Sunday’s tactical chess quiz
“The board game of chess is a representation of the four divisions of the military; pawn, knight, bishop, and rook. It is prudent to have a strategy in mind before play but you cannot fully predict the playing out of the game, which is the realm of ninja tactics. Different pieces on the chess board have different tactical abilities; the knights are able to leap other pieces, move in a particular way and can change the point of focus of the game in a non-linear way which is similar to a detournement. Through the history of the game, the pieces have evolved to reflect the culture of context…”–DesignMethodsAndProcesses
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- Black has a perpetual check. Even so, with White, would you go right or left?
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- White is expecting 19…Nc6 20.g4 blocking the Kingside, and if then 20…Qf4 21.Qe1 holding for the time being (even though Black would be a bit better because of the weak d-pawn). However, White is about to be surprised! From the diagram, Black to play and CRUSH!
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- The uncastled King! (If I had a nickle for everytime someone ‘forgot’ to castle…) White is expecting 15…Nxc2+ 16.QxN RxB 17.00 with a playable game. Instead, Black to play and WIN!
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- Black must decide whether to play it safe with 15…g6 (with a playable game) or to first exchange Bishops on g5. What do you think?
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- A curious position. White had entered into a combination earlier to try to win the Black Queen. Both players had forseen this position, but had different assessments. White thought that he would capture the stray Knight and simply be better. Black saw further. Black to play and win!
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- A neat ending and one for the endgame texts. Three pawns for the Bishop. Black is attacking the h-pawn and seems to have everything under control: if 64.h6 g6! and White can not make any more progress on the Kingside. If instead 64. g6 (threateing 65.h6) Black wins after 64…BxP 65.b5 PxP 66.c6 Bf3! etc. Finally, if instead 64.d5 cxd5! 65.c6 Ke7! and again White is frustrated. So the question is this: HOW DOES WHITE WIN?
SOLUTIONS
(The positions on the left are odd-numbered; on the right even numbered)