It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle -potassium cyanide

Black has just played 1…c6; evaluate 2 c5

Karjakin v Carlsen, Tata Steel 24/1/16

Solution

Something different today. I watched this game live; it was drawn shortly after this position- Carlsen, as so often, had the knack of drawing easily as Black. I was surrprised when he played 1…c6, but instantly saw that it was a useful simplification.

But what about 2 c5 I thought at the time? Fairly quickly I saw the neat point, Purdy’s potassium cyanide motif in a new guise, plus, in the tactics, the fact that at the end the c6 pawn hits the Nd2 therefore meaning that the LPDO Nf6 doesn’t fall off.

(1…c6 2 c5) 2…cd! 3 cb d4! forking the N and R

4 Rf3 dc hitting the Nd2- therefore equality is preserved.

So, a nice example of the motif.

Potassium Cyanide

Potassium cyanide– always watch out for two pieces positioned at a pawn’s fork’s  distance. Such a common motif in practice.