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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

Weekly Tactics #13

Posted by in Tactics on Feb 9th, 2015 | 0 comments

All of this week’s tactical exercises are from the manual ‘Advanced Chess Tactics’ by Averbakh. Enjoy!

For help on using these exercises click here.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Solutions

Solution to Exercise 1

Solution to Exercise 2

Solution to Exercise 3

Solution to Exercise 4

Solution to Exercise 5

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