Yule enjoy these puzzles

It's time for the ChessBase Christmas Puzzles 2011!

I found the "obvious" (and cute) solution to today's puzzle, but I admit to being stumped by the "Black's best defence" hint.  There is no way for Black to lose a tempo, is there?

Aha: NM Pete Karagianis posted a link to the answer on his Facebook page.  I didn't take the variation deep enough.

1001 Deadly Checkmates

I recently got John Nunn's new book 1001 Deadly Checkmates. It's a collection of (you guessed it) 1001 positions from actual play (mostly in the last few years) where the player on move can checkmate by force in a few moves. It is a great book, which I think will be useful to a wide range of players, say from 1400 to 2400. I'm 2200 OTB and can solve most of the problems pretty quickly (197 out of the first 200), but still find them useful for honing my tactical skills. They should be even more useful for lower-rated players, who will find a lot of mating ideas that are new to them. Chess is largely a matter of pattern recognition, so exercises like these are useful to everyone. It's reasonably priced, too - only $15.75 at Amazon.com.

Here is a position, from Kotrotsos-Stiri, Iraklion 2005 (No. 640 in Nunn's book) that surprised me. I solved it quickly enough, but might not have if I hadn't known that there was a mate to be found. White, on move, must force mate.

Dr. Nunn's guide for the perplexed

From chapter 8 of Nunn's Chess Endings, Volume 2 (I haven't gotten around to buying Volume 1):

8.2 Rook vs Pawns

There are a surprising number of subtleties in endings in which a lone rook faces enemy pawns, and here we shall focus on those which are of greatest importance in over-the-board play.

8.2.1 Hesitation checks

By hesitation check I mean that a piece traveling from square A to square B gives an intermediary check on square C before moving to B.  The point is that if the enemy king is already on its best square, the hesitation check forces the king to an inferior square.  It might seem unnecessary to give a special name to such an elementary concept, but it often helps to have a label to refer to a particular theme.  Hesitation checks play an important role in rook endings and are often overlooked in practice.

 Have another go at it!

Rook endings (or, the love that dare not speak its name)

If you enjoy rook endings as much as I do, you'll love Nunn's Chess Endings, Volume 2.  John Nunn's books are always full of top-rate material, but unfortunately, much of it has often whizzed over my head.  (For example: Secrets of Rook Endings.)  But Nunn has put a lot of work into organizing his mind-bending examples thematically and giving the reader guidance.  The examples are still difficult, but Nunn has never been this reader-friendly before!

For example, here are the first three diagrams in Nunn's book:

Fries Nielsen-Plachetka, Rimavska Sobota 1991

White to play and win

Usually when I get such a position, I have three minutes left on the clock and am reduced to counting on my fingers: "I go here, he goes there, I go here..."

Analysis diagram
White to play and draw

Hey! Didn't I learn in one of my beginners' books that two pawns on the sixth rank always win against an unassisted rook?  And indeed, 1.Rxh3? does lose.  Why?  And where's the darn draw?

Penrose-Perkins, British Championship, 1972
White to play and draw

I found the first position hard and the third position mind-numbingly difficult.  Back with Nunn's guidance in a little bit.

from the Volokh Conspiracy, via Andrew Sullivan

Too smart to become the chess world champion?

Magnus Carlsen says he's not quite as bright as John Nunn. It's interesting that this Carlsen interview got mentioned in two influential political blogs....