Today’s 5-second tactics
“Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because the moment simply is.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
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There has not been a flood of good examples of tactics from this week’s tournaments, so today I will torture my reader with some tactics from my own games! ENJOY!
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fm Harper,Bruce
gm Spraggett,K
The Montreal Open , September 1973. Position after 18 moves. This was the first time that I employed Keres/Alekhine’s sharp attacking line in the advance French (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3!? cxd4 5.Bd3), and one that has since brought me a lot of success against grandmasters.
Here the Black King position is wide open, and while something could be said of Black’s impressive pawn centre, the simple fact is that it is White’s move and that decides everything..
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
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gm Spraggett,K
gm Djuric,Stefan
Quebec Open, August 1983. Position before Black’s 26th move. This was a great summer for me, I won practically every tournament I played in (World Open, Canadian Open, Quebec Open) In the position above, the Serbian grandmaster had just taken my d-pawn and seems to be winning…
BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN!
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gm Spraggett,K
Croisetiere ,Michel
USSR Cultural Association Open. Montreal Summer, 1973 Position before Black’s 23rd move. Black had sacrificed an exchange to expose the White King. Now is the time to exploit said fact…
BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN!
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Montreal Open September, 1976 Spraggett,K–Harper Bruce: 19.Nxd5! nicely calculated to the end 19…exd5 20.Qxd5+ Kh8 21.Red1!! This is the right Rook. 21… Bg5 22.Rxc6!! Rxc6 23.Bxe5+ 1-0 After 23…Bf6 comes the spectacular 24.Qxc6!! winning bags of material in all lines.
Quebec Open August 1983 Djuric Stefan–Spraggett Kevin: 26…Qxe2! Winning. The Queen can not be taken because of mate in one move! 27.Qxf5 Qe3+ 28.Kb1 Rxf5 29.Nxf5 Qxf3 30.Nxg7 Nd3 31.d6 Qf2 32.Na4 b5 33.d7 Qc2+ 34.Ka1Rd8 35.Ne6 bxa4 0-1
USSR Cultural Association Open Montreal 1973: Croisetiere Michel–Spraggett Kevin: 23… Rf2+! 24.Kc1 (24.Ke1 Rxc2 wins easily enough) 24… Nb3+! 0-1
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