Answers to Day 2 Problems (Chess Homeschool)

Queens died prematurely in all of these miniatures.

This game was in Guinness for being the shortest game between two masters. 4.h3?? weakens White's defenses along the e1-h4 diagonal, and Black forces White to choose between loss of king or loss of queen:

Black was very brave to accept the Danish Gambit without the customary "return of gift" (3...d5!? or 5...d5!?).  But 6...Bg4? lost a pawn to the standard 7.Bxf7+! trick, and 9...Nf6?? allowed a skewer:

The next one isn't easy: the loser of this game, GM Ratmir Kholmov, once beat Bobby Fischer brilliantly. The in-between move 11...Bxg2! takes a flight square away from White's king so that 12...Bb4+ can only be answered by 13.Qd2. And if White makes a normal move (12.Qd2 or 12.Nc5), Black just takes the free rook.

Black relied on the absolute pin in the game below when he played 11...Rd8?? But after 12.Qxd8+! Kxd8 13.O-O-O+, White unpins with check and wins back the queen with interest.

I apologize for the unfairness of the next problem! (But you did have the big hint that a queen hunt was involved...) The big pitfall to avoid was 12.Bxe7?? Nf3+! winning White's queen. But after 12.Be2!, White really is threatening 13.Bxe7, as well as 13.Bh5 trapping the Black queen, and there's no way for Black to stop both threats.

Accidents happen when the queen doesn't have Luft (chess players use the German word for "air" to mean an escape square or airhole). After 5.Bxf7! Kxf7 loses the queen after 6.Ng5+ Ke8 7.Ne6 or 6...Kf8 7.Ne6+, and 6...Kf6 7.Qf3 is mate. Patzers like you and me might choose to play on after 5...Kf8, but after 6.Ng5, White is up a pawn with a winning attack.

Whenever the queen and king are lined up on the e-file, look for tactics! 9.Qxe5+?? opened the e-file, and Black immediately took advantage with 9...Kd7!, clearing the way for the Ra8 to come to e8. The bishop on c1 was already hanging, and White has no way to answer both threats (10.Qc3 Re8+ and mate in one move).

If you've lost material out of the opening, and you're playing in London in 1940, you should keep calm, carry on, and trap the opponent's queen. Booth played 12.c3!, and Black has no way to escape, nor to stop 13.Nb3. Give yourself full credit if you chose 12.O-O! instead: 12...Qxd4 loses to the discovered attack 13.Bb5+, and 12...Bd7 13.Qb4 is overwhelming for White (or so Houdini tells me).

It is good to threaten mate and the queen at the same time! 12.Nd5! is a killer because 12...Qxd2 is answered by 13.Nc7 checkmate, and 12...Rxd5 13.Qxa5 wins because the poor knight on c6 doesn't really protect a5: it's pinned. The winner of this game, former U.S. Champion GM Arnold Denker, donated the money to fund the annual Denker Tournament of High School Champions.

You've already seen the Bxf7+! followed by Ng5+ & Ne6 queen suffocation idea. The only difference in this game is that Black could have responded to 7.Bxf7! Kxf7 8.Ng5+ with 8...Kg8. While the queen is not lost, checkmate on f7 is Black's fate after 9.Qb3+

Teacher Overslept! (Chess Homeschool, Day 4)

No particular theme today. Number 22 is relatively difficult.

11) White to play

12) Black to play

13) White to play

14) White to play

15) Black to play

16) White to play

17) Black to play

18) White to play

19) Black to play

20) White to play

21) White to play

22) White to play

23) Black to play

24) White to play

The Perils of Pauline (Chess Homeschool, Day 1)

Good morning, class!

The silent films heroine Pauline was always in a life-threatening predicament, but somehow always managed to escape.  Even the corny movies of the 1940s found Pauline's perils a little bit too unbelievable:

Experienced players may find the following ten positions a little corny, too.  But if they help beginners and intermediate players learn new mating patters, that's OK.

You have the White pieces and it's your move. Black is threatening checkmate in one move, so you'd better find a way to escape! Some have suggested that the best defense is a good offense.

1) White to play and win

2) White to play and win

3) White to play and win

4) White to play and win

5) White to play and win

6) White to play and win

7) White to play and win

8) White to play and win

9) White to play and win

10) White to play and win

If you're stumped, remember that Black is threatening mate. You must look at all forcing moves (moves that Black has to answer), no matter how silly they seem!

Too easy? Go for extra credit.

Too hard? If you're having trouble, ask questions in the comments.

Ken Marshall in action

The longtime editor of the Illinois Chess Bulletin can push pawns, too, as he proved earlier today at the Illinois Open:

U.S. Championship Round 9

Kamsky takes the lead with a brilliancy:

Kamsky-Seirawan
2012 U.S. Championship, St. Louis
White to play and win

So why didn't Black play 23...Nd7, one asks?  The answer is not hard to find, but it's very beautiful.

Kamsky-Seirawan (variation after 23...Nxd7?)
White to play and win

Board 2: Altounian 1 - Felecan 0

Black gets overambitious against White's hypermodern noodling-around and doesn't get enough for the sacrificed pawns.  But Florin sets a beautiful coffeehouse trap on move 32.  Black doesn't take the poisoned queen, but doesn't find one of the several clear winning lines, either, and Felecan is back in the game.

Then 37...Rf6? allows 38.d5!  Ouch.  Chess is hard.

World Open: A cute mate

Eric Rosen drew GM Ray Robson in Round One last night.  Alexander Shabalov broke down Eric's Sicilian in Round Two, however:

You can follow top board action at monroi.com: Mesgen Amanov is playing an interesting double-rook ending right now.

More fun with smothered mates

A smothered mate is a lot of fun, as long as you're not the hapless player who falls into it! In the game below, White was a strong player who won the Danish Championship the following year, and was awarded the IM title four years after that.

A Chicago original

J.R. Houghteling was a strong Chicago player around the turn of the 20th century. Here is his most famous game. White's play is feeble, but Houghteling concludes the game with a beautiful checkmate. Irving Chernev, in his classic The Thousand Best Short Games of Chess, noted that Bigelow called the final position "a rainbow of Bishops and Knights." Francis Wellmuth in The Golden Treasury of Chess wrote that it was "[o]ne of the most extraordinary mates ever given in actual play."

The wonderful chess writer and novelist Tim Krabbé once questioned the game's veracity (scroll down to No. 355), but later acknowledged, "A communication by Frederick Rhine makes it clear that speculations of [Dodge-Houghteling] being a hoax, are unjustified." In the same post, he gave several later examples of similar mates.