We’re continuing our advance start on “chess summer school.” One of the important things to do in teaching beginners is to show them mating patterns. This often involves sacrifices, so it expands their minds in terms of possibilities to look for. We always reinforce the idea of lok at ALL checks and captures. This example is an old favorite.

Solution:

This game was actually played between two grandmasters, Reti as White and Tartakower as Black. Here’s how it went: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Qd3 e5 [better was 5...Na6 6.Bd2 g6 7.Nxf6+ exf6 8.Qe3+ Qe7 9.Bxa6 Qxe3+ 10.fxe3 bxa6 11.e4, but White has a slight edge due to Black’s damaged pawn structure] 6.dxe5 Qa5+ 7.Bd2 Qxe5 8.0–0–0 Nxe4 [again, a better chance was 8...Be7 9.Nxf6+ Qxf6 10.Nf3 0–0 11.Bg5 Qe6 12.Kb1 Bxg5 13.Nxg5 Qf5 14.Qe3 h6 15.Ne4 Be6 16.Nd6, and White is better because of his nicely posted pieces.] 9.Qd8+ Kxd8 10.Bg5+ Kc7 [Mate also comes after 10...Ke8 11.Rd8#] 11.Bd8# It’s good to play over whole games with beginners, so they see how a game develops.

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