Today’s winning tactic!
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
HAESSEL
Winning a pawn while leaving the King in the centre is always risky business! Here perhaps Black was counting on White overplaying his hand with 17.Rxf7? b5!
17.Qc6! Rd8
This example comes from the 4th round encounter between im Porper and fm Haessel at the 2012 Calgary International Chess Classic which is taking place this week.
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 14th MOVE:
HAESSEL
PORPER
Black should just castle short and it is still anyone’s game. INSTEAD, Haessel was distracted by the win of a pawn:
14…Bxg2-ch ?! 15.KxB Qg5-ch 16.Kh1 QxN
Winning a pawn while leaving the King in the centre is always risky business! Here perhaps Black was counting on White overplaying his hand with 17.Rxf7? b5!
17.Qc6! Rd8
Here Porper played the very strong 18. Bxg6! when Black found nothing better than Castling, which did not solve any long term problems because after 19.Bh5 it is just a question of time before the White Rooks invade along the open g-file. White won convincingly in 29 moves.
HOWEVER
WHITE HAS A FASTER WAY TO WIN! CAN YOU FIND IT?
SOLUTION:
18.Rxf7!! KxR 19.Rf1-ch Ke7 (nothing better) 20.d5!! making way for Nd4). Black is busted