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Black to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

You have probably noticed that I enjoy playing the Dutch Defense. It’s a very aggressive defense, but it has a good many common attacking schemes against White’s kingside. In the diagrammed position, White has just played19.cxd5. What do you do?


Solution:

If you recall the response I made to the reader, you’ll note that I mentioned it’s handy to know themes in chess. One of those themes is a German term, zwischenzug. It’s an in-between move instead of an expected one. Here, White expects or hopes Black will play exd5 or Bxd5, but Black crosses White up with a “zwisch.” Here’s how it went:

1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 d5 5.Bg2 c6 6.Nf3 Bd6 7.0–0 0–0 8.Bf4 Bxf4 9.gxf4 Nbd7 10.e3 Ne4 11.Qe2 Nxc3 12.bxc3 b6 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.Qb5 Rf6 15.c4 Bb7 16.Ne5 Nxe5 17.dxe5 Rg6 18.Kh1 Qh4 19.cxd5 (see diagram)19…Rxg2 20.Kxg2 Qg4+ (An important point, too. This check is better. Why? Because one of the big ideas of attack is to limit your opponent’s replies. The two queen checks prevent White from playing f3 to Bxd5+. Even though Black does play Bxd5 without check, the game is over because the king has been trapped.) 21.Kh1 Qf3+ 22.Kg1 Bxd5 White Resigns Not only is looking for unexpected or non-routine (recapturing right away) moves important to remember, but so is the exchange sacrifice which opened up White’s position.

 

That’s why these puzzles help you develop IF you not worry so much about not being able to solve them. Concentrate on what lessons you can learn from each puzzle, and when the same pattern arises again, you have a better chance to solve it.

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.


 

 

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