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| Nov-10-08 | | patzer2: Black gets caught in an opening trap.
The first mistake was 10...Nf2+? allowing 11. Rxf2  , since 10...cxd5 = would have held nicely. The decisive blunder was 11...Qxf2??, as 12. Bxf7+!!  initiates a decisive surprise attack to overwhelm the now helplessly exposed Black King. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | MaxxLange: Why on Earth did Black not play 17...0-0? Am I missing something? Both sides should have lost. |
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Nov-10-08
 | | Once: Let's try a little experiment. Turn off our Monday-goggles and see if we could have spotted the combination OTB. We'll role play reality for a change. So we don't think "it's a monday, let's look for queen sacrifices". Instead, let's look for moves that we might actually consider in some draughty church hall sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs. We have black's king in the centre, but we are a rook down. And that means we must attack. The d1 rook would love to attack via e1, but that pesky black queen is in the way. Bxf6 doesn't seem to go anywhere. Ditto queen moves (for now). And that just leaves Nd6+. Hmm - this is more interesting. The knight not only gives check, it also covers the f7 escape square. Black has only one move Ke7. Can we hit the king again? No, not really. Re1 still does not work. But wouldn't it be great if the Nf6 was off the board? Then the Bg5 would cover the black escape squares near the king. How can we get rid of the Nf6? Bxf6 doesn't work, because Rxf6 gives the king another flight square that we cannot cover. How else can we get rid of the knight? It is only then that we think about the queen sacrifice. This deflects the knight, so the Bg5 can combine with Nd6 to give mate. A quick blunder check ... can black wriggle out? Nope, both moves are forced. Done. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | johnlspouge: < <YouRang> wrote: For some reason, I'm often slow to recognize mates that depend heavily on a knight.> You and me both, brother.
I found that looking specifically at the color of flight squares, finding the square(s) where a N covers them, and then calculating the (parity of the) number of moves required by a N to get to the square(s), sometimes gives useful hints for N mates. It sounds complicated, but it eventually becomes another good habit. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | VooDooMoves: <MaxxLange> Black couldn't play 17. O-O because he had already moved his king, capturing the bishop that captured the f-pawn. Then moved king back to e8. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | wweiss: 9...d5 was a shoddy move as it allows white to counter attack by leaving the e4 pawn undefended. It would have been better to omit this move entirely and go straight to 9...Nf2+ when black either wins the rook after 10. Rxf2 Qxf2 or mates with the smothered mate pattern after 10. Kg1 Nh3 etc. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | MaxxLange: <VooDooMoves> That would explain that! Thanks, I somehow forgot about that |
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| Nov-10-08 | | Eyal: <9...d5 was a shoddy move as it allows white to counter attack by leaving the e4 pawn undefended. It would have been better to omit this move entirely and go straight to 9...Nf2+ when black either wins the rook after 10. Rxf2 Qxf2 or mates with the smothered mate pattern after 10. Kg1 Nh3 etc.> White has a big advantage after 9...Nf2+ 10.Rxf2 Qxf2 11.Qxd6 Nd7 12.b4! (preventing Qc5); the best for Black on the 9th move was probably simply to castle. Btw, there's no smothered mate after 9...Nf2+ 10.Kg1 because g1 is protected by both rook and knight, but of course 10...Nxd1+ would be good enough... |
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| Nov-10-08 | | dzechiel: <Once: Let's try a little experiment. Turn off our Monday-goggles...> I think it was Averbakh who wrote that when he looked at each position in his games, he first looked for a way to sacrifice his queen. I don't know if that is typical of your average grandmaster, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was. That may be one of the traits that separates the elite from the mediocre. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | SufferingBruin: <Once> that was nicely done. Thanks. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | benjinathan: <Let's try a little experiment. Turn off our Monday-goggles and see if we could have spotted the combination OTB. We'll role play reality for a change.> My reality: Look at board. See Qxb7... take!
Surely he jests you say: ah, alas no. yesterday I played four games; lost them all. In two I just lost pieces through one ply oversight; in one I played a suboptimal move (after 20 seconds of thought in a critical position) which (in gong over the game after) was a sure winning position (absent another one ply oversight) and in the fourth I actually told my opponenet my winning move,when I thought it was no longer available, except that it was still avalable and he defended. I will try <once>'s method for a change. |
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Nov-10-08
 | | Zenchess: <wweiss> 9...d5 was not bad; it was 10...Nf2?? that was the losing move. Black could have recaptured the Bishop on move 10, and I don't see how White can both guard the f2 square and work up an attack against the King. He's down a piece. |
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Nov-10-08
 | | Phony Benoni: I also saw this game first in Chernev's <1000 Best Short Games of Chess>. He pointed out the oddity that, starting with 14.Bg5, White threatens mate-in-one five moves in row without delivering a check. Finally, on 19.Qxd7+, Chernev wrote "Enough of this cat-and-mosue stuff!" It reminds me of the old Goodrich Blimp advertsing campaign, if anyone else remembers that. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | SufferingBruin: <benjinathan> LOL. To me, at least, your thought process is very, very familiar. Great post. |
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Nov-10-08
 | | al wazir: <dzechiel: I think it was Averbakh who wrote that when he looked at each position in his games, he first looked for a way to sacrifice his queen.> I've seen that quote attributed to Tal. (I can believe it of him, but it's probably apocryphal.) |
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| Nov-10-08 | | patzer2: Inaccurate play was demonstrated by both sides with the sequence 16. Rd1? 16...Bxf5 17. Qc7 Rf8? Instead of 16. Rd1?, White should have played 16. Qc7! when 16...Rf8 17. Rd1
Bd7 18. Bxf6 wins easily.
Instead of 17...Rf8?, Black should have tried 17...Be6! since 18. Qxb7 Bd5 19. Qxa8+ Ke7 20. Qb7+ Ke6 21. Rg1Bxg2+ 22. Rxg2 Qe1+ 23. Rg1 Qe4+ 24. Rg2 Qe1+ 25. Rg1 Qe4+ 26. Rg2 Qe1+ = results in a draw by perpetual check. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | akapovsky: I need some advice beacuse I can't believe I spent 15 minutes!!!!!!!!! trying to find a win for white and when I saw the solution I felt like crying.How on earth could I miss something like this come on it was a monday puzzle and I still missed it.I saw the queen takes bishop but something told me it wasn't right.This makes me doubt if I actually deserve to play chess anymore.And no I didn't start playing a week ago. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | dzechiel: <akapovsky: I need some advice...> Pick up a book like "Beginning Chess" by Pandolfini, or "Chess" by L. Polgar and work your way though the problems. This will help you to look ahead when viewing chess diagrams. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | dzechiel: <al wazir: <dzechiel: I think it was Averbakh who wrote that when he looked at each position in his games, he first looked for a way to sacrifice his queen.> I've seen that quote attributed to Tal. (I can believe it of him, but it's probably apocryphal.)> I dusted off my old copy of "Think Like a Grandmaster" by Kotov (not Averbakh) and found the quote. It was about a player named Vitaly Chekhover. "(He) used to say in all seriousness that he began his analysis when it was his turn to move by working out which piece he could put en prise! If he couldn't see a way of losing his queen or rook he would go on from there and only when he could see no advantageous way of giving up material did he start examining quiet moves." |
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| Nov-10-08 | | tjshann: Didn't look at this for more than a second, just tried a Q sac (based on past Monday experience) to see where it led, and the mate played itself.. |
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| Nov-10-08 | | NakoSonorense: I've seen easier Monday puzzles... but it wasn't that bad. Check / take / mate
100% so far. |
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| Nov-11-08 | | njchess: The only real puzzle here is why black decided to open the position with tactical exchanges prior to castling, much less developing his queenside. There is no urgency to Qb6+. In fact, the threat of Qb6+ gives Black the initiative. White simply takes advantage and sacs the queen to get mate. Nicely done. |
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| Jan-27-10 | | whiteshark: Let it snow, let it snow, <Let It, Snow!>
… |
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| Jan-27-10 | | Alphastar: <patzer2: Instead of 17...Rf8?, Black should have tried 17...Be6! ...> Yes, I thought that Rf8 didn't seem right. It blocks an escape square (f8) for the king, thus allowing the pretty finale. |
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| Oct-07-10 | | madhatter5: maybe 4...♘xe4 would have been better. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 19.Qxd7+