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| Jan-21-09 | | Hortensius: The problem with these puzzles is, that you KNOW the first thing to look for is a queen sacrifice... This is different in a real game... |
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| Jan-21-09 | | YouRang: I see a some good attacking ideas:
(1) if I can seal off e7, then I have a back rank mate (with my Q or R) at h8. (2) if I can deflect black's c7 rook off the 7th rank, then I have Qxf7#. (3) if I can get rid of Pf7, then Ng6+ forces ...Kg8 & Qh8#. It seems that I *should* be able to use these threats to my advantage. But how? I looked at 25...Rc3 (idea to deflect the rook), but it's not forcing enough. I couldn't see any good way to hit e7 either. But finally I considered combining threats (2) and (3) with 25.Qxf7+! forcing 25...Rxg7, and now I've gotten rid of Pf7 by replacing it with a rook. This opens the door for 26.Ng6+ Kg8 27.Rh8#. It seems we've had a puzzle very similar to this recently... |
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| Jan-21-09 | | njchess: Feels like a Monday. Call it a gift for Wednesday.
As for the game, White's 10. a3 was big clue for Anand to remove his knight from Nc3. 11. ... b6 has the virtue of freeing Black's bishop, but at the cost of leaving his knight unprotected. 11. ... b6 also begins a series of poorly conceived tactical moves by Black. 12. ... Ba6? just encourages 13. b4! 13. ... Bc4?? is a glaring blunder that simply loses the bishop if White wants to take it. 14. b5! and Black is forced to relegate his knight to the sidelines with 14. ... Na5 or lose the bishop. To be fair, Bd6, Ne7, Nd5 takes time, but it would have been better than this mess. No sooner does Anand secure his wayward bishop, then White launches into a king side attack. Well played by White, but the future World Champion gave him every edge. |
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Jan-21-09
 | | Jimfromprovidence: Black had two chances to effectively play g6. 18...g6 below, might be better than than the text Bf8.
click for larger viewAlso, as <WMD> pointed out in 2005, 24...g6 looks like a perpetual with best play.
click for larger view |
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| Jan-21-09 | | MartinChuzzlewit: <Eurotrash: I got it easily. Therefore, I am a better chessplayer than Anand. Simple logic really.> Anand has also beaten one Karpov, Kasparov, and Kramnik. Karpov has defeated a mssr. Fischer. So, it appears, good sir, that you are in fact the best chess player on earth. I humbly prostrate myself before thee. That I did in fact get it quite a bit more easilyer than you, surely does not bode well for my opponents. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | MartinChuzzlewit: < Hortensius: The problem with these puzzles is, that you KNOW the first thing to look for is a queen sacrifice... This is different in a real game...> ergo... |
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| Jan-21-09 | | TheaN: 2/2 (Tuesday pending)
I know this one is correct, because it is forced mate in three. Wednesday 21 January
<25.?>
Material: /-\ ♗+♗+♙ / ♘
Candidates: <[Qxf7†]> -ML-
<25.Qxf7† Rxf7 26.Ng6†> similar to the Tuesday puzzle of last week. With one move added, this is not terribly difficult. White's material deficit, a Knight for two Bishops and a pawn, turn into a huge advantage here as the Black pawn (g7) is blocking its King, and the Bishops are helpless against the incoming Knight and Rook. <26....Kg8 27.Rh8‡ 1-0> seems too easy for Wednesday. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | Salaskan: It took some time (about one minute) to find this one... I was looking at a way to sacrifice a knight to block e7 or tactics with Ng6, but they all didn't work out. I'm not used to queen sacrifices on Wednesday, else I'd have seen it immediately ;-) By the way, why do all these puzzles come from Anand's games? |
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| Jan-21-09 | | patzer2: <WMD> I think you're right that 24...g6 would likely have bailed Anand out with a draw. After 24... g6 25. Nxg6 (not 25. Nxf6+? Qxf6 26. Qh7+ Kf8 27. Nxf7 Rxf7  ) 25... fxg6 26. Qxg6+ Bg7 27. Ng5 Kf8 28. Nh7+ Kg8
29. Ng5 Kf8 30. Nh7+ Kg8 31. Ng5 =, it's a draw by repetition. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | njchess: <MartinChuzzlewit:
Karpov has defeated a mssr. Fischer.>
Karpov never played Fischer.
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| Jan-21-09 | | WhiteRook48: after a while I got it worked out, cool Queen sac by Kaidanov. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | drnooo: Heres a notion: on the super easy ones on the early part of the week, why not back off a few moves, let some of us guess what the next few strong ones would be, THEN it will be more like an overtheboard thing. Will it be done, nope, so I guess we can always back up, play through the game and do it that way. But this one was a little obvious for a Weds. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | drnooo: Actually in this case it could have been backed up just before the bishop sac and been a good Weds puzzle |
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| Jan-21-09 | | SamAtoms1980: Let's see, 25 Rh8+ Ke7 26 Qxf7# would be a mate in two. What's that? I'm not allowed to jump my Rook over the Queen? That's fine, I'll just have to push the Queen out of the way. Sorry, Queen. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | Phoenix: After the move 25.Qxf7+:
"At this point Vishy looked up at me. There was so much pain in his eyes that I remember this look until today." -GM Gregory Kaidanov, Jan 2009 issue of Chess Life. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | akapovsky: Weird week indeed maybe <chessgames.com> swithed yesterday's and today's puzzles around but anyways <Qxf7+> sets up a mate in 2 not much to it. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | Kasputin: Some sacrifices are better than others. Sometimes the sacrifice requires very accurate calculation, sometimes it is an intuitive sacrifice. Here it is neither, but this sequence is still a real beauty. When the white queen captures the f7 pawn, the queen has the support of the e5 knight. Because of that the king can't take the queen and the only legal move is to capture the queen with the c7 rook. But that rook in some ways acts like the pawn that it replaced. It blocks the black king, but unlike a pawn it doesn't exert any power on the g6 square. That same knight that prevented the king from capturing the queen now moves to g6, blocking as well any possibility of escape by the king on e7. Then it is all over with just the knight and the rook on the h-file. Black's superior forces stand idle; white's other white knight is hanging. Very nice! |
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Jan-21-09
 | | Eggman: Of course, this puzzle is very similar to one from a couple of weeks ago, namely Plaskett vs Emms, 1986, White to play:
click for larger viewHere, Plaskett missed 23.Qxf7+, as did Emms. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | Kaspykov: nice forced mate. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | MartinChuzzlewit: < njchess:
Karpov never played Fischer>
Oh, I meant to say "Spassky" instead of "Karpov". I dont know why I aways mix these two names up. I mean, seein' how I was lightheartedly replying to Eurotrash who was lighheartedly saying he was better than Anand, I can see the need for you to seriously correct my post. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | amadeus: <Eggman: Of course, this puzzle is very similar to one from a couple of weeks ago, namely Plaskett vs Emms, 1986> Yes, I was a bit confused at first -- "haven't I done that before?". Anyway, very easy. |
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| Jan-21-09 | | DarthStapler: Got it |
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| Mar-12-09 | | butilikefur: Someone earlier mentioned that Anand had a draw with 24...g6 but I think here White should have good winning chances. If 25. Nxg6 fxg6 26. Qxg6+ Bg7 (26...Rg7 27. Nxf6+ Qxf6 28. Qxe8+ Qf8 29. Rh8+ Kxh8 30. Qxf8+ Kh7 31. f3  ) 27. Ng5 Kf8 28. Nh7+ Kg8 (28...Ke7 29. Qxg7+ Ke6 30. Qe5+ Ke7 31. Nf6 [threatening Rh7+ Kf8 Nd7+ Kg8 Qh8+ mate] 31...Rf8 32. Nxd5+ Qxd5 33. Qxc7+ Ke8 34. Qc8+ Qd8 [34...Kf7 35. Rf3+ Qxf3 36. Qd7+ wins the queen] 35. Qxe6+ Qe7 36. Qc7+ wins [not the cute 33. Rh7+ Ke8 34. Qxc7 Qd8 35. Qg7 Qd6 36. Qg6+ Kd8.. and the mate is probably there but distressingly hard to find]) 29. Ng5 Kf8 30. Rh4 Qd6 (everything else seems to get Black mated) 31. g3 (winning the bishop here (with 31. Nh7+) leads to a lost endgame) Nc4 32. Re1 Nxa3 (this seems the most useful although there are other candidates, 32...Nd2 33. Nh7+ Ke7 [33...Kg8 is forced mate] 34. QxB+ K-Q1 35. Q-N5+ KR-K2 36. QxN RxN 37. Q-N5+ Q-K2 38. Q-N8+ Q-K1 39. QxQ+ KxQ 40. RxR RxR 41. R-KB1 followed by P-KR4 and White has a favourable endgame; there is also 32...e5, 33. Rf4+ Ke7 34. Qxg7+ Kd8 35. Nf7+ Bxf7 36. Rxf7 Rxf7 37. Qxf7 Nxa3 38. dxe5, unclear but White has the initiative [for example, 38...Rxe5 39. Qg8+ Ke7 40. Qg5+ Ke6 41. Qg4+ Ke7 42. Rd1  ]) 33. Rf4+ Qxf4 this holds better than it looks with the two bishops (33...Ke7 34. Qxg7+ Kd8 35. Nf7+ Rxf7 36. Rxf7 ) 34. gxf4 Bxd5 35. f5 Rg7 (as White is planning f6 and then h4) 37. Qh6 Ke7 (to nullify f6) 38. Rxe6+ Bxe6 39. Qxe6+ Kf8 (39...Kd8 40. Qd6+ Kc8 [40...Rd7 41. Nf7+ Kc8 42. Qc6+ Rc7 43. Nd6+ and mate follows] 41. h4 and White is better) 40. Qd6+ Kg8 (40...Ree7 41. f6 Rxg5+ 42. Kf1 Bc5 43. fxe7+ Kf7 44. Qf5+ wins) 41. h4 and White is better.. most of the lines are unclear but I think White can keep the initiative and seems to have a better endgame. Although, it is too bad Anand didn't play into this.. probably would have proved all my analysis wrong. |
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Mar-23-15
 | | ChessCoachClark: I like the continuation 25. ... Rxf7 26. Ng6+ Kg8 27. Rh8# as it leads to an Arabian Mate with the King on the "other/opposite" side of the Rook. |
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| Sep-24-22 | | Chessius the Messius: 18. Bh6 g6 19. Bxg6 fxg6 20. Nxg6 White is winning. However, after 23. Ne4 Kf8 24. Nxf6 gxf6 it's White who has to keep the draw: 
click for larger view |
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sac: 21.Bxh7+