book helps leading a player's mind into an unfamiliar territory: taking risks. I truly believe that taking risks is one of the best ways to enjoy the game and win beautiful games, so I definitely recommand this book to anyone who wishes to enjoy the game even more!

Chess Links

Here are some good chess links:

http://www.chesscube.com/ : A good free website to play chess. A lot of tournaments everyday, even special ones called Warzones. In these, you play as many games as you can within a given time. The quicker you win, the most games you play.

http://chesstempo.com/ : A great website to train tactical skills. There are  thousands of tactical puzzles, which have a rating. By subscribing for free, you get a rating and are given puzzles according to your strength.

http://www.chessclub.com/ : The most popular and best paying website. You get to play thousands of opponents, at any time control. Lots of IMs and GMs are playing there, including some of the top GMs, like Nakamura.

http://www.echecs-online.fr/ A small but nice website to play. It is a French website, which is rare on the Internet. That is not where you meet the strongest opponents, but some are pretty good.

http://gmsmirnov.com/#oid=1111_10 : A blog made by a strong GM, containing lots of free lessons.

These are my favorite chess websites, which I wanted to share with you. If you know any other good website, feel free to leave comments.

Chess Advice for Beginners

Here's a little advice I gave someone recently.

When your thinking process is good, you almost don't have to learn openings. You can play pretty solid moves without studying them because you understand them. Of course, you still have to learn variations. It becomes easier and faster once your thinking process is good. Understanding why a move is accurate is 100000000000000000000000000000% more important than memorizing any variations.

I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but there are many kinds of advantages:

space advantage, material advantage of course, more development, better pawn structure, pieces ankered on good outposts, controlling an open file just to name a few. These are all things a player should know.

However, here's something simpler. Chess is all about keeping your pieces as fluently active as possible.

Gaining space gives you more room to manoeuvre your pieces whereas outposts give your pieces more scope. Finally, weak pawns can be targeted and overloaded or tactically won.

All these kinds of advantages are related to getting your pieces more active. Understanding these essential notions allows us to know when it is good to get a specific kind of advantage.

Tal vs Larsen

 A really nice game by Tal. Everyone knows he played amazing sacrifices.

 The sacrifice in this game is however, based on positional factors.

 I don't know  a lot of players who would give a whole piece

just to control a file! 

1.e4 c5

2.Nf3 Nc6

3.d4 cxd4

4.Nxd4 e6 

5.Nc3 d6 

6.Be3 Nf6

7.f4 Be7 

8.Qf3 O-O 

9.O-O-O Qc7 

10.Ndb5 Qb8 

11.g4 a6 

12.Nd4 Nxd4
13.Bxd4 b5 

14.g5 Nd7 

15.Bd3 b4 

The next move is a shocker. Guess what it is! 

16.Nd5 ! exd5 

17.exd5 

 {The piece sacrifice is a positional one, since it has been used to
erect an invisible barrier on the e-file. A number of squares
on it (e5 and e6) are controlled by white pawns, and a white
rook will soon be moved to e1. -- Iakov Damsky} 

17...  f5  Closing the b1-h7 diagonal.

18.Rde1 Rf7
19.h4 Bb7 

20.Bxf5 Rxf5 

Even a piece up, black can hardly do anything agaisnt white's kingside attack!

21.Rxe7 Ne5 

Black probably gave back the piece to get time to bring his pieces near his king.

22.Qe4 Qf8  

23.fxe5 Rf4
24.Qe3 Rf3 

25.Qe2 Qxe7 

26.Qxf3 dxe5 

27.Re1 Rd8 

28.Rxe5 Qd6
29.Qf4 

{! The d5 pawn is immune. After 29 ...Bxd5 30. Re8+ White wins the queen.
White is now 2 pawns up, but Tal manages to finish the game in style 

29...  Rf8 

30.Qe4 b3 

31.axb3 Rf1+ 

32.Kd2 Qb4+ 

33.c3 Qd6
34.Bc5!

White has a mating attack! Nice deflection by Tal

34...  Qxc5

35.Re8+ Rf8 

36.Qe6+ Kh8 

37.Qf7 1-0

Black will be either be mated or suffer huge material loss.
The only try, in my opinion, to stave off mate for a couple of moves is: 37... Qf2+ 38. Qxf2 Rxe8 39. Qf7 Rb8 40 Qc7 winning the bishop, leaving black with a rook for a queen and 3 pawns.