An early Bg4 leads to a hard to defend Position

A very strong chess player from the country of Chile missed, a relatively easy tactical shot that would have given him a substantive initiative. DvonDessauer84, whose ICC name suggest a German military hero or strategist, may have been stressed about the worldwide social distancing imposed by COVID-19 when he missed a move that would have been followed by a pawn fork of two minor pieces.

Chilean lovers of chess are frequently aggressive always seeking forcing, initiative seizing move orders. In the diagrammed position, the weaker American player appears to have a quite comfortable, if not winning advantage. Both the a7 and c6 Black pawns are anemic and it appears White can leisurely double his Rooks on the  a-file for a stress free win. See if you can find the move that turns the advantage back in Black's favor.

BTW, this position arose from a double queen pawn game where the Chilean Jugadore prematurely played Bg4 leaving his b7 pawn weak and unprotected. Qb3 often punishes such immature development. Note the b7 square is vacant  in the diagram!! Be patient before your scroll down to find the saving move.

DID YOU FIND the move Ndexc5 ?

Silent Draw Offer at the Highest Level

So I was watching the Ruy Lopez Rapid Championship 2019 game between the Norwegian and the American Nakamura. Magnus was Black and had a screwed up pawn structure but possessed the Bishop pair. Hikaru had granite grip on the c4 square with his Horses since the Horse could NOT be driven away by Black pawns. Carlsen had put his tower/rook at a spot that would straighten out the pawns if the best player in the United States ever decided to capture the  tower on square controlled by one of the Norway star's doubled pawns. So the two dudes agreed upon mysterious draw where the spectators present observed no draw offer!!

Sunil's son had just  moved his lady to the corner square a1 and a draw was agreed upon with no clear verbal offer by Nakamura. So do these stud chess players practice better non verbal communication better than most females?!!

Chris Voss knows all about this in the world of business negotiations. Nashama Mohamed relates it to helping those afflicted with Big Phrama's dream malady Aspergers. Yoshihiro Nishiaki connects it to cavemen in a paleontology backdrop.

Widow Making 101

An old master chess buddy of mine from Austin, Texas had a cool rule of thumb for when to sacrifice the exchange which means to give up a Rook for a Horse or a Bishop. Drew said that if you could get an extra pawn out of the deal, then the exchange sacrifice was likely to be sound.

Widowmaker, a tactically aggressive player from the United States of America, had just casually played b4 expecting to casually post his prelate at b2 and positionally punish the French Defense major handicap at d7.

So remembering Sarkisian's sage advice, I ripped off the f3 Knight with the f8 Rook resulting in the e5 pawn getting munched by either of my Horses. This exchange sacrifice did not result in the maiming of White's Kingside pawns, but left Black with a passed d pawn and open lines for his remaining forces.

The player boasting the nickname of the left anterior descending  artery was crushed in this game in a fashion consistent with his ICC label.

I moved from Austin area long, but will be always grateful to the kind chess players from that region. Thanks for the memories guys!!

Down with dem triangulating Queens!!

So my limited aging mind always thought the term triangulation was reserved for gaining the opposition in a strictly King and Pawn ending with the purpose of escorting a peon, I mean pawn to its queening square.

Well EXCUSE ME, the notion of triangulation also applies to Rook versus Queen endings, which many amateurs believe are easy wins. FALSE, weaker USCF players only draw these difficult endings not be able to mate in the 50 move limit!! Black can actually lure white into stalemates with naked pins by Rook on the Queen!!! Quite arousing in fact.  Chuck Dilbert thought that best state of mind for Caissia devotees was somewhere between relaxation and arousal. No Chuck, that is for the bath houses after the hard fought game.

However, armed with a little theoretical knowledge, club players can win out against even the staunchest defensive maneuvers.

In the diagram below, with White to move, The Queen gives the move back to Black forcing the once  comfortable b7 rook walk far away from the trepidating Black Monarch at b8.The squares b1 and h7 are the "safest" but the rook will fall to the common tactical theme of double attack combined with mating threats.

And no SANTIAGO WILLS, Americans did not forget about chess. How could they with such fascinating positions as this clever geometry technique applies to our beloved Royal Game!!

The letter W related to most difficult of Checkmates

I thought about TunaGobbler from the country of Finland, who was caught cheating at Chess.com, when I finally learned how to mate with a Knight and Bishop against a naked King. Not sure if the cat lover was ultimately banned. I hope not, cuz he is a nice guy and I think the anti cheating software may have fucked up somehow.

Mating with a Knight and Bishop only is simpler than its Byzantine reputation as there are only three key positions you have to know. This may be why Houston TD George John was very good at doing it, and not that good at real chess never having a rating that exceeded 1450 even though the cat was a computer programming genius.

Also much gratitude to the German schachspieler Niclas Huschenbeth for elucidating the importance of the 3 key positions with no unnecessary mention of all the triangles that clueless American commentators annoyingly use. I looked for a paypal spot at YouTube to pay the Grand Master who did a marvelous job of explaining the tedious mating exercise without overwhelming detail about similar triangles in geometry!!! In the name of fairness, Majnu2006 did an above average demonstration dealing with big, medium, and small triangles, however NIclas still wins the teaching trophy!!

The steps are

1. Drive the weaker side's King to edge of board on the Bishop file with Knight adjacent to King.
2. Move the King to the corner, color of Bishop, with a W maneuver.
3. Mate the King in the corner with a variety of mating patterns often requiring multiple waiting moves with either Horse or Bishop. Be cautious about STALEMATES!

1.

2.

                                     I KNOW THAT IS ONE GODAWFUL REPRESENTATION OF A W with                                            vertices at the squares f2 e4 d2 c4 and b2. Geometry Teacher Ms.                                                      Kostecki would love this!! Also note that the 5 W moves will not be made                                            consecutively to allow for the necessary waiting moves averting desperation draws by weaker side!

3.

Finally a subtlety is that this process can happen on all four sides of the board where references to the Bishop file become somewhat meaningless. 

Weakened Pawn Structure Versus High Mobility Bishop Duo

Norway or Norwegian blitz player PerMag(An adoring fan,devotee and lover of Carlsen) plays much better than his 1400 rating. In the following diagram, he chose the bishop pair over a maimed King Side pawn structure.

He does have a healthy uncompromised(will stand strong against the feared COVID-19 virus) 3-2 queenside pawn majority that could possibly lead to an endgame advantage. US Grandmaster D. Naroditsky wrote a beautiful piece dealing with tattered pawn structure,Bishop Pair(Magnus Carlsen) versus solid pawn structure with two Horses(Nakamura).

Carlsen, exploiting imperceptible weaknesses, while torturing  the dumbfounded American in an article published in the USCF periodical.

The Stockfish ICC machine, as G. Kasparov calls it in his magnum opus "My great predecessors", evaluates White's compromised structure as a long term advantage for Black, unless the Bishop pair that were once a single piece according to J. Rowson can impose their will!!

BTW, do any of you know who owns the website simplifychess.com? Whoever it is does Caissia an extreme disservice with marketing slogans like LEARN HOW TO ALWAYS WIN AT CHESS

Moreover, the entrepreneur behind the site never discloses his/her name, but wants your name so they can send you "cool software" that will make you never lose a chess game. OMG, are you kidding me? Who is your target audience for a ludicrous thing like this? CHESS PLAYERS ARE SUPER SMART. Do you think anybody will be suckered in by such Bullshit?!! 

The whole notion that chess can be simplified or dumbed down to where average IQ people can always win is a travesty. Take down your site and make a living another way!! Have the guts to reveal yourself to the chess world by disclosing your name like fredthebear did at his gaming site.

Read the efforts of Daisy Grewal regarding the misogyny that exists in the Royal Game. She was brave and principled enough to put her venerable and trusted name on her work in Scientific American.

A tribute to a PRINCIPLED NYC Chess player

 The ICC is a ruthless place by many people's standards. Intelligent people winning games against other intelligent people in completely level positions because they took 1/10 of second less on their clocks in blitz chess!

A resident of Croton, New York takes no quarter and gives no quarter in this regard. I watched him play on in a completely level position against a weaker player. Neil Basescu goes by the pizza name Pepperoni and wins a lot of games by clocking his opponent, but on this day the other contestant played for a Bishops of opposite color ending right out of the opening in a French Defense by just capturing White's proud e4 pawn on move 3. This avoids a ton of theory that the higher rated player Croton may have memorized. So the lower rated player beat the higher rated player in a game that would have been easily drawn in a USCF tournament.

Breaking Bad actor Art Glassman would have most certainly adjudicated the game a draw as any Senior TD would not tolerate the nonsense of shuttling opposite colored bishops back and forth for hours!

But at the internet chess club, bullet chess players will gladly sacrifice their Queen to win on time one move before getting mated OR play 104 move games like the one you see below where neither side has winning chances. Pepperoni requested multiple draws in the position which were repeatedly declined by the lower rated player because Mr Croton would have done the same thing. NO HARD feelings. IT IS WHAT IT IS!! even though this is a stone cold deadlock with the Black Dark Squared Bishop not controlling the White h1 square in the "wrong corner" where players in a longer time control tournament would agreed to a draw or Goichberg would call it a draw to avoid the spread of the Corona COVID-19 virus!!!