"Teacher overslept!" answers, part 1

I'm glad the strike ended relatively quickly: otherwise, I'd have been posting delinquent answers well into 2013.  These examples were lifted from Irving Chernev and ChessBase 2012.

Experienced players often resign against masters when they've lost a minor piece.  Beginners should keep playing until they understand why the position is hopelessly lost.

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

Sometimes good counting skills are more important than brilliance:

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+

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:

A beautiful miniature

I'm sure some of you have not seen this beautiful miniature, played in 2001 by GM Alex Yermolinsky against Indiana's Emory Tate, who became an IM in 2007. Tate likes to go his own way in the opening. Here he played a type of Schmid Benoni with 1.d4 c5 2.d5 e6 3.Nc3 (Yermo could have played 3.c4, with a regular Benoni) exd5?! 4.Nxd5. On White's sixth move, Fritz much prefers 6.Bf6! to Yermo's 6.Bh4, analyzing 6.Bf6! d6 (6...gxf6?? 7.Nxf6#) 7.Nxe7 Bxe7 (7...gxf6 8.Nxc8 leaves Black with a gruesome pawn structure and a bad bishop) 8.Bxg7 Rh7 9.Bc3, when Black is a pawn down, and against the "Yerminator" might as well resign. After 6.Bh4 Qa5+ 7.c3, Black would have been OK (Fritz says even slightly better) following 7...Nxd5! 8.Qxd5 Nc6 9.e4 d6. Instead, his 7...Nf5?? allowed a stunning coup. Take a look at the diagram below. Do you see it?

Ever since I saw this game, I have tried to pull off the same thing myself in blitz games. I succeeded in Rhine-NN, 5-minute game, playchess.com, November 19, 2007: 1.d4 c5 2.d5 e6 3.Nc3 exd5 4.Nxd5 d6 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.e4 Qa5+ 8.c3 Nxe4?? 9.Qa4!! Qxa4 10.Nc7#.

A Weird Mate

Here is an amusing blitz game I played many years ago. It ends with a very unusual checkmate effected by a bishop and pawn. I later learned from Jimmy Adams' book Richter Veresov System that the entire game was analysis by Yudovich, although I had no idea of that at the time. After my 4...exf6!? (4...gxf6 is more solid), 5.e3 is probably best, intending to give Black an isolated queen pawn with a later dxc5. After 5.dxc5?, my pieces became dangerously active.

At move 7, White should have played 7.Nd6+, when Sanchez-Larrea, Mexico 1953 continued 7...Bxd6 8.cxd6 Qxd6 9.Nf3 Nc6 10.c3 0-0-0 11.cxd4 (better is 11.Nxd4) Qb4+ 12.Qd2 Nxd4!! 13.Rc1+? (13.Qxb4? Nc2#; 13.Nxd4! Qxd2+ 14.Kxd2 Rxd4+ 15.Kc3 Rhd8 with large advantage to Black - Adams) Nc2+!! 14.Rxc2 Bxc2 15.Qxb4 Rc1#.

Czerniak-Pirc, Mar del Plata 1950 diverged from that game with 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.a3 O-O 11.Nf3 Rac8 12.c3? Rfd8 13.Rd1 dxc3!, when White got in terrible trouble but managed to scrounge a draw after 14.Qxd6 Rxd6 15.Rxd6 cxb2 16.Nd2 Nd4 17.f3 Nb3 18.e4 Rc1+ 19.Kf2 g6 20.Nxb3 b1(Q) 21.Nxc1 Qxc1 22.Rd3 Be6 23.Rg1 f5 24.exf5 Qb2+ 25.Be2 Bc4 26.Re3 gxf5 27.Re1 Kg7 28.f4 b5 29.Kg3 Be6 30.Bf3 a5 31.Rd1 a4 32.Bd5 Qc2 33.Rdd3 Kf6 34.h3 h5 35.h4 Qc1 36.Rc3 Qg1 37.Bf3 Kg6 38.Rcd3 Bc4 39.Rd6+ Kg7 40.Re5 Qc1 41.Rxf5 Qxa3 42.Rb6 Qc3 43.Rg5+ Kf8 44.Rb8+ Ke7 45.Re5+ Kf6 46.Rb6+ Be6 47.Rbxb5 a3 48.Ra5 Kg7 49.Rg5+ Kf8 50.Ra8+ Ke7 51.Re5 Kf6 52.Raa5 Bc4 53.Rec5 Qe1+ 54.Kh3 a2 55.Rf5+ Kg7 56.Rg5+ Kf8 57.Rgc5 Ke7 58.f5 Qc1 59.Ra4 Qh1+ 60.Kg3 Bb3 61.Ra7+ Kd6 62.Rca5 Qe1+ 63.Kh3 Qh1+ 64.Kg3 1/2-1/2. You can play over Czerniak-Pirc here.

A trap in the Wing Gambit

Lest you think from my earlier post on the 5-move Shirazi-Peters game that the Wing Gambit against the Sicilian is a complete joke, here is a cautionary tale. I fell into the same trap myself on the Internet a few months ago. After 3.Bb2, the immediate 3...d5 is most accurate, rather than 3...Nc6, which encourages White to kick the knight with d4-d5. On move 7, Black should have retreated with 7...Qd8 8.Nf3 e6. After 7...Qxd4?? 8.Nd5! Black was busted, since 8...Qxb2 9.Nc7 is mate. Even after the game continuation 8...Qxd1+ 9.Rxd1, White again threatened mate, which Black could not stop without losing the rook on a8.

A miniature

Dean Arond, whom I have known since we were on opposing high school chess teams over 30 years ago, recently won the following amusing tournament game against a player who shall remain nameless.

Beware of queen checks!

Many, many opening traps involve a surprise queen check that picks up an errant piece. This includes the shortest decisive master game in history (apart from no-move forfeits, 1.c4 Resigns and such), given below. Black's 3...Qa5+ forks White's king and bishop, winning the latter. If you look at big databases, you'll see that this trap has also occurred a number of times since. Occasionally White has even drawn the game, despite dropping a clear piece on move 3! The website 365chess.com (highly recommended; it allows you free access to a 3.5 million game database) has seven games with this trap, two of which ended in draws!! The Black players who only drew were rated 2259 and 2199. These games provide further proof of the truth of the adages, "You can't win [or even draw] by resigning." and "The hardest thing in chess is to win a won game."

A trap in the Vienna Game

The trap below has caught a number of players over the years. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4, 3...Nxe4 is the well-known "fork trick," envisioning 4.Nxe4 d5, when Black regains the piece with equality. More common is the sharp 4.Qh5! (attacking both f7 and e5) Nd6 (virtually forced) 5.Bb3 (5.Qxe5+ is equal). Then Black can choose between the solid 5...Be7 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Nxe5 0-0, and the wild sacrificial line 5...Nc6!? 6.Nb5! g6 (6...Nxb5?? 7.Qxf7#) 7.Qf3! f5 8.Qd5! Qe7 (8...Qf6!? is also playable) 9.Nxc7+ Kd8 10.Nxa8 b6, which Eric Schiller christened the "Frankenstein-Dracula Variation."

White's 4.Bxf7+?!, as in the game below, isn't very good unless Black falls into the trap in this game. After 4...Kxf7 5.Nxe4, Black should play 5...d5!, meeting 6.Qf3+ with 6...Kg8! 7.Ng5 Qd7!, when Black has the bishop pair, his king is safe, he owns the center and will soon drive back White's pieces. After the plausible 5...Nc6?! 6.Qf3+! Kg8?? (6...Ke8!) 7.Ng5! Black is suddenly lost. White has the terrible dual threats of 8.Qf7# and 8.Qd5#, and 7...Qxg5 8.Qd5# doesn't help.

The British chess writer G.H. Diggle wrote an amusing account of having lost a club match game this way (Davids-Diggle, London 1949) in all of two minutes, while his teammates' games were just getting started. His later investigation revealed the same game had been played in 1899 between Imbusch and Goering (see Irving Chernev's 1000 Best Short Games of Chess, p. 6) and that the British Chess Magazine in 1901 had described 6...Kg8?? as "a common blunder in this and similar positions."