Chess Tactics and Combinations. Features Grandmaster opening and middlegame. Hints, Solutions and Analysis provided. Carlsen, Anand, Kasparov,Firouzja,Caruana games. Keep your game sharp ! --------------- (all material copyrighted)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Gashimov-Nabaldian 2008 (level: medium)
Can you find the decisive 2 moves Gashimov played ?
White to play and win
Gashimov-Nabaldian Capelle-La-Grande 2008
Hint: First move is a check, second isn't...
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Gashimov-Miton 2008 (level: difficult, hint provided)
Gashimov-Miton 2008
Calculate well!
Hint: the tactial theme here is overloading.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tactical Quiz: Kings on opposite sides
1. White to play and win
Akopian-Jobava 2005
2. White to play and win
Morozevich-Alekseev 2004
3. Black to play and win
Nakamura-Zapata 2006
4. White to play and win
Akopian-Wells 2006
Today's training is centered on the attack when one side castles long and the other short. This usually generates sharp middle-game position where the fastest or strongest attack decides the game.
Calculate well !
You can play through solutions here to compare with your thoughts.
http://games.top10chess.com/longcastle08.htm
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Tactics Explained (Long Diagonal)
Let's take a look at the following position, White to move:
Monday, July 7, 2008
Two easy tactics on Material Winning
This is extracted from the position reached by Morozevich against Korchnoi in 2004
In the second position, White has a way to win material in two moves. This position was reached in the blindfold game Ivanchuk-Anand 2007, Monaco.
Calculate well !
Feel free to post your solutions/questions in the comments section.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Inventive attack explained step by step
24 Rbd1!. The idea is to exploit the vis-a-vis against the Queen and bring the rook into the game. This quiet move works because Black is tied up ( Ne6 is stuck to protect against mate on g7). The game continued then 24 Rbd1 Qb7 to reach the next position
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25 Rd4 is how Sandipan continued. The idea is to follow up with rook giving check and then Qf6+ quickly leads to mate. Tiviakov defended with 25 ..Ne4. Logically, Sandipan increased the pressure by the sacrifice 26 Ree4! de4 27 Qf6! and then reach the following:
Exercise Position after 27 Qf6!
Black played ..Qc7 in the position above.
Why did this move (as any other for that matter) lose immediately ?
Here, Black is to play but all his pieces are uncoordinated and unable to cope with the threats. Black played 27..Qc7 above. Can you find how White finished up this magnificent attack ? The answer is as follows:
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28 Nh6 + Kf8
29 Qh8+ Ke7
30 Nf5#
Final position
Impressive, isn't it ?