Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #56 to #62

Tactic #56:

1. Qd5+ Kxa7 2. Qb7#

Tactic #57:



White's pieces are very close to the Black King, but White's King is the one in more danger. Note that on move 22...Rf2 would have been better, as the Rook on the f file makes the defense Rag1 less good. Maybe best play would be 22...Rf2 23. Bg7+ Kg8 (this blocks the g file which gives White's King some breathing room) 24. Ne4 Rxg2 25. Kxg2 Kxg7. Black is two pieces up.

Tactic #58:



The position after 32...Ne4 is screaming for a positional exchange sacrifice. Here, though, White has pawn pushing bishop pinning tactics he can follow the exchange sacrifice up with to get two far advanced center passed pawns.

Tactic #59:



Here I missed



Tactic #60:



And here I missed



Tactic #61:

In the same game, this theme reappeared.



Well, it is kind of a funny thing to look back at games you won and point out all the tactics you missed. It is much less funny to go back at games you lost and point out all the tactics you missed!

Tactic #62:



Krush actually won her next and last game to become the US Womens Champion but that game wasnt good for a tactic of the day, so here is Krush's penultimate win on her way to becoming the 2010 US Womens Championship! Unfortunately, I seemed to have bungled this tactic anyway, as I have White to move. Well, I will edit it now, and hopefully no one spent too much time trying to find a win for White. I will say I did this for pedagogical purposes, so that you do not always assume there is an answer!

The tactic is supposed to be that Krush can ignore the attack on her Knight and push her center pawns with devastating effect.

Well aside from that last little foible, I hope you enjoyed these!

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #49 to #55

Tactic #49:



Unfortunately for me, White did not actually play the move 15. Qxb7. After the move 15. Qxb7, though, White gets mated by 15...gxf2+ 16. Kxf2 Qe3+ 17. Kg3 Bd6#

Tactic #50:



Ahhhhh, now that is much better ;) The relatively simple under promotion f8=N+ wins allows for Checkmate in 2.

Tactic #51:



My opponent lets me off the hook in this game. Instead of 10. Nxd8, 10. Bxf7+ gives White a nice position. The idea is that 10...Kxf7 is not possible because of 11. fxe3+, and Black will simply lose his Queen.

Tactic #52:



A famous game by one of my favorite players. A double bishop sacrifice!

Tactic #53:



Another famous game by another one of my favorite players.

Tactic #54:



Fine, go ahead and laugh. Every time I look at this position it takes me a while to spot that the Queen is attacking the Light Squared Bishop from way down the 5th Rank. Fortunately for me, I didnt miss it and end up losing the game later, as it is actually pretty probable that I would do that.

Tactic #55:

1. Bd6 Rxg7 2. Bf4# or 1. Bd6 Ra8 through Re8 and Rh8 2. Bf4# or 1. Bd6 Rf8+ 2. gxf8=Q#

I hope you enjoyed these.

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #42 to #48

Tactic #42:



This game is from the same tournament as Tactic of the Day #18. The tournament was to qualify for the World Championship match with Kasparov. The tactic is more of a defensive tactic than an offensive tactic. I feel it is good to through these types of problems into the mix. They do a great job of stopping automatic thinking. After 26...Re4 White's attack fails and he ends up material down.

Tactic #43:



Yep, from the same tournament. This tactic is really easy once you see the answer. Before you see it, though, it Rh3 threatening mate idea is not nearly as easy to spot. Even after you spot it, it is a fairly complicated to actually win.

Tactic #44:



Another from the same tournament. It was a pretty cool tournament after all. It is a pity that World Championship qualifier tournaments are less stable these days. I like the World Cup Knock Out tournament as a qualifier though. Anyway, Black is able to win a pawn by playing 19...Bxf4 because a Knight can eventually capture on f4 forking White's Queen and Light Squared Bishop. In some ways, a straight forward Knight fork. On the other hand, it is pretty well disguised!

Tactic #45:

1. Qxh7+ Kxh7 2. Rh4+ Kg8 3. Re8#

Tactic #46:

1. Qxe4+ Kxe4 2. Nc3+ Kf5 3. Rf1#

Tactic #47:



This game is between Philadelphia chess player Bryan Smith and the eventual World Open winner Viktor Laznicka. There is some good analysis of this game on the Huffington Post. It was a very back and forth game that was well fought by both players. In the end, though, Bryan Smith couldnt hold on for the win. Instead of 41. Nc4, 41. Rb7+ and after the King moves 41. Rc8 and White's position is much more comfortable and he remains up material. Hopefully a lot of Philadelphia Inventors games are like this!

Tactic #48:

1. Qa7+ Kxa7 2. Ra2+ Qa4 3. Rxa4#

Hope you enjoyed these!

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #35 to #41

Tactic #35



This tactic comes from the 5th round game of the World Chess Championship between Steinitz and Zukertort. Steinitz continues his poor play, and this was the last of his 4 early losses in a row. It makes his ultimate victory amazing!

The idea behind the tactic is 32. Rxg7 Rxg7 33. Rxg7 Kxg7 34. Nxe6+ Kh8 (or anywhere) 35. Nxc7 winning a rook.

Tactic #36:

1. Bc5 Ka5 2. Rxa7# or 1. Bc5 a3 2. Rxa7#

Tactic #37:

1. Qc5+ Kd3 2. Bf5# or 1. Qc5+ Ke4 2. Qd4#

Tactic #38:

1. Qg4+ Kh7 2. Qg7# or 1. Qg4+ Kh7 2. Qh5# or 1. Qg4+ Kh6 2. Rh8#

Tactic #39:

1. Qf4+ Ke1 2. Qc1# or 1. Qf4+ Kg1 2. Qc1#

I messed this one up because I thought it was 1. Qe5 Kg1 2. Qe1# or 1. Qe5 g1=Q 2. Qe2#. This doesnt work, though, because 1. Qe5 g1=N! and there is no checkmate.

Tactic #40:

1. Qf3 c5 2. Qf7#

Tactic #41:



This is simply an incredible game. Ponomariov ended up winning Dortmund, which is not all that surprising if he played like this!

Well, my plan was to put these answers up on the Monday two weeks or so after the problems are up. This one is about a week late. I will put up one tomorrow, and hopefully get back on schedule.

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #26 to #34

Tactic #26:

1. Qxd6+ Kxd6 2. Bf4+ Kd7 3. Be6#

Tactic #27:

1. Qe1+ Rxe1 2. g3#

Tactic #28:



Bobby Fischer is the only official US Chess World Champion, so this game is appropriate for the 4th of July. It is Fischer's penultimate win in the match, which occurred in the 13th round. For some reason, I had this tactic as White to move and win though. Oops! I will just change the tactic around a bit. That is too bad, but these things happen. Its a really cool game though.

The idea behind the new tactic is that White can play 69. Rc3+ and draw.

Tactic #29:

1. Ng4+ Kd5 2. e4# or 1. Ng4+ Kf4 2. Qf2# or 1. Ng4+ Kf5 2. Qf6#

For these types of tactics, try and make sure you see all the possible mates!

Tactic #30:

1. Qg3+ Kf1 2. Qf2# or 1. Qg3+ Kh1 2. Nf2#

Tactic #31:



Steinitz continues his poor play in the 1886 World Championship match with Zukertort. Here, Steinitz sees that Black's d5 pawn is pinned to his undefended Queen on b7. Unfortunately for Steinitz, though, after 37...dxc4 38. Qxb7 Black play 38...Rxd1#! On top of this, after 38. Rxd8 Nxd8 protects Black's Queen on b7. In the end, Steinitz more or less loses the piece for nothing.

Tactic #32:



This was actually a Game of the Day for Chessgames.com with the title The Pearl of Poznan. I was pretty stunned when I saw the tactic and thought I had to use it, so I did!

Tactic #33:

1. Rc8+ Qxc8 2. Qxg7+ Rxg7 3. Rxg7#

Tactic #34:

1. Qh6+ Rxh6 2. Bxh6+ Kh7 3. Bf8#

I hope you enjoyed these. Sorry for blundering the Spassky-Fischer game!

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #21-25

Tactic #21:



This game was played at the First American Chess Congress in New York in 1857. Paul Morphy ended up winning this Congress.

Tactic #22:



This was the third game in the 1886 World Championship Match between Steinitz and Zukertort. This was the second loss for Steinitz in a row. He would lose two more after this! To top it off, his losses looked fairly pathetic. This is a nice tactic by Zukertort, but it is not something you would necessarily expect a World Champion Candidate to miss. Stranger things have happened though! If you feel I am being to hard on Steinitz, dont feel too bad. He won the match, despite his poor showing in the early stages.

Tactic #23:



And here is the Second round game from the 1886 World Championship Match.

Tactic #24:

1. Rc8 Rxc8 2. Qxc8 Qe7# or 1. Rc8 Bxc8 2. Qxd8# or 1. Rc8 Rxc8 2. Rxc8 Kd7 3. Rxd8+ Rxd8 4. Qxd8+ and Black is way behind in material.

Tactic #25:

1. Qxg4+ Kxg4 2. Be2#

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #14-#20

I recently archived my posts by week rather than month. I think I started The Chess Tactics of the Day on a Monday, so 1-7, 8-14, 15-21 Tactic answers would not correspond with an archived week. To make it easier to look at the problems and answers, I am going to post the answers to one archived week. Sorry, this is worded pretty terribly but it is a really basic concept!


Tactic #14:



Another great and famous win by Morphy. Apparently, Morphy took all of 12 minutes before playing the Queen sacrifice on move 17. Assuming Morphy calculated out all the variations, this represents an incredible speed for calculating moves. I am surely impressed! I make these sorts of sacrifices and realize, oh yeah, on the 3rd move he can parry the check by moving his pawn. Oops!

Tactic #15:

Composed by Richard Reti.



Tactic #16:



Paul Morphy wins again! Amazingly, Morphy was 12 at the time he played this game.

Tactic #17:

1. Qf5 h5 2. Qh5#

Tactic #18:



This game was played by Alexei Shirov and Alexander Chernin. I dont know too much about the tournament, but it was a World Championship Qualifier. I believe this tournament was part of the cycle that culminated in the Kasparov v Anand World Championship Match in 1995. Obviously then, Shirov didnt win the tournament, but he won this very nice game.

Tactic #19:

1. Rf6+ Ke5 2. Ng6#

Tactic #20:

1. Qf3+ Ne3 2. Qxe3# or 1. Qf3+ Kxd2 2. Rd1#

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #8-#14

Tactic #8:

1. Qxf6+ Nxf6 2. Bxf6#

Tactic #9:

1. Qxh5+ Rxh5 2. Bg6#

Tactic 10#:


This is a famous game played by Morphy against a Duke and a Count. The game was played at the opera! As you can see from the game, Morphy makes quick work of the Duke and Count. Probably he wanted to watch the opera instead of playing chess with patzers! This game exemplifies the importance of quick development. Another good rule of thumb is not to weaken your position with attacking moves if you are behind in development. The move b5 is really terrible!

Tactic #11:

1. Qc2+ Kxe3 2. Bg1# or 1. Qc2+ Ke1 2. Bg3#

This is a really nice example of a Queen and Bishop working together on different diagonals.

Tactic #12:

1. Ng4+ Kd5 2. Bxf7# or 1. Ng4+ Kf5 Qf6#

Tactic #13:

1. Qe3+ Kd1 2. Qd2# or 1. Qe3+ Kf1 2. Nd2#

Tactic #14:



Another great and famous win by Morphy. Apparently, Morphy took all of 12 minutes before playing the Queen sacrifice on move 17. Assuming Morphy calculated out all the variations, this represents an incredible speed for calculating moves. I am surely impressed! I make these sorts of sacrifices and realize, oh yeah, on the 3rd move he can parry the check by moving his pawn. Oops!

Hope you had fun with these tactics!

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #1-#7

Hopefully you were able to figure some of these out, but if not these are the answers!

Tactic #1:

1. Na5+ Kd6 2. Rd5#, or 1. Na5+ Ke8 2. Rc8#

Tactic #2:
1. Qg2 Kf4 2. Rxg3# or 1. Qg2 Kd3 Rxg3#

Tactic #3:
1. Ng6+ Kf5 2. Qe5# or 1. Ng6+ Kg5 Qa5#/Qe5#

Tactic #4:



This position is taken from Game 2 of the 2006 World Championship Match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. Topalov is playing as White, and has played very well. He has a crushing attack in this position, that leads to Mate or great material losses.

Respect should be paid to Kramnik's play in this game, though. He has defended/counterattacked very well generally through this game, and has put a lot of pressure on Topalov by taking Topalov's a pawn. Kramnik's a and b pawns look very potentially dangerous.

For whatever reason, both players missed the relatively simple 32. Rxg4+ Bg7 33. Qc7. Black either gets mated or gives up a lot of material to prevent the mate.

Instead of playing this, Topalov plays Qg6+, and Kramnik is able to barely escape the attack. Kramnik was able to win this game, and after a lot of other drama, was able to eventually win the match.

Interestingly, Topalov had a advantageous but drawn position in Game 1 of the match and ended up losing because of a late game blunder. Without these two "gifts" to Kramnik, Topalov may well have won the match in convincing fashion.

Tactic #5:



This game is between Mikhail Tal and Vasliy Smyslov. Hey, one of those is my name! Unfortunately, my namesake loses this game. Mikhail Tal is probably my favorite player though, so its not too big a deal.

This game was played in the 1959 Candidates Tournament. Vasily Smyslov had already been World Champion, but had lost a rematch to Mikhail Botvinnik. Mikhail Tal would go on to win the Candidates Tournament, and beat Mikhail Botvinnik in a 1960 World Championship Match.

In the tactic, Tal is playing White and finds a nice move 19. Qxf7!. The Queen cannot be taken right away because of Rxd8+ with mate to follow. Black needs to block the d file, so he plays Qa1+ forcing Kd2. Now he can take White's Queen, but he loses his Rook with check. White can take Black's Queen on a1, Black can take White's Knight on f7, and the end result is that Black is down a pawn and the exchange and has a bad position.

Tactic #6:
1. Kf2 Kh2 2. Qxg1# or 1. Kf2 h2 2. Qxg1#

Tactic #7:
1. Qxf7+ Rxf7 2. Re8+ Rf8 3. Rxf8+ Kxf8 4. Re8#. If 1. Qxf7 Kh8 then 2. Qxf8#.

Now you Know.