Monday, September 9, 2013

Tactic and Endgame

I posted this position yesterday:

It is white to play and win and there are a number of moves available that will do the job. I was looking at the discovered check 1.Be6+ which wins black's queen.

The boy who was playing this game played the beautiful move 1.Ba6! pinning black's bishop and forcing black to play 1..Qc3 after which he was happy to win the queen with 2.Rxc3, but even happier when I told him this was checkmate!

However, may favourite move in this position is the quiet discovered check 1.Bd3+! forcing black to interpose with his bishop, 1..Bc6. Now that black's light squared bishop is pinned, white has mate by 2.Ba6, a very nice diagonal crossfire in front of black's king.

In a recent game I played online I reached the following position:
As I'm a fan of elementary endgames, I was very happy to reach this position with black. I knew the position was a draw, but black can still play on risk free, which is what I was doing. I had a big surprise however, when my opponent resigned this position! So, imagine you are white and it is your move. What plan would you use to try to hold this position? I'll tell you my thoughts in a couple of days!

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