Today’s winning 5-second tactics!
“Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
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gm Klein, David
gm Wei, Yi
77th Tata Steel GpB 2015.1.18 Position after 31 moves. The 15-year old Chinese sensation is unstoppable! His opponent has his back against the wall and now all that is required is a little precision to bring in the point.
WHITE TO PLAY AND CRUSH!
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gm Michiels, Bart
gm Navara, David
77th Tata Steel GpB 2015.1.18 Position after 34 moves of play. A sharp finish! Black is mentally embraced for 35.RxB+ QxR 36.RxQ+ KxR, when–although worse–Black has reasonable chances to hold if he plays well. But take a close look at the position above: with Rooks doubled on the 7th rank, White MUST have better…
35.Qc7!
Ouch!! This move wakes Black up to the cold reality: he is busted! Mate is quickly approaching…
35…Be4!?
There is nothing better…Sometimes the best defense is offense!
WHITE TO PLAY AND MATE IN 3 MOVES!
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im Abdulov,Or (2342)
im Izzat,Kanan (2424)
70th ch-AZE Baku AZE 2015.1.14 Position after 21 moves. Material may be even, but Black’s pieces are sleeping on the Queen-side while his King is all alone in his castle….NEVER a good omen!
WHITE TO PLAY CRUSH!
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gm Babujian, Levon
im Baghdasaryan, Vahe
Armenia-Ch 2015-01-13 Position after 16 moves. At first sight nothing much seems to be happening here, but this is just the calm before the storm. A deeper look into the position reveals the same problems as in the last example: Black’s pieces are sleeping on the Queenside.
17.Nh5!!
A brilliant concept that takes us all by surprise! Black must take, as 17…Bh8 18.Bh3! Ne5 (what else?) 19.Nf6+ is death by strangulation.
17…PxN 18.QxP
Attacking the Rook on e8 while bringing in the powerful Queen.
18…Rf8
19.e5!!
This powerful blow is the key to White’s combination! The King Bishop comes into play, threatening, amongst other things, 20.Be4. Curiously, Black is helpless!
19…Nxe5
There is nothing better.
In the game continuation, White played the less vigorous 20.Be4 Ng6 21.Bxg6 hxg6 22.Qxg6 Ra5 23.Bh6 Qc7 24.Rxf8+ Kxf8 25.Qh7 Ke8 26.Bxg7 Rf5 27.Re1 e5 28.Qh6 Qf7 29.g4, but won anyway in 45 moves. However, there is a faster win (and more beautiful) starting with…
20.Rxf8!+ Bxf8 ( 20…Kxf8? 21.Rf1+ ) 21.Rf1! Qc7 ( 21…Bd7? 22.Be4 )
22.RxB+!!
As the reader can easily verify for himself…
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