Last post of the year- Tactics

Black to play in the following position:

This is a position requiring careful analysis of various continuations (difficult). The tactical theme is once again attack against the white king. Good luck ( this position is coming from a correspondence game with Black being the belgium player M. Geenen).

Duchamp's position

White to play, Marcel Duchamp

Duchamp's riddle (1943), according to GM Beliavsky/Mihalcisin.

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) is a well-known french surrealist artist who decided to gradually remove himself from the art world to explore the chess world as an avid chess player and composer. As an artist, he is remembered primarily as the creator of the "ready-made" pieces and was influential in the dada/conceptual art movements (giving birth later to the "pop-art", made famous by A. Wharol amongst others). He later emigrated to the U.S. Here are a few links :

http://www.marcelduchamp.net/



http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp (french)



In the chess world, Duchamp cowrote an endgame book with Halberstadt ( about the "cases conjuguees"). I haven't seen it so any reader owning it is invited to comment on the book itself, which is supposed to be very technical and dry. He has played numerous competitive games, some of them available on http://www.chessgames.com/



It appears also that Duchamp has created a chess riddle, according to Beliavsky/Mihalcisin ( in their "winning endgame technique" book). I am not sure where it was first published , but here is the position above, with White to play. Does anyone know if there's a solution, when&where the position was first published, if any endgame expert besides Beliavsky/Mihalcisin has looked at it ? The two GMs think the position leads to a draw, without any win for White. Is there a solution, i.e a win for White ?

I'd love to hear the well-known trainer (and endgame authority) Dvorestky opinion on the matter. Let alone a leading grandmaster. Finally, is there any computer/table-base for 7 pieces total ? Any computer expert out there to come to the rescue ?

critical moment in the endgame.

Technique and Tactical motifs in the endgame.
White just played Ne7. How do you finish off ?

Black to play and win

Surprising GM moves

In both positions, White to play and surprise his/her opponent. Positions feature games by GM Ivanchuk (I) and GM Kosteniuk (II) played in 2008.

Position I, White to play

Position II, White to play

Sometimes, an unexpected move can work wonders as you're taking the game away from his planned continuation. It can be a quiet move or a continuation which is not the instinctive or natural way to continue. Of course, these surprises are often linked to tactical motifs see the 12 motifs I have covered in my previous posts (September-October).

3 tactical puzzles today (short variations)

All positions: White to play for the win

Norwood-Maier 1988

Spassky-Kortchnoi 1968

Alekhine-Reshevsky 1937

Let me know if you need hints...

Critical Position / Decision in Chess (Part II)

Another critical position from a recent game.

I White to play

I think I can explain a bit further why I chose this precise position today. As White,
two main candidate moves come to mind. 1 Ra8 or 1 c6. Which one would you play and why ? Please analyze each alternative as far as you can.

May I suggest that these kind of positions remind me of IM Dvorestky famous approach where he lets his (GM) students analyze in depth from a given point ?

Positional Games

Middlegame means also positional play sometimes. As mostly tactics are covered in the blog,
here are 6 positions where a positional domination is carried out at GM level.

I White to play (Positional)

Adams-David, 2008, White's 29th move















II White to play

Morozevich-Timofeev, 2008. 24th move.















III White to play

Gelfand-Kamsky 2006, 27th White move.















IV White to play

Bareev-Bacrot, 2000. White's 19th move















V: Black to play
Smyslov-Tal 1964. Black's 24th move.
















All games can be replayed from the above positions via the next link
http://games.top10chess.com/positionalgames.htm

Tactical Fireworks by Werle

The finish Werle-Wells 2008 was featured on the "chess mind blog".

http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1221968589.shtml

Check it out ( solution is provided if you like me you failed to find it!).