—————————–

im  Gilevych,Artem  (2400)

im   Genocchio,D  (2411)

74th ch-ITA  Boscotrecase  2014.12.1  Position after 20 moves of play.  Black has an extra pawn but little else to brag about!  His King is uncastled, his pieces undeveloped/uncoordinated, and –on top of all that–he has a BAD position.  No wonder the roof soon collapses on top of him…

 

 WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!

————————

fm  Studer, Noel  (2406)

fm  Christiansen, Johan  (2319)

 

Qatar Masters Open 2014.12.3  Earlier today!  Position after 23 moves of play.  White has the better position and his pieces dominate the board.  There should be a number of attractive possibilities for White to increase his advantage (for example: 24.NxB QxN 25.Rf5! and if 25…N5-d7 26.Rxd5!).  HOWEVER, simply beating Black from this position is no real achievement: you must CRUSH Black from this position!

WHAT IS WHITE’S CRUSHING WIN?

——————————

 PINS, FORKS AND MAGIC KNIGHTS!

The Kosteniuk–Pogonina encounter featured some real fireworks! Bad luck for Pogonina, who was also featured in another tactical example on this blog last week.  What to say?  Sometimes great players have forgettable tournaments!

 

wgm  Pogonina,N  (2500)

wgm  Kosteniuk,A  (2540)

 

ch-RUS Superfinal w  Kazan  2014.12.1  Position after 23 moves of play.  Black seems OK in this position, but there is the nagging problem of his King being a bit exposed.  Had Natalia’s King been on g8 then perhaps she would even stand better!

24.Na4!

A beautiful and deep concept, that hits the nail on the head!  The former women’s World Champion finds the weak spot in Pogonina’s position. 

——————————-

The point is that after 24…Nd7 (See diagram below)

White has another shot:

25.Nb6!! Nxb6 26.Rxc6!!

Winning!  After 26… Qd8 27.Rxb6! Qxb6 28.Ne5+! and mates or wins the Queen  

——————————- 

Getting back to the game, Pogonina instead played:

 

24…NxN!?

25.Rxc6! Qd8! 26.QxN

White has won an important pawn while Black lacks coordination. The game continued sharply

26…Bf6!? 27.Rd1 Re7 28.Rc5! Qd7 29.Qb3! Qxf5 30.Rdxd5 Qe6

31.Rc6!

31…Rb8! 32.Ng5+!!

32…Bxg5 33.Qf3+

1-0

A beautiful finish!

—————————–

 

74th ch-ITA  Boscotrecase  2014.12.1 Genocchio,D–Gilevych,Artem:  21.Bxf5!  Bxf5 22.Nxf5 gxf5 23.Qg7+ Ke6 24.Qf6+ Kd7 25.Rg7 Qf8 26.Rf7 Qxf7 27.Qxf7 Kd8 28.e6 1-0

Qatar Masters Open 2014.12.3  Christiansen, Johan-Sebastian–Studer, Noel:  24.Nxg7! Kxg7 25.Rxf6!!  The whole point of White’s play. 25…Kxf6 ( 25…Bb6 26.Qf4 Nf3+ 27.Qxf3 Rxe3 28.Qg4+ ) 26.Qf4+ (26.Qg4! is even a faster win) 26…Kg7 27.Qg5+ Kh8 28.Qf6+ Kg8 29.Rf1! Fresh reinforcements 29… d4 ( 29…Qd8 30.Be6+ Rxe6 31.Qxe6+ Kh8 32.Bxe5+ ) 30.Bxd4 c5 31.Qg5+ Kh8 32.Rf7 1-0  It is forced mate.  Beautiful!