Fascinating Conversion to Winning KP ending an Exchange Down!!

ICC player eternalwarrior blundered in below diagram by moving his Rook to c7 rather than c8. His logic was impeccable wanting to protect d7 pawn, but there was a tactical oversight in his reasoning. 

Can you see the flaw in his reasoning based on Black's King location and the harmonizing/coordination of the g5 Knight an the e6 pawn?

After pawn to e7 there are two Knight Forks that lead to a won King and Pawn ending where the White King ends up at the dominating d5 square and Black possessing a weak isolated passed d pawn still stuck on its original d7 square!!! One of the variants actually forces the Black Monarch to block the passed pawn in order to to gobbled up by f6 Knight Fork!!!! SO BEAUTIFUL

It is impossible to go through all the variations as to why White is winning, but some of the ideas are White has two pawn islands to Black's three, White has 3-2 King Side pawn majority, Zugzwang(means German for every move loses),  a more active centralized King, and maybe even triangulation in some variations. 

I would love to know if Doug Hyatt or Russian Speaking White guy GM Bryan Smith would consider this position, after the blunder, to be worthy of study?

Advanced Pawn Triples win in all Variations!!

As a weak USCF class player with a rating usually a little under 1500, one of my major weaknesses is being too materialistic. I go out of my way to win a pawn in the opening only to be slaughtered like a lamb by stronger players who see the pawn I won as a gambit pawn!!!

In the game above, Denmark player Superboy seemed to be well on his way to another crush of the weaker player. The skilled Danish player was up a piece and attacking my f8 Rook with his a3 Bishop. There is a spectacular move in the position that allows the second player to mobilize his blockaded pawn phalanx at f4,e3, and d4. Hint: The winning move also threatens to pin the White Queen to the White King!

Now, of course, I did not find the move over the board, but just imagine a tactical sequence that creates a PAWN TRIPLE. We all know about the potency of a pawn duo(couple), but how about at Fuckin pawn triple my chess loving friends??? Scroll down to see the winning conception figured out by StockFish.

Rf5!! putting the Rook en prise to the d3 Bishop. Capture allows for the winning mobilization of static pawn wedge!!!!!

Overdependence on Sodium Bicarbonate as it relates to Attacking Chess

I paused and reflected whether the former resident of North Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom would spit on the playing style of his online chess namesake Captain Evans.

United States player CaptEvans fianchettoed both his Prelates, placed both his Horses on the second rank, and made various overtures of unnecessary defensive maneuvering in the diagrammed position. The real Captain Evans was of Weaver Adams ilk. Adams, a San Francisco old era Master, published a book titled White to play and win with 1. e4. The openly homosexual Adams played aggressively making every effort to seize the initiative. The baking soda addict had no use for making Luft or waiting moves. This implies he was probably a top in the famous bathhouses near the Bay. It is consistent with the penetrating style of his play!

His much weaker successor makes only waiting moves hoping to pounce on an overstep in a style espoused by the famous Andy Soltis tome regarding the rewards of playing defense. Andy made a fantastic suggestion in his seminal work. He said the last line of defense is to MAKE YOUR OPPONENT WIN after you have exhausted all other remedies to save your losing/difficult position. I have saved many draw and actually won games with this tip alone!!!! 

The big difference here is ICC CaptEvans plays defense from move one with white or black which would make the real Captain Evans turn in his grave.

Piece Sac creates unstoppable passed pawn

ICC handle Compassion, from Sweden, was not treated compassionately after attacking White's e5 Bishop with pawn move f6. Beginners at chess sometimes are slow to learn that pawns attack diagonally which is contrary to their vertical, non capturing, motion up and down the board.

A columnist in the Yasser Seirawan magazine wrote a marvelous article about zigzag pawn moves making captures on each move as a recurring tactical motif! The affable Syrian, who has lifetime winning record against Tal, is not nearly as active these days as the chess world would prefer. 

Neophyte lovers of the Royal Game are sometimes programmed to automatically move an attacked piece, especially when a measly pawn is the offender. However, the move pawn to f6 also made Black's second rank fatally exposed. So how does White ignore the overt threat to his centralized Prelate?

The pawn advance to b6 is a game winner only because of aforementioned weakening, otherwise the Queen e5 Bishop d6 diagonal dominance would be an adequate defense!

Declining Second Staunton Gambit Pawn

Couldn't find much information regarding comfortable setups for Black against the Staunton Gambit on the blog of Gambiteer Ian Simpson's authoritative source for aggressive and attacking Gambit Play, so I decided to add this ICC seminal game on declining the  Staunton Gambit.

The move order chosen by Swedish player Johh was 1. d4 f5 2. e4 fxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 c6 5. f3 e3. Johh only sports a 1525 USCF rating, but he has beaten IMs who are foolish enough to play ef allowing a strong initiative with no chances of losing the game!

So Black played 5. ... e3! which slows down the first players development and makes the e3 Bishop a cumbersomely  placed BIG PAWN searching for a role! I will never forget Saved By Bell TV star Samuel "Screech" Powers(Dustin Diamond) who was a benefactor of the Royal Game and a nice guy who spoke at a tournament I played in many years ago. Screech loved the game and appreciated aspects of positional play!

From the diagrammed position, one can readily observe a piece configuration not pleasing to an attacking check mate the King player. Johh moved his f pawn twice to prevent the liberating pawn move e5. Again, note how awful the prelate on the e3 square is placed while White's development lags immensely!! Black played the freeing contest the center move  c5 and won easily in the ending phase of the game.

A well known chess adage espoused by legends like Benjamin, Shirov, D. and M. Gurevich is to accept gambit pawn and then give it back if initiative reaches fever pitch. 

Marco Antonio Tavares,

MatoJelic, Rūdolfs Nukševičs,Lucas Wind,Avery Church,Antonio Innocente love the Dutch defense and don't want to abandon cuz of some inebriated player who is homicidal about his King Pawn!

J. Watson-Rule Independence

Chess player John Watson wrote a book that featured a section or chapter on Rule Independence a long time ago. I mean like how many times have you hear the phrase "If center pawns are locked up, then attack with a pawn storm on flanks or wings" OR open the game up with line opening pawn moves if you possess the bishop pair"  His book showed counterexamples to many of the pedantic overstated rules that have been passed down over the generations mentally handicapping some beginning players.

The following game played at ICC reminded me of something else the IM quoted in his book. A guy named Suba stated that Bad Bishops protect good pawns. One can see in the diagram that Black's Bishop at e6 is enveloped by the pawns on the g6,f5,d5,c6,b7 squares. 

However, imagine that same entombed prelate on f5 threatening mate in one!! The move f4 , clearing the f5 square for the aforementioned threat, appears to  be refuted  by Bd3 where g6 is attacked by the Bishop and and g1 Rook. In the game Black played Rh1 desiring to exchange Rooks with Belgium player Azrael1978. This  is close to a horrible positional/tactical blunder. Rh2 is a better move, but Black must see how to respond to f3 attacking the Black Lady. 

So Black has the initiative after Rook h2 even though his Bishop is manifestly bad patiently awaiting diagonal opening pawn moves. On a side note IM Watson endorsed the interesting view of Sarah Hurst which espouses the assertion that chess intelligence does necessarily positively correlate to IQ, practical intelligence or other forms of mental acumen. I knew of academically retarded guys in Houston who were expert chess players.  Her remarks on the matter sound almost angry to the point I would bet she has very LOUD multiple orgasms.

Lifelong Influence of a Beloved Chess Coach

Before I forget, this is a tribute to GM Yury Shulman or Yuri. Sorry chess coach, I don't recall correct spelling. 

I had not thought of this excellent chess and LIFE coach in ages, but was reminded of him by the following position played at the Internet Chess Club.

A little background on how I remember this guy. My nephew Mark attended a college in Fort Worth or maybe Dallas Texas. The college had chess scholarships and while Mark did not earn a scholarship, he learned a lot about the Royal Game from the humble and patient GM who was employed there as a tutor I think. Been awhile so I could be wrong about the specifics. I never met Yuri, but feel like I know him well based on Mark's remarks. Shulman actually helped Mark in life much more than chess if you will tolerate that irony. My nephew was spoiled rotten and thought he was good in chess because he was good at tactics, but sucked pretty bad at long term strategy.

He would show Mr Shulman a game where he had beaten a fish(weak chess player) with piece sacrifices and unsound play. He could not understand why his coach/tutor would berate him, sometimes cursing emphatically that THIS WAS NOT THE WAY TO GET fuckin BETTER AT CHESS!!

Take a look at the above position to see why this reminds me of Dr Shulman. White(blitzen at ICC) has just played Be4 which allows a mate in 9 according to Komodo chess engine. It is based on White carelessly not noticing an elementary mate based on Ng3 and the Bishop owning the g1-a7 diagonal. 

I am certain the esteemed teacher would have given Mark an earful about his inattention to this detail. I want the teacher to know that Mark is quite successful in another field these days and will never forget the good times at the University in the DFW area where a Dr Root also guided him!

Passivity

The germs of defeat are spawned in passive play. Part of that is plagiarized and part is mine. A character at ICC named KingZinski(Polish I think) loves bending over buttocks full exposed and playing pusillanimous double fianchetto systems. 

In the position you see below black placed his horses at d7,e7. Did not place a pawn on the fourth rank even though White did not storm center with his pawns. The Modern and Pirc defenses are designed to punch back or counter strike against massive center and flank pawn surges by the first player. 

At least Indian player AjitChandra knows his play is overly passive and wants to correct it. The book by Grandmaster Rafael Leitão is a meritorious resource on patiently punishing players who play afraid and unwilling to take chances. Rafael Leitão is a weaker GM since any honest strong player knows games cannot be won out of the opening. Rafael is just trying to sell his book to the ignorant USCF players rated below 1500. 

Bogdan's textbook CRUSH OF Petrak Robert  is an example of passive play being a poor choice. 

Jerome Knew Tactical Based Defenses

There was this old timer who said something like, paraphrased, "He who takes his opponent's Queen's Knight Pawn sleeps in the gutter" God Damned English descriptive SUCKS. 

A dude named Rick Kennedy, who loves gambit play, told me about only fools grab b2,b7, g2,g7 pawns.

So aforementioned scenario happened in a game at ICC in the position you see below. JPF555 from Australia licked his chops for awhile pondering munching White's undefended b2 pawn after he exchanges Towers on the c file. I guess you callem Rooks or Castles in COVID overrun America. A lot of the rest of the world believe Corona originated in the United States.

As it turns out the b2 pawn is tactically defended to borrow the phrase from Larry Christiansen,  Artemiev ,Kenneth John McPherson,Patrick Daly,Cyrus Lakdawala, dude that maintains the path to chess mastery blog, Doctor Fianchetto(christopher.p.bak),Tanmay Srinath and Farmer Darren Walters.

See if you can envision why capturing the b2 pawn, after the c file clears, LOSES? A chess friend named E. Rios says to imagine possible mating patterns and figure out a way to get your attacking units to the right squares. A key to see this relatively easy mate in 3 is to observe the h6 escape square is surveilled by White's g5 pawn.

It is about thinking in Schemes or Stages

Schematic thinking in the manner espoused by Mikhail Shereshevsky entered my thought process in the following chess game played at the Internet Chess Club. The Minsk Belarus native believed that broad stroked plans in relatively plain language were vital to improving one's judgement and course of action.

US player GarrySacco, playing Black, quickly repeated the position and claimed a draw in the Blitzin/Dasher interface written by a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. However, in a longer time control, could you list a step by step plan that would have won the game for White?

First observation is that the centralized Bishop is Dog Shit defending weak pawns at c5 and e5.

Second observation is that Black g3 pawn is subject to  ingestion by White King at f3 and White Knight at f1. This maneuver cannot be stopped due to the locked up fixed pawn structure which invariably favors Horses. 

Once the g3 foot soldier falls, White's g2 pawn is passed and will promote or force the second player to sac his anemic prelate for it. 

The plan involving swapping the locations of the c4 King with the d3 Knight are surprisingly not as effective!

Instructional chess book writers Raluca Sgîrcea, Renier Castellanos, Miles Ardaman produced a lucid exposition of the Bishop versus Knight confrontation. 

SSLC Score Chess Name

Many chess players lean towards antisocial if one is pressed to classify psychology. ICC players often have what appears to be random handles or names as their playing moniker. However the Indian player with the name karthick496 struck one as quite an information packed handle.

Indeed, it is related to a Scholastic Excellence Award where the 496 is the number of marks earned on a SSLC exam. Incidentally M.Prabhakaran won top honors with 497 marks way back in 2013. 

What does this have to do with Chess, American Jew Hater Bobby Fischer, would query? The guy with the exemplary score of 496 played 1. f4 allowing Black to take the initiative less than 10 moves into the game. This often happens when people try to play reverse openings like the Dutch Defense with White. Does anybody know if D. Gurevich still plays what many GMs consider an unsound opening? Somebody was saying he tutors rich Chicago kids for around $125 an hour which is better than living under a bridge like some high rated chess paupers. 

If you must know SSLC stands for Secondary School Leaving Certificate in India. It appears to be a test you have to pass to "graduate from 10th grade". Would be a good idea for American Public Schools who routinely graduate illiterate people not qualified to enter the work force or live independently.

Finally, chess commentator Stefan Emanuel Sylvester Kindermann, is the only player of any repute who really advocates the Dutch King as an active piece in endings. The Austrian book writer is quite personal in his exposition referencing wine sipping during  postmortems, adjournments and game analysis.  He is right! After the g7 fianchetto Bishop is gone, the a1-h8 diagonal becomes a super highway. 

Tolerating what appears to be a Dangerous Check

Weak pawns frequently control important squares. See the commentary of D. Naroditsky in the seminal game of pawn health versus piece mobility(Carlson/Nakamura) where the 5 time US champion possessed an uncompromised pawn structure and two horses versus the tattered pawns and Bishop Pair of the World Champion. Great article about it in the United States periodical Chess Life.

Also master Quora commentator Tom Wilkins writes about Naroditsky's winning online blitz record against King Magnus.

Ultrarunner, hailing from Denmark, plays boring but winning chess at ICC with his pet line the King's Indian Attack. In the diagrammed position, White "threatens" Queen to d8 check. This is an instance of playing safe or conservatively. OTB players would be inclined to play the safe defensive move Qe7. However White's impotent prelate at f3 would make a postal player scratch his whiskers and consider the greedy Queen captures pawn at b3 not fearing the "meaningless check" since the White light squared  Bishop is poorly placed not being able to aid in attacking what appears to be a vulnerable Black Monarch!!

A dude at ChessFox.com can relate to all this citing Philidor's claim that pawns are the soul of chess. I find it sooo odd that the owner of ChessFox never identifies themselves, but want you to buy chess tutorials from them. Maybe a lower rate player who thinks it would hurt his bottom line or sales?

Subterfuge Only for Weaker Chess Players

Every lover of the Royal Game knows the Lasker quote about deceit, lies, and hypocrisy at the chess board:

"On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not last long." - Emanuel Lasker. ... "The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in the checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite."

An internet chess club player named subterfuge, who prides himself in his rather sleazy approach to chess, missed a tactical shot in the diagrammed position that would have given the second player a lasting initiative.

It is a simple move based on the horizontal pin of the White f4 pawn to the unprotected White Queen on fourth rank. Can you find the move?

The predator book by Ward Farnsworth did an above average job covering the tactical motifs associated with pinned pieces. Lesser lights  Frank Erwich, Claus Dieter Meyer, Karsten Müller also produce works that are worth reading on improving the tournament players tactical alertness.