In this position black, with a piece down, played the obvious 1. … Rxd4. He seems okay after 2. Qxf4 Rxd1+ What’s wrong with this line of thought? See solution…
Puzzle found on Chess Tempo
The big failure of most opening books
Since I was young I had the dream of writing a book. I did not have a clue what this book should be about, but for some kind of weird reason I thought life would be completely different if I ever would succeed in my endeavour.
In my twenties I was a fanatic chess player. So I had vague ideas about writing a chess book.
Finally almost thirty years later my first book rolled from the presses. It was off a, maybe in the eyes of most people, little less glamorous nature than a novel or a chess book. It was about selling. Anyhow, it became a big success.
What I can remember from my first contacts with publishers was the question:
- ‘For whom are you writing this book?’
Their second question was:
- ‘After they have read your book, what value would this book have given to them?’ or ‘What’s in it for them?’
By the way: they asked lots of other unpleasant questions. But these two questions stuck out like a sore thumb. Publishers are an annoying bunch of people. It was of course obvious what my book was about?! Please don’t start to nag about trivia such as my intended target group. Why didn’t they understand?Read More »
Chess puzzle #25: no escape
The black king is in mortal danger. With his last move black tried to escape his fate by giving a check on c1. He hopes for a perpetual check.
How can white dash black’s hopes? See solution…
Puzzle found on Chess Tempo
Chess puzzle #24: some nice stuff
The 13th edition of the European Individual Championship (Plovdiv 2012) was a disappointing tournament for former winner Emil Sutovsky. But that didn’t mean he only played bad chess. On the contrary.
He produced some nice stuff. See the diagram. This position arose after 31. … Qd5. Question: how did Sutovsky finish the game in great style?
I found this pretty combination in New In Chess magazine 2012#3
#2 What is the threat?
In this position black played 1. … a5? Why is this a mistake? Answer…
Chess puzzle #23: a neat finish
White to move wins. How? See solution….
Chess puzzle #22: squandering a fine position
Chess is a cruel game. A chess player can spoil a lot of hard work with one careless move. Actually that’s exactly what happened to black in the diagram position.
He played 1. … Bf8 and set himself up for losing the game. Two questions:
1. What could black have played to maintain the balance?
2. How does white win after black’s ill fated move?
Chess puzzle #21
Black’s situation is quite problematic. He tried to simplify the position and take the sting out of white’s attack with 1. … Qa8 (the black queen was on d8) does this solve his problems? Solution…
#1 What is the threat?
Usually you win games by playing good moves. Or playing one really bad move less than your opponent. But a chess game revolves not only about our own moves. We have to consider what our opponent is trying to achieve.
Mature chess players possess important qualities such as recognizing and meeting threats in their chess games.
Of course this is something different than what is asked from us in for instance the usual chess puzzles. These puzzles train us to see things from our own perspective. The emphasize is on ‘our own’ possibilities.
Although it is great training to solve chess puzzles, they don’t help us to exercise more caution. On the contrary. At some moment you might start to look for a combination in any position! I hope the new series ‘what is the threat’ on this chess blog will be helpful. It certainly made me more aware of my opponents plans and threats.
I have to thank Dan Heisman for giving me the idea for this series. His fine book ‘Looking for trouble’ is very instructive and contains lots of good examples. Which I will not, for obvious reasons, repeat here.
The diagram position arose after black played 13. … Qa5 in the game between Etienne Bacrot and Alexander Morozevich (Oykovsky Karpov 2014).
Question:
What is black’s threat and how can white prevent any trouble?
#1 What is wrong with this move? Even the chess stars err
At amateur level most chess games are decided by big tactical mistakes. The average game on the popular chess.com lasts only about 25 moves. If I look to my own games the picture is quite similar.
I also noticed that when you do not make big mistakes, you will always be in with a chance to get a good result out of a game. Just don’t blunder!
But that is of course easier said than done. Even my article blunder check didn’t help me. Simply because I did not live up to my own advice. The chess game is very complicated and we tend to oversee stuff in the heat of the battle. Not only us ordinary mortals, but also the big chess stars have their weak moments.Read More »
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