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| Jun-06-11 | | Ferro: 23. Rf8 + I see! |
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Jun-06-11
 | | Once: I have this strange fantasy...
No, don't worry. It's not one of those R rated kibitzes. My fantasy is about the chessgames.com team. It's a theme I talked about some months back, but I figure that no-one was paying attention back then and you won't notice if I go back to the same place. So just who are chessgames.com?
We know so very little about them. Maybe they were arrested for a crime they didn't commit and sent to a maximum security stockade, from which they promptly escaped and hid in the Los Angeles underground. If you've got a problem that no-one else can solve, if you can find them, then maybe you can .... okay, maybe not. But some days we get a glimpse of their working methods. A little window into a hidden world. Take today's game for instance. I have a picture of a young apprentice chessgames.commer discovering the game and getting all excited about using it as a POTD. He brings the game to his boss - the grizzled ultra-wise veteran who has seen it all. Now feel free to add some colour to that picture according to your taste. We're thinking apprentice and master. Depending on your age, you might want to go with Luke and Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan and Yoda, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in MIB, Batman and Robin, Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes in Rising Sun. Yul Brynner and the young farmer who wants to be a gunslinger and kills bandeets. With me so far? Okay, now for the dialogue.
APPRENTICE: Master, I have found this great game! It's a French defence by two French players played in France! Loads of sacs. Perfect for a Saturday or Sunday! And what is really funny is that the French normally relies on a defensive pawn chain along f7-e6-d5. But in this game, white destroys all of those pawns with sacrifices and then gives a Boden's mate along that very same diagonal! Here look! 
click for larger viewAnd now white played 17. Nxf7!
MASTER: Too fast you go, youngling. No Saturday or Sunday does this make. Also could white have won with 17. fxe6, 17. 0-0, or 17. Qh5. APPRENTICE: Holy multiple solutions, you are right Batman! How about a Thursday POTD from this position? 
click for larger view20. Bxd5 to sacrifice the queen!
MASTER: But after 20...gxh5 21. Bh6 Bc6 22. bxc6 Nxc6 the win is not so clear. APPRENTICE: A Tuesday position to find 22. 0-0?
MASTER: That is better. But black does not have to play 22...Bxa4 allowing mate in 2. Instead 22...Nbc6 or Na6 and black is hanging on. APPRENTICE: But it's such a great game! Is there nothing we can use? MASTER: How about a Monday to find 23. Rf8+? |
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| Jun-06-11 | | consul: 22.. <Nbc6> doesn't work at all:
23. exd7 #
The Q-sac was sound, just CG from time to time proposes easier version of puzzles, to propose once again from a more difficult position after months. |
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Jun-06-11
 | | cocker: Nice way to start the week. |
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Jun-06-11
 | | scormus: <Once, just who is CG?> I've wondered myself. my favorite is that its my employer's IT branch, the boss is the one who wears the funny hat. They dont have enough work to do so every day one or other of the minions is given the job of doing GOTD and POTD. Some of them know more about chess than others (some know more IT than others). If the designated person is unsure he/she asks the boss for guidance e.g. what game to pick, what move for the puzzle. Today the boss was busy and what he said was "good choice of game ... <something on the lines of Once's scenario>" Perhaps if he'd thought some more he'd have said .... hang on, find another game today, lets save this for later in the week and set the position back a few moves. Or even saved it for Sunday, gone back so many moves it doesnt have a proper solution at all. |
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Jun-06-11
| | Once: <consul> After 22...Nbc6 we get to here...
click for larger viewI am not too sure how white now plays 23. exd7#
Don't get me wrong, white ought to win from here. But it's not as clean as in the game where black blundered. <The Q-sac was sound>. Depends on your definition of "sound". After 19...g6, Fritz rates several moves more highly than the queen sac. For example, 20. Qg4 scores just under +6. The queen sac is more complicated and reduces white's advantage to around +3.00. There is a tendency to rewrite history to favour the victors. White won so the sac had to be sound, right? But if you look at the game - really look at it - you see that it was not so straightforward. White didn't play the best moves, but then neither did Black. And that is why CG.com would find it hard to use this game as a POTD much earlier than in the puzzle position. |
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| Jun-06-11 | | LIFE Master AJ: <Once> You should be on the CG payroll ... |
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Jun-06-11
 | | morfishine: 23.Rf8+ Bxf8 24.f7#...Ouch |
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| Jun-06-11 | | LIFE Master AJ: I am not going to add it to my CG collection of miniatures ... just perhaps a little too unsound. |
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| Jun-06-11 | | Ratt Boy: M.Hassan: 9...b5 10. xc5 wins a little one. (If 10...xc5 11.dxc5, b4, then 12.d4 seems to hold onto White's booty. |
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| Jun-06-11 | | Fuegoverde: 23 Rf8+ Bxf8!, 24 e7+d# |
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Jun-06-11
 | | OhioChessFan: 11...a5 is what got the Knights trapped. 11...b5 seems okay. After 11...a5 12. b5 I am surprised that Fritz suggests 12...Nb4 |
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| Jun-06-11 | | zb2cr: No Queen to sacrifice on a Monday? No problem! Just sacrifice a Rook instead. 23. Rf8+, Bxf8; 24. e7#. Initially I had the hallucination the Black Queen could block by moving to f7, thus delaying mate, but the Pawn push does double duty. Not only does the Pawn push create a discovered check by the Bishop, it also blocks Black's Queen from f7. |
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| Jun-06-11 | | CHESSTTCAMPS: I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not a Monday queen sac. White is down a queen and two knights (a material imbalance somewhat reminiscent of the Anderssen-Kieseritzky Immortal Game), but his pieces have a greater net mobility nonetheless. I'm sure everyone spots the forced mate-in-two. The solution is a form of Boden's mate, a pattern frequently executed with the losing king in a queenside castled position on c1 or c8. |
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Jun-06-11
 | | David2009: <Funicular: If black doesn't suicide with Bxa4, and plays Nbc6 instead, It goes like this: 23. Rf7 [snip]> Fine analysis by <Funicular> but perhaps Black has better. Here's the position after 22...Nbc6! (instead of 22...Bxa4??) and as posted earlier by <Once>
click for larger view
A link to Crafty End Game Trainer is
http://www.chessvideos.tv/endgame-t...
The EGT defends against 23 Rf7! with 23...Nxd4 and meets 24.cxd4 with 24...c3. White can force a draw by repetition but I have not found a win: enjoy doing better! You are white in the above Internet link, drag and drop the move you want to make. |
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| Jun-06-11 | | kelu: "<Once>: <consul> After 22...Nbc6 we get to here.."
then what about 23.Rf5 threatening Rg5# and preventing Nxd5 (defense sacrifice)? |
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| Jun-06-11 | | TheTamale: What an ending... more enjoyable than fun itself, which is, in my estimation, quite fun. I hope <YoungEd> doesn't take issue with my grammar here; I think I've got it right. In any event, this was a nice way to start the week! |
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Jun-06-11
 | | Patriot: I found this one quickly. It's a nice change from yesterday's puzzle. I stared at the Sunday puzzle for about 10 minutes and considered the main line, Rxe2+ Rxe2 Qd5 but didn't see the merits. When I saw the solution, I was puzzled and finally noticed the threat of d3 and Nd4. Thinking back, I'm not even sure it was all sound. |
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Jun-06-11
 | | karnak64: Well: we knew it couldn't be a Queen sac because that already happened. A first for a CG puzzle? |
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| Jun-06-11 | | consul: Hi all, sorry for the delay of my answer.
<Once, sorry...> actually i was thinking at 21 .. Nbc6, on 22 .. Nbc6 White just goes for:
23. Rf7, threatening Rbf1, which is the reason why i think the sacrifice is ok.
click for larger viewAfter all Black is playing with a rook less and its king is trapped, freeing pieces allows White's plan of acting on the deadly diagonal... |
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| Jun-06-11 | | carelessfills: Interesting defelection for clearance of e7 square to allow discovered checkmate after a pawn move. I wonder if this has ever been demonstrated in a two move composition problem before!? |
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Jun-06-11
 | | Gilmoy: Agree with <consul>: Black's trapped K means White has two threats, f8 and g7. Black can return boatloads of material to unweaken his back rank, which stops the Rf8 threat, but none of his pieces have a tour to g7. (Qd8-Bf6 is remotely possible, but then Black is returning everything, and after Ne7[] to stop mate, Rf7 Re8, White still has Nxb6-Nd7 and guess what, Black can't defend Nf6#, hehe) And Black is <still> down his KR. Hence, White's secondary plan of Rf7-Rbf1 really does leave Black gasping. If Black sacs anywhere in the upper-left quadrant, White simply <ignores> it. One tempo is worth more than any two Black pieces!! |
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Jun-06-11
 | | kingfu: This is a typical French. Black gets good Queen side counter play. However, by doing 0-0, he gets the big kingfu. French players need to 0-0-0. Go to the Fischer page and check out game 310 with Tal. |
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Jun-06-11
 | | alligator: Great teaching position! The problem position illustrates two checkmate patterns for the price of one. Rf8 would be mate without the black bishop on e7. Then we have the two bishops (aka Boden's) mate. Plus a discovered check (mate).
I will use this position in this weeks class. Already use two demo boards. The chess lessons flow better with fewer positions to set up. |
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| Jun-06-11 | | gmalino: I just don't want to beleieve that NOONE went for
23.Rf7
Argh.
Can't believe everyone saw the fast and forced way....
The "squeeze the lemon" line works soooo perfectly. |
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