ArcaMax

This will be our last Isolated Queen Pawn lesson. In fifteen lessons,if you studied the positions and some of the full games offered, you added to your chess knowledge. Today’s game is special in that you get to see an unusual aspect of the attack. Then, you get a thorough study of what might have happened if Black had defended more resolutely...

GM Carlos Torre was giving a simultaneous exhibition in 1924 when he reached this position as White. Unable to find a defense to the threatened Rc1, he resigned. He missed a saving line! Can you save the game for White?

This is another classic Botvinnik game. No mating attack. Not even a win of material. He just gets a better position with a key move that, positionally speaking, is decisive. You get the whole game today because it’s a great lesson on how to win an endgame with an advantage even though material is even. The game started out with 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4...

If you have studied each of the prior isolated queen pawn positions, you should have a shot at knowing what to do here. The game is a famous one, fully annotated in my Openings for Amateurs—Next Steps book. It starts out Botvinnik,M. - Vidmar,M. Nottingham, 1936 1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nc3 0–0 6.e3 Nbd7 7.Bd3 c5 8.0–0 cxd4 9....

Black tries his best to defend a key square only to get mated.

A very unusual position. Here’s what you need to know. It is a won position. The way taken by White is amazing. In the final mating position, White has only his queen, bishop and some pawns while Black has his two rooks, queen, two knights, and two bishops and a bunch of pawns!

You also have to be tactically alert in IQP middle game positions. Here only one first move wins.

Hope you had a nice three day weekend. This is a position option taken from a game Euwe won in 1934.

Isolated Queen Pawn based attacks can get quite complicated. This game is interesting because Black didn’t pick the most tenacious defense. The engine gave an alternative, yet still had White winning, so the sac was sound; however, I let the engine run on the alternative, and it says it is decisive. Play it through. It’s a lot tougher than ...