New Book Review – Liquidation on the Chess Board: Mastering the Transition into the Pawn Endgame

Posted by in Updates on Aug 30th, 2015 | Comments Off on New Book Review – Liquidation on the Chess Board: Mastering the Transition into the Pawn Endgame

ChessMaven’s book review, on “Liquidation on the Chess Board: Mastering the Transition into the Pawn Endgame”, has been added (link).

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Tactics from the 2015 US Chess Championship

Posted by in Tactics on Apr 14th, 2015 | 5 comments

 

Tactical exercises from the recently concluded US Chess Championship.

For help on using these exercises click here.

Women’s Championship

Exercise 1 (Easy)

Virkud – Krush round 4

Exercise 2 (Easy)

Virkud – Goletiani round 6

Exercise 3 (Easy)

Melekhina – Ni round 6

Exercise 4 (Easy)

Krush – Wang round 7

Exercise 5 (Easy)

Foisor – Yu round 7

Exercise 6 (Easy)

Wang – Goletiani round 8

Exercise 7 (Medium)

Yu – Sharevich round 1

Can the pawn on e3 be taken?

Exercise 8 (Medium)

Yu – Krush round 10

Exercise 9 (Difficult)

Krush – Goletiani round 5

Exercise 10 (Very Difficult)

Goletiani – Foisor round 2

How should Black respond to the check?

Solutions

Solution to Exercise 1

Solution to Exercise 2

Solution to Exercise 3

Solution to Exercise 4

Solution to Exercise 5

Solution to Exercise 6

Solution to Exercise 7

Solution to Exercise 8

Solution to Exercise 9

Solution to Exercise 10

Open Championship

Exercise 11 (Easy)

Nakamura – So round 4

Why didn’t Nakamura capture on f4 here?

Exercise 12 (Easy)

Akobian – Troff round 7

Exercise 13 (Medium)

Onischuk – Troff round 3

Exercise 14 (Medium)

Shankland – Gareev round 7

Exercise 15 (Difficult)

Naroditsky – Nakamura round 5

Exercise 16 (Difficult)

Troff – Nakamura round 8

Solutions

Solution to Exercise 11

Solution to Exercise 12

Solution to Exercise 13

Solution to Exercise 14

Solution to Exercise 15

Solution to Exercise 16

Tactics from Reykjavic Open 2015

Posted by in Tactics on Mar 28th, 2015 | Comments Off on Tactics from Reykjavic Open 2015

 

This week’s tactical exercises come from the recently concluded Reykjavic Open.

For help on using these exercises click here.

Exercise 1 (Easy)

Soors – Wahedi round 8

Exercise 2 (Easy)

Thorhallsson – Gupta round 7

Exercise 3 (Easy)

Gajewski – Thorfinnsson round 3

Exercise 4 (Easy)

Gao – Shen round 5

Exercise 5 (Easy)

Ptacnikova – Steingrimsson round 2

Exercise 6 (Easy)

Fier – Thiry round 1

Exercise 7 (Medium)

Grandelius – Petrov round 10

Exercise 8 (Medium)

Tari – Petersson round 1

Exercise 9 (Medium)

Gupta – Hitzler round 2

Exercise 10 (Medium)

Hansen – Tjomsland round 2

Exercise 11 (Medium)

Eljanov – Petrov round 3

Exercise 12 (Medium)

Stopa – Soors round 3

Exercise 13 (Medium)

Bisby – Gao round 4

Exercise 14 (Medium)

Aravindh – Naiditsch round 5

Exercise 15 (Medium)

Molner – Vojinovic round 5

Exercise 16 (Medium)

Jussupow – Foisor round 6

Exercise 17 (Medium)

Naroditsky – Gao round 7

Exercise 18 (Medium)

Movsesian – Bekker-Jensen round 7

Exercise 19 (Medium)

Cornette – Christiansen, J. round 9

Exercise 20 (Medium)

Bekker-Jensen – Johannesson round 10

Exercise 21 (Difficult)

Navara – Fier round 8

Can the pawn on h4 be taken?

Exercise 22 (Difficult)

Christiansen, J. – Rombaldoni round 8

Solutions

Solution to Exercise 1

Solution to Exercise 2

Solution to Exercise 3

Solution to Exercise 4

Solution to Exercise 5

Solution to Exercise 6

Solution to Exercise 7

Solution to Exercise 8

Solution to Exercise 9

Solution to Exercise 10

Solution to Exercise 11

Solution to Exercise 12

Solution to Exercise 13

Solution to Exercise 14

Solution to Exercise 15

Solution to Exercise 16

Solution to Exercise 17

Solution to Exercise 18

Solution to Exercise 19

Solution to Exercise 20

Solution to Exercise 21

Solution to Exercise 22

Tactics from FIDE Grand Prix Tbilisi 2015

Posted by in Tactics on Mar 8th, 2015 | Comments Off on Tactics from FIDE Grand Prix Tbilisi 2015
Tactics from FIDE Grand Prix Tbilisi 2015

This week’s tactical exercises come from the recently concluded 3rd leg of the FIDE Grand Prix in Tbilisi.

 

 

 

 

The 9th round encounter between Baadur Jobava and Vachier-Lagrave was a fine attacking achievement for the Frenchman –

Jobava – Vachier-Lagrave round 9

Black enjoys a space advantage. Meanwhile, White is suffering from a badly placed bishop, and the king on f3 is in front of the rest of its army – not a good arrangement with so many forces remaining on the board.

43…h4! 44.g4

White would love to secure the e4 square for his knight. For example, after 44…fxg4 45.hxg4 Bg5 46.Ne4 Rf7+ 47.Kg2, he would have a gone a long way in solving his problems. MVL had other plans –

44…e4! 45.dxe4 fxg4+

And here Jobava was facing a tough decision. On either capture of the pawn g4, he will be under pressure due to his opponent’s dark square play. On 46.hxg4, MVL was planning 46…h3, which is very hard to deal with. For example, after 47.Rh1 Be5 48.Rxh3, Black can execute a tactic that is hanging over many of these variations – 48…d3! 49.cxd3 Bxb2 -+. 46…Be5 47.Nc4 Rf8+ 48.Kg2 Bg3 with an invasion along the f-file is also very strong.

In the game, White chose 46.Kxg4, but after 46…Rf7!, the King was entombed on g4 and had to face direct attack –

position after 46.Kxg4 Rf7!

Exercise #1. Why is retreating the king with 47.Kf3 a mistake?

47.Nf3 was also possible. After 47…Rg8 48.Bc1

analysis diagram

Exercise #2. Black to move and win.

The game continued with the relatively best 47.Rf2, but after the forced sequence 47…Rg8 48.Rf5 Nd6 49.Rh5 Be5 (threatening mate) 50.Rf1 Rxf1 51.Nxf1 Nf7 (threatening …Nh6+) 52.Bc1, Black switched to the queenside with 52…Rc8!, and eventually converted the advantage.

One of the sharpest struggles of the tournament occurred in the same round –

Kasimdzhanov – Grischuk round 9

position after 30…Qe2

With seconds left on the clock, Kasim played 31.c6?, and after b2 32.Qc4 Qd2!, Black was winning.

analysis diagram after 31.c6 b2

Exercise #3. Black to move. Would 32.Qd1 save White?

Returning to the game, 33.c7 Rc8 34.Qb3 Rcf8.

position after 34…Rcf8

Exercise #4. How could Black win if White plays 35.Qb8 now?

The game concluded in Black’s favor after the equally hopeless 34.Qb3 Rcf8 35.Qd1 Rxf2!.

It turns out that in the critical position after 30…Qe2 –

position after 30…Qe2

White could have kept the balance with the trade offer 31.Qc4!. Kasim said in the press conference that he didn’t like 31…Qxc4 32.Rxc4 a4, when the passed a and b pawns look very intimidating –

analysis diagram after 31.Qc4 Qxc4 32.Rxc4 a4

Exercise #5. Find the best move for White.

After 31.Qc4, Black would be better off trying 31…Qd2 32.Qxb3 Raf8 –

analysis diagram after 31.Qc4 Qd2 32.Qb3 Raf8

Exercise #6. How should White defend the f2 square?

We conclude with some sharp positions from other games in the tournament.

Jobava – Jakovenko round 3


Exercise #7. Black to move and win.

Andreikin – Vachier-Lagrave round 7


Exercise #8. Black to move.

Radjabov – Grischuk round 6


Exercise #9. White to move and win.

Grischuk – Jobava round 4


Exercise #10. White to move.

Tactics from Zurich Chess Challenge 2015

Posted by in Tactics on Mar 2nd, 2015 | Comments Off on Tactics from Zurich Chess Challenge 2015

This week’s tactical exercises come from the recently concluded Zurich Chess Challenge.

We’ll take a closer look at two games by Anand, which happen to be particularly instructive. The second round encounter between Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian –

Anand – Aronian round 4 (Classical)

Exercise #1. Black played 20…Bc6, which allowed a powerful response. What was it?

 

Black’s best continuation would have been 20…Ra5 21.Nd2 Bf5, and after 22.Nc4 there is a crossroads.

analysis diagram

Exercise #2. Why is 22…Rb8 a mistake?

 

22…Nxf2!! is the only move. After the forced sequence 23.Nxa5 (23.Kxf2 Rb8 24.Nxa5 Rxb3 25.axb3 (25.Nc6 Qh4+!) is not better for White) Nxd1 24.Nb7 Qxd7 25.Rxd1 Qc6 –

analysis diagram

Exercise #3. How can White keep an advantage?

 

In the game continuation, White had a winning position due to its better coordinated and centralized pieces:

Exercise #4. Spot the winning continuation that White played here.

 

In the blitz portion of the tournament, Anand converted his material advantage impressively in a rook ending against Nakamura –

 

Anand – Nakamura round 4 (Blitz)

White is up a pawn, and forces a winning pawn ending. 53.Rc6! Rxc6 54.bxc6 Kd6 55.f4! Kxc6

56.g4!. Launching a typical breakthrough. Black played 56…Kd6, and White won with the extra passed pawn after 57.gxh5 gxh5 58.Ke4.

An important alternative would have been 56…hxg4 57.f5! Kd6 58.fxg6 Ke6 59.Kf4 b5.

analysis diagram

Exercise #5. White has a far advanced passed pawn on g6, but Black is creating its own passed pawn on the other wing. What is the clearest way to a win for White?

 

The rest of the exercises are positions from the blitz and rapid portions of the tournament.

Anand – Kramnik round 2 (Blitz)

Exercise #6 White to move

 

Karjakin – Kramnik round 4 (Blitz)

Exercise #7 White to move

 

Kramnik – Caruana round 5 (Blitz)

Exercise #8 Black to move

 

Nakamura – Kramnik round 2 (Rapid)

Exercise #9 Black to move

 

Kramnik – Aronian round 3 (Rapid)

Exercise #10 White to move

Combinations from Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2015

Posted by in Tactics on Feb 20th, 2015 | 4 comments

gibraltar

 

This week’s tactical exercises come from the recently concluded Gibraltar Chess Festival.

For help on using these exercises click here.

Exercise 1 (Easy)

Ganguly – Pichot round 8

Exercise 2 (Easy)

Kuipers – Oparin round 8

Exercise 3 (Easy)

Docx – Buchal round 10

Exercise 4 (Easy)

Venkatesh – Wei round 7

Exercise 5 (Easy)

Semprum Martinez – Jones round 1

Exercise 6 (Easy)

Sengupta – Jurdao Perez round 1

Exercise 7 (Easy)

Henrichsen – Zhukova round 1

Exercise 8 (Easy)

Melia – Lien round 1

Exercise 9 (Easy)

Troff – Frisk round 7

Exercise 10 (Medium)

Nagy – Herman round 6

Black has just grabbed a pawn on a2. Was this a good idea?

Exercise 11 (Medium)

Smith – Fomani round 1

Exercise 12 (Medium)

Stefanova – Verneuil round 1

Exercise 13 (Medium)

Holm – Harika round 6

Exercise 14 (Medium)

Donchenko – Sutovsky round 6

Exercise 15 (Medium)

Nakamura – Topalov round 6

White already has a big advantage, but how did Naka end the game quickly?

Exercise 16 (Medium)

Plotkin – Amos round 8

Exercise 17 (Medium)

Khademalsharieh – Khotenashvili round 8

Exercise 18 (Medium)

Zude – Troff round 8

Exercise 19 (Medium)

Nakamura – Yu round 8

Exercise 20 (Medium)

Houska – Mikhalevski round 9

Exercise 21 (Medium)

Zu – Rodshtein round 10

Exercise 22 (Medium)

Lenderman – Shyam round 10

Exercise 23 (Difficult)

Galmandakh – Motylev round 1

Exercise 24 (Difficult)

Tarjan – Dragnev round 6

Can the rook be taken?

Exercise 25 (Difficult)

Salem – Foisor round 7

Exercise 26 (Difficult)

Jones – Watson round 7

Exercise 27 (Difficult)

Iturrizaga – Dragnev round 8

Exercise 28 (Difficult)

Guerrero – Melia round 10

Exercise 29 (Difficult)

Razinkov – Herman round 9

Exercise 30 (Very Difficult)

Svidler – Hou round 8

Here Svidler opted for 47.e7, and the game was still a fight after 47…Bf7. Find a better move.

Solutions

Solution to Exercise 1

Solution to Exercise 2

Solution to Exercise 3

Solution to Exercise 4

Solution to Exercise 5

Solution to Exercise 6

Solution to Exercise 7

Solution to Exercise 8

Solution to Exercise 9

Solution to Exercise 10

Solution to Exercise 11

Solution to Exercise 12

Solution to Exercise 13

Solution to Exercise 14

Solution to Exercise 15

Solution to Exercise 16

Solution to Exercise 17

Solution to Exercise 18

Solution to Exercise 19

Solution to Exercise 20

Solution to Exercise 21

Solution to Exercise 22

Solution to Exercise 23

Solution to Exercise 24

Solution to Exercise 25

Solution to Exercise 26

Solution to Exercise 27

Solution to Exercise 28

Solution to Exercise 29

Solution to Exercise 30

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