Stunning decoys

(And no, we're not talking about carved wooden mallard ducks.) One final tactical example from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011): buy this book!

The legendary Nona Gaprindashvili missed an amazing shot in her 1979 game from the Soviet Championship with Irina Levitina. I'll quote from Neistadt's explanation, but I'll leave out the amazing move she missed.

Levitina-Gaprindashvili, Tbilisi 1979

White to play has to stop mate on g2 somehow....

Neistadt writes:

"Black has just played her queen to f3, to threaten mate.  In reply to 1.Qc6 (or 1.Qxe5+ Bf6 2.Qe4 Rfe8, Gaprindashvili's original calculations had gone 1...e4 and after 2.Qxe4 the decoy sacrifice 2...Rge8 3.Nxe8+ Rxe8.  But when the white queen appeared on c6, she realized that at the end of this variation, White in her turn can attack the queen with 4.Nd4

Levitina-Gaprindashvili, Tbilisi 1979

Analysis after 4.Nd4: Black to play

(4...Rxe4 5.Nxf3), and Gaprindashvili was forced to abandon her original intention.  Instead of 1...e4 she played 1...Qf5 and soon lost.

However, [...]"

So what did Nona miss?

The pin must win

With the absolute pin (pins?), all things are possible, as demonstrated by this puzzle from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011).

Parr-Wheatcroft, London 1938

White to play and win

A Larsen shot

Stealing yet again from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011).

Like Petrosian, Bent Larsen was best known as a positional player.  But he too was an outstanding tactician, and in his wonder year 1967, he didn't miss too many shots.

Black has some chances in the knight ending, but does he need to make the game last that long?

Westerinen-Larsen, Havana 1967

Black to play and win

If I told you the tactical theme, the solution would be too obvious....

Here's another position from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011). Former World Champion Tigran Petrosian is rumored to have been a more-than-adequate tactician.

A deflection immortal

Once again, we are cribbing from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011).  And once again, our theme is deflection.  An enemy piece is performing an important function: can you make it move so that it's no longer performing that function?

Two hints: I wrote "wow" in the margin of the book, and even Houdini took a second or so to find the winning line. But what would an American do at the Opéra de Paris?

Mackenzie-NN, Manchester 1889

White to play and win

Deflection is an essential skill in the workplace, too

Over the next week or two, we'll be featuring tactical exercises from books for beginners, advanced beginners, and intermediate players..

This morning, our theme from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011) is deflection. An enemy piece is performing an important function: can you make it move so that it's no longer performing that function? Two examples:

Atlas-Witrthensohn, Wohn 1993

White to play and win

I love the next one!

Füster-Balogh, Budapest 1946

Black to play and win

Tactics, tactics, tactics...

Over the next week or two, we'll be featuring tactical exercises from books for beginners, advanced beginners, and intermediate players.

I've been reading Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011) on the METRA for the past few weeks.     It's a great tactics refresher for the average tournament player.

Some of you will recognize the textbook combination in the following position immediately:

Glass-Russell, Belfast 1958

Black to play and win

This exercise (adapted from position #100 in Neistadt) has a similar theme (which is...?), but requires a bit more creativity:

adapted from Nette-Abente, Paraguay 1983

Black to play and win