A day’s break from my series taken from Matni Udar.
Today, a position from one of my recent ICC 3-0 blitz games.
White to play and win
Allan Beardsworth v M Elgarby, ICC 3 minute blitz
Solution
A variation of a standard theme, which I visualise as “taking the feet away from under someone”. 1 Rc2! Qc2[] 2 e8(Q)+! forces 2…Re8 when 3 Qc2 wins the now LPDO Queen.
As my regular readers will know, one of my habits is to cut out or copy positions I find difficult, store them away, and subsequently in spare time try to solve them, whether or walks, planes, trains or at other times. Today’s problem is one such.
White to play and win
Vishnu v Negi, Indian Championship, Jalgoan, 26.12.13
Solution
This took me a long, long time: a good part of a walk around beautiful Ullswater. And when I found my solution, 1 Bf6!, which wins, it turned out that White can also win, as he did in the game, by 1 Rd6!, a move I didn’t even consider (so, yet again, I failed to follow the Purdy maxim that I know so well: examine all biffs.
There are too many possible defences after each of White’s first moves for me to summarise by text; instead I have attached the game file, with some annotations.
As my regular readers will know, one of my habits is to cut out or copy positions I find difficult, store them away, and subsequently in spare time try to solve them, whether or walks, planes, trains or at other times. Today’s problem is one such.
Black to play and win
Grandelius v Lupulescu, 21.11.2015, seen in Malcolm Pein’s Daily Telegraph column
Solution
I found this quite hard, and, when I found the solution, surprising: surprising that 1 …f4! was so strong.
I found it, having tried the two ways to exchange on d4, and the pin Qc5 first, more or less by elimination, though Purdy’s examine all biffs also helped.
White’s queen is tied to defending the Nd4, and the key is that it is forced to move to e4: 2Qe4. This lets Black’s Queen into c3, hitting the Nd4 a third time, and also threatening to mate on b2 or a1 if the N moves: so White’s position collapses.
Other ways of finding the solution, apart from examine all biffs, are Purdy’s other tools of looking for jump-biffs: Rd8-d1 is one, and Bf6-b2 is another: highlighting the pin; and noting the White’s Q’s tie to the Nd4.
A break from my daily postings from Matni Udar. This is a puzzle from October’s Isle of Man tournament, the blog being drafted whilst watching on Playchess.com the day’s play. The reason the blog is being posted today is that due to my work commitments, I had got far ahead with my drafting of Matni Udar blogs (they come out at 7am each day: they are not written then, but always in advance, sometimes well in advance).
Black played Nd7-c5: evaluate the move
Batsiashvili N v Das, A, Isle of Man 7/10/16
Solution
Nc5?? loses: 1 Rh8+!! and Black resigned.
If 1…Kh8 2 Qh6+ Kg8[] 3 Ng5 and mates.
If 1…Kg7 2 Qh6+ Kf6[] 3 e5 mate.
allanbeardsworth 