White to Play

Pete Tamburro on Jun 17, 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

As summer is starting, our summer school is now open! We’re going back to basics. We will cover concepts that every chess player should know. Let’s start with this position, which is an old favorite.

What is shocking about this position is that my database has over 70 games with this line and one of the players of the Black pieces was rated as high as 2490! What is even more astounding is that only 28 of the 70+ players found the right move here! Hopefully, you will find the right move and the whole continuation. The game started out: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.Bc4 Nd7

Solution:

Black committed the sin of blocking his queen bishop from defending the square e6, so White takes advantage of this by 1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.Bc4 Nd7 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 [More stubborn is 5...Kf8 6.Ng5 Ndf6 7.Nc3 h6 8.Ne6+ Bxe6 9.Bxe6, but White is not only up in material, but his position is overwhelming with the B on e6.] 6.Ng5+ Ke8 [6...Kf6 7.Qf3#; 6...Kf8 7.Ne6+ wins the queen] 7.Ne6 and the Black queen is “mated.”

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.