White to Play
Published in Chess Puzzles
- Solution: His answers are revealing. 8.c4 is nothing to write home about. Playable, but leaves a backward pawn on d2. 8.Nh4 is the “not paying attention to your opponent’s possible reply” move as it loses to 8…g5. I can’t tell you how many scholastic games I’ve gone over where players don’t look to see if their pieces have a way home if attacked. 8.Re1 is the “too clever by a half” move. White sees 8.Re1 exf3 9.Bxf3 winning the queen. “Yippee! I win the queen.” Of course that assumes Black cooperates…a huge and common assumption at novice levels. Heisman points out that the simple 8.Re1 Be7 wins the knight because Re1 took away the only retreat square! The safest move is the retreat 8.Ne1, which allows White to play 9.f3 or 9.d3 in order to attack the advanced pawn. So both a. and d. are safe, but the tempting b. and c. choice are not, yet novices seem strangely attracted to those kinds of moves. That’s why I enjoyed this book so much—excellent practical situations and tips. I’m going to order some for my students.
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