This week we are going to have a practical theme involving a mating and attacking pattern all chess players should know. Our first one is a game won by Dus-Khotimirsky in Hamburg, 1910.

Solution:

14.Rxf6+ gxf6 15.Qxh6+ Rxh6 16.Bxh6 mate. Or 15.Bxh6+ Rxh6 16.Qxh6 mate. Walter Korn, in presenting this game years ago, asked an interesting aesthetic question: "Is is prettier to play the Queen sacrifice and the bishop mate or is it morally more economical just to sacrifice the bishop?" You get interesting answers when you ask little kids which is the prettier chess move when two moves will work. Did you ever think about that? My computer picked sacrificing the bishop first. Not a surprise.

For those of you who would like to see the first thirteen moves of the game, here is the score: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Bh4+ 5.g3 fxg3 6.0–0 gxh2+ 7.Kh1 d5 8.exd5 Bf6 9.d4 Ne7 10.Ng5 h6 [10...Nf5 11.Qg4 Nd6 would have been better.] 11.Nxf7 Kxf7 12.d6+ Kf8 13.Qh5 Qe8 and we’ve reached our position.

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.