Saturday’s 5-second tactics
“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
― Dr. Seuss
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gm Aroshidze,Levan
Vinardell,Sergi
XV Obert Internacional d’Escacs de Figueres 2014.8.11 Position before Black’s 30th move. Clearly Black is dominating, his Queenside initiative forcing White to hold on for dear life. But , for the moment, White seems to have everything covered…
BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN!
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Juan Bartroli,Pau
im Aloma Vidal, Robert
XV Obert Internacional d’Escacs de Figueres 2014.8.12 Position after Black’s 17th move (17…Nb4?!) Black appears to be doing well, having ambitious ideas such as …Nc2 or even …Nd3. Black probably only anticipated 18.Qd2 when 18…c5!? or 18…Nac6!? oblige White to defend…
HOW DOES WHITE REFUTE BLACK’S IDEA?
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im Ippolito, Dean
gm Chirila, Cristian Ioan
Washington International 2014.8.11 Position after 21 moves. The opening has not gone well for Black. His Queen-Bishop is still sleeping and his Queen is way offside. That said, he does have an extra pawn (for what this worth).
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
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im Xiong, Jeffery
gm Azarov, Sergei
Washington International 2014.8.11 Position after 17 moves. White has made a positional sacrifice of a piece (albeit for two pawns), hoping to exploit Black’s lack of development and exposed King position. If now 18.Qe2 Qc7 holds for the time being. Interesting is 18.c4!?, with the idea of simply ‘sitting’ on Black…BUT the truth is that White has a forced win! Do you see it?
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
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XV Obert Internacional d’Escacs de Figueres 2014.8.11 Vinardell,Sergi—Aroshidze,Levan: 30…Rb3! 31.cxb3 cxb3+ 0-1. The attack is unstoppable: if now 32.Kb1 b2! Breaks thru. Note that 30…Nc6!. with the idea of …Nb4 also does the job
XV Obert Internacional d’Escacs de Figueres 2014.8.12 Aloma Vidal, Robert–Juan Bartroli, Pau: 18.Bg5!! Wins material in every line! Relatively best now is 18…Nc2 19.QxN Bxg5 20.Neg5 NxR 21.RxN, though White should win. The game continued 18…Bxg5?! 19.Qxb4 Nc6 20.Qe1 Be7 21.a4! and White won easily.
Washington International 2014.8.11 Chirila, Cristian Ioan–Ippolito, Dean: 22.Ng4!! Exploiting everything: weak backrank, exposed position of Queen and dangling Bishop on e5! What more can one dream of with a single move? 22…Qf4 The point is that 22…PxN 23.Bxh7+! is game over. 23.Nxe5 Be6 24.Bf1 Bd5 25.Qc5 1-0
Washington International 2014.8.11 Azarov, Sergei–Xiong, Jeffery: 18.Bxf6! The key move. Now the White Queen will infiltrate via h5. 18… Bxf6 ( 18…gxf6 19.Qh5!! anyway 19… fxg5 20.Qf3+ Ke8 21.Qf6etc ) 19.Qh5 g6 20.Qh6+ Bg7 21.Re8+!! Kxe8 22.Qxg7 Rf8 23.c3!! Rf5 ( 23…Qxd5 24.Re1+ Qe5 25.Rxe5+ dxe5 26.Ne4 ) 24.Re1+ Re5 25.Rxe5+ dxe5 1-0 Not waiting for 26.d6! etc. Nice attack!