Black to Play

Pete Tamburro on Jan 30, 2013

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

This position is from a game between two amateurs in New York, 1947. In Gresser-Churgin, the latter found a nice attacking plan leading to mate. Now it’s your turn to do the same thing.

Solution:

People often talk of certain sports as games of inches. In chess, it’s often a game of who has the move. If it were White’s move here, hxg6 would lead to a win for White because of Qh7+ to follow; however, it’s Black’s move. Here’s what happened in the game: 1...Rxa2 2.hxg6 [Taking the rook leads to mate: 2.Kxa2 Qa7+ 3.Kb1 Ra8 4.c3 b3 5.Kc1 Qa1#; Throwing away the queen doesn’t help: 2.Qb3 Rxb2+ 3.Qxb2 Nxb2 4.Kxb2 Qc3+ 5.Kb1 Ra8 6.Ne4 Ra1#] 2...Rxb2+ 3.Kc1 [3.Ka1 Ra8+ 4.Qa3 Rxa3#] 3...Rxc2+ 4.Kxc2 [4.Kb1 Rb2+ 5.Kc1 Ne3+ 6.Kxb2 Qc2+ 7.Ka1 Ra8#] 4...Qf2+ and White resigned because of 5.Kd3 Nb2# The use of the long range pieces, especially the rook sacrifice followed by the other rook taking its place, is noteworthy; although, you should not forget, in the variations, the role of the humble knight and pawn that keep the king from escaping.

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.