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Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

In a chess club, beginners will often observe a couple of strong players going over a game they just played with each other or against some third party where the one strong player is bragging to the other about his game. Oftentimes the beginners will hear, “I really dominated the dark squares.” or “My light squared bishop controlled the long diagonal.” And have no real appreciation of how important square control by color can be. This position is the best example I have found of dark square exploitation.


Solution:

In this game, played at Baden-Baden in 1925, Gruenfeld demolished Tarrasch by an exclusive use of the dark squares. The first move of this combination isn’t even a check, but a threat to check. Black can’t muster a defense to this dark square dilemma and goes down quickly: 1.Bh4 h6 [Alternatives also spectacularly fail—worth looking at: 1...Bg6 2.Bf6+ Qg7 (2...Kg8 3.Nh6#) 3.Bxg7+ Kg8 (3...Nxg7 4.Qf8#) 4.Qe7 h6 5.Bf6 h5 6.Nh6#; 1...Rxa3 2.Bf6+ Ng7 3.Bxg7+ Kg8 4.Nh6#] 2.Qf8+ Nxf8 3.Bf6+ Kh7 4.Rg7+ Kh8 5.Rxf7+ Kg8 6.Nxh6# A devastating attack.

 


Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.

 

 

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