Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Let Them Eat Queens (Chess Homeschool, Day 2)

Another day of prep: whew!  So teachers do this 180 days per year?

Winning the queen doesn't guarantee winning the game, but it certainly helps.  So before you turn on Cartoon Network, try the following quiz: answers tomorrow.  I believe that all of these games finished in 12 moves or less.  Some of you will probably recognize the famous position in the first game.

1) Black to play and win
2) White to play and win
3) Black to play and win

4) White to play and win
5) White to play and win
6) White to play and win
7) Black to play and win

8) White to play and win

9) White to play and win

10) White to play and win

5 comments:

Bill Brock said...

Scholars should cite their sources. I used Irving Chernev's 1000 Best Short Games of Chess and ChessBase's MegaBase 2012.

Frederick Rhine said...

Good problems, a little more challenging than yesterday's. As you may recall, I've had No. 6. See http://bit.ly/TUjiUi and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT_LFa4hQn4 Unless I'm blind, No. 5 is really challenging. I would probably play 1.Bxe7!? Nf3+ 2.Kh1 Nxh4 3.Bxh4, when Black will not have an easy time of it despite his material advantage. But absent much deeper analysis one can hardly call this a forced win for White. Did you mean Black to move? In that event, 1...f6 wins a piece, since a bishop retreat would be met by 2...Nf3+.

Bill Brock said...

Look for quiet moves in #5. You're right that #5 is really too hard for an advanced beginner's quiz!

But with the hint, I thought it wasn't impossible for smart beginners.javascript:void(0)

Frederick Rhine said...

Was that "javascript:void(0)" at the end supposed to be some snarky emoticon? I see now that 1.Be2!! is shockingly strong - stopping both 1...Nf3+ and 1...Nxd3, and threatening both 2.Bh5 and 2.Bxe7. OK, you got me on that one!

Bill Brock said...

I'll put the answers in Chess Flash this weekend. Until then:

(1) Gibauld - Lazard [A45]
Paris Paris (1), 1924
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nd2 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.h3 Ne3 0–1

(2) Bernhold - Kreutzahler [C21]
Berin Berin (2), 1941
1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Bc4 cxb2 5.Bxb2 d6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Ne5+ Ke8 9.Nxg4 Nf6 10.Nxf6+ gxf6 11.Qh5+ Ke7 12.Bxf6+ 1–0

(3) Kholmov,Ratmir D (2465) - Sherbakov,Ruslan (2580) [D02]
RUS-Cup4 Perm (3), 10.02.1997
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 c6 3.e3 Bf5 4.Nbd2 e6 5.c4 Nd7 6.b3 h6 7.Bb2 Ngf6 8.Be2 Bd6 9.Ne5 Ne4 10.Nxe4 Bxe4 11.Nxd7 Bxg2 0–1

(4) Akimov,Ivan (2272) - Pridorozhni,Aleksei (2348) [B22]
Petroff Memorial op St Petersburg (4), 15.02.2000
1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nc6 5.Nf3 e5 6.Bb5 cxd4 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.cxd4 Ba6 9.Nc3 Bb4 10.dxe5 Qe4+ 11.Be3 Rd8 12.Qxd8+ 1–0

(5) Popovic,Petar (2535) - Schlosser,Philipp (2500) [B42]
Brno Brno (5), 1992
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Ba7 7.0–0 Nc6 8.Qg4 Qf6 9.Nc3 Nge7 10.Bg5 Qg6 11.Qh4 Ne5 12.Be2 1–0

(6) Ibragimov,Ildar (2590) - Zhelnin,Vladimir V (2490) [B06]
RUS-Cup02 Moscow (6), 1998
1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Nd7 3.e4 g6 4.Bc4 Bg7 5.Bxf7+ 1–0

(7) Kunze,Kerstin (2160) - Kovalev,Andrei (2520) [A00]
GER CupT Germany (7), 1991
1.g3 e5 2.Bg2 d5 3.c4 d4 4.e3 Nc6 5.exd4 Qxd4 6.Bxc6+ bxc6 7.Qe2 Bg4 8.Qe3 Qxc4 9.Qxe5+ Kd7 0–1

(8) Booth - Fazekas [C18]
London London (8), 1940
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qc7 7.Nf3 Nc6 8.Bd3 cxd4 9.cxd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Qc3+ 11.Qd2 Qxa1 12.c3 1–0

(9) Denker - Chiera [D06]
Washington Washington (9), 1936
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c5 3.e3 cxd4 4.cxd5 Qa5+ 5.Qd2 Qxd5 6.exd4 Nc6 7.Nf3 Bf5 8.Nc3 Qa5 9.Bb5 e6 10.0–0 Rd8 11.Ne5 Nge7 12.Nd5 1–0

(10) Vokac,Marek (2455) - Bazant,Petr Sr (2295) [A00]
CZE-ch Turnov (10), 1996
1.b4 d5 2.Bb2 Nd7 3.Nf3 Ngf6 4.e3 g6 5.c4 dxc4 6.Bxc4 Bg7 7.Bxf7+ 1–0