Saturday’s tactics!
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
1.
POSITION AFTER 45 MOVES:
gm Meier,G
gm Ding,L
From yesterday’s round of the SPICE tournament in the US. White has a passed pawn on the 7th rank and Black’s King position is exposed and vulnerable. Conditions enough (in general) for a tactic to arise. FIND IT!
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
2.
POSITION AFTER 28 MOVES:
Desanzo,JC
Bilbao,G
POSITION AFTER 28 MOVES:
Desanzo,JC
From the Continental taking place in Argentina right now. Opposite-side castling and White is far ahead in the race to create threats against the enemy King. Conditions for giving the coup de grace? HERE YES!
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
3.
POSITION AFTER 19 MOVES:
Arango,AM
Paveto,K
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
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3.
POSITION AFTER 19 MOVES:
Arango,AM
Also from the Continental. Almost all of Black’s pieces are stuck over on the Queenside, leaving his King to fend for himself. Do you have an idea of what to do?
WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!
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4.
POSITION AFTER 26 MOVES OF PLAY:
Sperb,Ed
Batista,G
Also from the Continental! White has an obvious advantage, his Rooks actively on the 7th rank and a pawn up for nothing. The classic texts usually write here:”…and the rest is just a matter of technique” BUT in practice this rarely is so simple!
The problem is that White has more than one route to victory. For example, he can take twice on g7 and then win the Queen with Bh6-ch at the end, transposing into an easily won Queen vs 2-Rook ending (White’s plan would be to establish connecting passed pawns on the Kingside)
OR HE could play the simple 27.Ra7, planning to meet 27…QxP (either) with 28.Rxg7! followed by mate. After 27.Ra7 the best Black has seems to be 27…Qd1 exchanging Queens into a lost ending: 28.QxQ RxQ 29.Kh2 Rb1 (what else?) 30.a4! and Black will soon lose yet another pawn.
PERHAPS White saw this last variation and had nothing against it but felt it would be better to have his King on g2, for he decided to play:
27.g3??
Anticipating 27…Qd1 28.QxQ RxQ 29. Kg2 with a won ending
But White overlooked a tactical shot!
BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN!