Tactical Motif VII: The pin

A pin (fr: le clouage) is a motif where the defending piece cannot move. A relative pin means that the piece can move but this will expose to a material loss following the pin. An absolute pin means that the piece cannot legally move ( as the King would be exposed to a check).

Illustration: the Pin


1. White to play and win (Karjakin-Kosteniuk, 2003)


White played 1.Ra8! deciding the game immediately. The point is that Black cannot play 1..Bxa8 because the bishop is pinned by the white bishop in b3, which is targetting the King in f7 as well.
Now 1..Ra8 follows 2 Bxd5+ and Bxa8 winning for White.
The Black rook has nowhere to go: Black resigned.
Note that White had to see this resource many moves ahead.







Now an exercise based on the same motif.

Black to play ( Kovacevic- Seirawan, 1980)

Tactical Motif VI : Attacking the King

Roughly 50% of all combinations are centered around attacking the king. Besides topical checkmates( Smothered,Boden,etc), there are numerous themes involving the king hunt.
Here we present examples where the bishop pair is instrumental in the attack.

King attack: Illustration

15.? White to play and win ( Lasker-Bauer 1889)
















This famous combination by Lasker , with a now thematic double bishop sacrifices,started with:

15.Bxh7+! Kxh7 16.Qxh5+ Kg8 17.Bxg7! ( Second bishop sacrifice, opening the king) Kxg7 18.Qg4+! Kh7 19.Rf3 e5 (only defense against Rh3) 20.Rh3+ Qh6 21.Rxh6+ Kxh6 22.Qd7! 1-0

Exercises (difficult level):
I Black to play and win (Rotlewi-Rubinstein 1907)

II: Black to play and win (Spassky-Tal, 1973)

Tactic Motif V: Skewer

The Skewer (Fr: Enfilade) consists in winning a piece located behind another one.

Adams-Anand 2005 (Corsica Rapid) Black to play

1..Rh1+! (using also the decoy theme, see previous posts)

2 Qxh1 Ra1+ Winning the queen.

This neat tactical point ensured that Anand won the game and the match moving forward in the competition

* * *

Black to play and win

Tactical Motif IV: Passed pawns & Promotions

Passed Pawns (fr: pion passe) are notoriously dangerous. Here's an illustration using at the same time the Back Rank motif ( where the King gets mated by Queen or Rook as his pawns take away any escape square):

White to play and win ( Alekhine-Nestor 1939)

1 Rc8! Rc8 2 Qe7 !! and the Queen cannot be taken due to promotion on c8.
Note that 1..Qd7 loses because of 2Qf8+!

* * *




And now an exercise ( difficult level) on passed pawns: White to play and win




















Tal-Koblenz 1976

Tactical Motif III: Decoy

Decoy ( fr: Attraction) consists in luring a piece to a particular mined square.
Here's an example: White to play and win


Alekhine-West 1923

1Qh7+!! lures the King to a bad square.

1..Kh7
2Rg7+! Rg7

3Nf6+ Kg6

4 Bh5# Magnificent combination by the genius Alekhine, well ahead of his time.

* * *

Now White to play and win using this theme (and also motif II Deflection)

Ex: Schmidt-Heidelberg 1946

Tactical Motif II:Deflection

Deflection ( fr: Deviation) consists in forcing a piece away so that you can carry on a tactical winning idea.

Illustration: White to play and win

White would like to play Nd7+, but Black controls d7.

1.Qh5! threatening Qh6# forces 1..Nxh5.

But since the Black knight left his post, White can conclude by 2.Nd7#. ( Delgado-Lorente 2000).

Now it's your turn to solve the following: White to play and win



















Tal-NN

Tactical Motif I: Double Attack

The double attack is a very common tactical motif. It's about creating two threats at once.

Double Attack Motif Illustration
White to play and win















Here, White can attack the two knights at once by playing 1.Qe1!

Now it's your turn to practice: White in the first, Black in the second position

Position I: Hellers-Colias 1990;

Position II: Renet-Nunn 1989

Chess Tactics Explained

In the next days, I will review and explain all 12 classic chess tactical motifs necessary to calculate variations and to find winning moves in various situations. Of course, combinations and sub-variations often make use of multiple themes at the same time.

After reviewing each theme, I will add tactical exercises to be solved using the same motif.


Any questions, please drop comments & remarks...

King's Indian Defence Combinations

Today's excercises are derived from the King's Indian Tactical Themes only. Good luck!

I.Black to play and win

II.Black to play and win

III.Black to play and win

IV Black to play and win

V Black to play and winVI Black to play and win

Most positions come from famous games, with the Black side led by top players such as Najdorf,Kasparov,Nunn and Radjabov (for the very last position).You can play through all six games and therefore check if your guess is correct on the following link:

http://games.top10chess.com/kingsindiandefence.htm

Move by Move: Anand-Morozevich Mainz 2008

Here is the tactical phase in Anand-Morozevich, Mainz 2008 where the world champion Anand outpowered his opponent:

Position 1: White just played 21 Ng4

Here, Black could have played 21..h6 22Bd2 Rad8 with chances for both sides.
Instead, Morozevich went for the more forcing 21..Nf4.

21..Nf4?

22 Bf4 ef4

Position 2 after 22..ef4. White to play

Here, it is possible that Morozevich was initially expecting 23 Nf5 or 23 Nh5.Instead, Anand found a neat combination starting with 23 Nh6+!.

23Nh6+!

Position after 23Nh6+ :Black to play

Black cannot take the knight: 23..gh6 24 Qg4+ Kh8 25 Qf5. In this variation, 24..Bg7 is met by 25Nf5. Morozevich played the only move 23..Kh8.

23..Kh8

24 Nf7+ Kg8

Position 3: White to play

Here White missed an immediate finish. 25Bh7+! Kf7 26 Ng5+ Kg8 27Qb3+ Kh8 28 Qf7! and mate follows. Instead Anand played 25 Ne4.
25 Ne4

Position 4 after 25Ne4. Can Black take the knight on f7?

Here, 25..Kf7 26 Bb3+! Ke7 27 Nd6+ wins for White. on 26..Re6, 27 Ng5+ wins. The game continued as follows:
25..Ne5
26 Nfd6! Rd8 ?! ( trying to pin the knight)
27 Qh5!

The last tactical move by Anand.

Position 5 after 27Qh5!

Does Black win a piece by 27..Bd6 in Position 5 ?
The answer is no. 27..Bd6 28 Nd6 Qd6 29 Bh7+ Kf8 30 Re5 and White regains the knight on e5 with a winning attack.

Morozevich played 27..Be4 28 Ne4 h6 and after 29 Qf5, White converted his advantage and won the game in 47 moves. This game played in rapid time controls shows Anand's strength in calculating complex variations.

IM versus GM, upset games

Once in a while, we see the underdog ( e.g. the lower rated player) win. Here are three games, where the International Master beats the Grandmaster. In each case, the rating difference is about 200 points, which makes the performance noteworthy. The games themselves are spectacular as well.

[Site "Hoogeveen NED 2007"]
[White "Hillarp Persson,T"]
[Black "Grooten,H"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2567"]
[BlackElo "2350"]
[ECO "B90"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. Qd2 Be7 8. f3 Nc6 9. g4 O-O 10. O-O-O Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b5 12. g5 Nd7 13. h4 Rb8 14. Be3 Qa5 15. Kb1 b4 16. Ne2 Nc5 17. Nd4 Bb7 18. h5 Rfd8 19. g6 Bf6 20. gxf7+ Kxf7 21. Rg1 Na4 22. Bh3 Nc3+ 23. bxc3 bxc3 24. Nb3 Bxe4 25. Qc1 Rxb3+ 26. axb3 Rb8 27. fxe4 Rxb3+ 28. cxb3 c2+ 0-1

Position after 27 fxe4. Black to play and win


















Hillarp Persson-Grooten



[Event "TCh-FRA Top 16 Poule Haute 2008"]
[White "Bergez,L"]
[Black "Apicella,M"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2367"]
[BlackElo "2533"]
[ECO "E91"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 Na6 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bh4 Qe8 9. e5 Nd7 10. Bg3 dxe5 11. dxe5 e6 12. Qd2 Qe7 13. O-O-O Qb4 14. h4 Qa5 15. h5 g5 16. Nxg5 Nxe5 17. Nf3 Nc6 18. Bf4 Kh7 19. g4 Nab4 20. g5 Bxc3 21. bxc3 Rd8 22. g6+ Kh8 23. Qxd8+ Nxd8 24. Be5+ 1-0

Position after 21..Rd8. White to play and win


















Bergez-Apicella


[Event "ch-USA GpA 2006"]
[White "Nakamura,H"]
[Black "Friedel,J"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2644"]
[BlackElo "2455"]
[ECO "A09"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. e3 e6 4. Qc2 Bd6 5. Nc3 f5 6. h3 Nf6 7. g4 O-O 8. gxf5 exf5 9. b3 Qe7 10. Bb2 Na6 11. Rg1 Bd7 12. cxd5 Nb4 13. Qb1 cxd5 14. a3 Nc6 15. Nxd5 Nxd5 16. Bc4 Be6 17. Rxg7+Qxg7 18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19. Qb2+ Rf6 20. O-O-O h6 21. d3 Kf7 22. e4 fxe4 23. dxe4 Rxf3 24. exd5 Bf4+ 25. Kb1 Bf5+ 26. Ka2 Ne5 27. d6+ Kg6 28. Be2 Rxh3 29. Qd4 Rf8 30. Bb5 Be6 31. Qe4+ Kh5 32. Be2+ Kh4 33. d7 Bxd7 34. Rxd7 Nxd7 35. Qe7+ Bg5 36. Qxd7 Rf4 37. f3 Rh2 38. Qd3 Kg3 39. b4 Rf2 40. Kb1 Kg2 41. Bd1 Bh4 42. Qg6+ Bg3 43. Bc2 h5 44. Qxh5 Rc4 45. Be4 Rd4 46. f4+ Rxe4 47. Qd5 Rfe2 48. Qxb7 Kg1 0-1

Position after 45 Be4. Black to play and win


















Nakamura-Friedel