Thematic King's Indian Bishop Sacrifice

 Was reminded of an old chess friend from Houston, Texas in the following game. Mick Bighamian(USCF rating of around 2400 at the time) said something that really stuck in my mind. The specificity of his claim made me realize that Chess players are really inveterate nerds. "when the unmoved c8 Bishop sacrifices itself at h3 the result of game is frequently, if not always, in favor of the second player". Now that may not be exactly the way Mick phrased it, but if he reads this I am sure he would agree with the paraphrasing. He had close to a photographic memory for positions which is a big part of the reason he was a senior master and one of the top 5 or so players in Bayou City. 

Another master from the region, Todd Thomas, penned an accurate quote in the Texas Knights monthly periodical stating that the late Robert Brieger was on chess nerd fringe in the same fashion that chess nerds are on the fringe of society at large. Todd was lampooning Brieger for making a big deal about the difference between the terms Zugzwang and Squeeze. Funny how certain things just stick in your head!!

So check out the position, arising from a Dutch Defense,  where Mick's always winning move wipes out Australian player Pritoka. After Bxh3, the f8 Rook occupies f3 square with fatal consequences. The Black king regicide is only avoided by the 9 pointer giving herself up. 

I do love this kind of position where an "undeveloped piece" is actually the most active force on the board! This actually shows how the nebulous concept of development as it is taught sometime in middle school as "just getting you pieces out" is quite mistaken.

Would like to close by paying tribute to the now defunct Dave's Chess Studio. Lotta good times there around 20 years ago, but alas the inconstancy of friendship and life getting in the way prevails. 

Unstoppable Mate in Four

 CTalin is a tactical beast at the ICC in the USA. I am usually on the receiving end of brutal attacks by this 1857 rated Mikhail Tal fanatic, but today was tactically alert, Larry Christiansen, and was lucky enough to to see a Mate in 4 after the careless Be6 move by Ctalin.

Can you find this mating pattern based on the potentially wide open a1- h8 diagonal and g file? Hint: Look for line opening piece sacrifice where the only way to delay mate involves hanging the Bishop.

Electrical Engineer Mike Peattie has posted some rather dry commentary about sacrificing material at Quora in a way quite common to unimaginative understanding of the concept of material.

Eloping Female Chess Player Reference

 The made for movies drama involving an American International Master and a Russian female who was using him to get to the USA popped into my mind after this sacrifice the farm game of chess played at the Internet Chess Club. The Russian female later divorced IM Donaldson and married another edgy, easy to irritate  chess player named Orlov who loves to move his Horses before his pawns in the opening. The dude also loved to Tango!!  

Black is already down a piece in the diagrammed position and it is not really clear who is attacking whom in a position where many commentators would just bale with  "chances for both sides". However there is a concrete continuation based on the violent tactical theme of diagonal clearance. The Nd4 is a forcing continuation due to the fork of the Queen and King and the move also threatens the eviscerating Ba4 CHECK!

John wrote some nice annotations where he suffered through a sacrifice the house attack at the hands of the Lexington Lion GM Gregory Kaidanov.  The former employee of Yasser Seirawan also wrote a nice opening tome on the Meran Defense. IM Donaldson is  a good teacher also. 

Inventive Approach in this Chess Game

 An ICC blitz player named ReInventor, playing Black in the below diagrammed position, had to love the inventive nature of this Naked hanging piece sacrifice. His greed for pawns weakened his f7,e6, and b7 White Squares. Also his Horse at b8 blocks the Rook at a8.

Applying Laskerian logic to the three anemic squares, the NAKED piece sac Ng5 presents itself as a winning move! The Knight move attracts the Black Queen to the g5 square which also creates devastating back rank mate threats after the White Lady ingests the b7 pawn.

Read the work of medical researchers V. Kalidasan, Narcisse Joseph, Suresh Kumar, Rukman Awang Hamat, and Vasantha Kumari Neela to learn more about iron deficiency as it relates to our Royal game. I learned all about Iron homeostasis from these medical students or interns or maybe even Doctors. In any invent the move Knight to King's Knight 5 jacked Black's efforts at homeostasis.

The game Dexter Dale Jr. vs. Ryan Folgarty had some themes similar to this game.

Geneticist taking a break with some Online Chess

I could not help but reflect on the controversial work of a China Man geneticist named Dr. He Jiankui after beating somebody named Gene Doctor at ICC.  Not sure if the guy I beat is actually a doctor or just a big fan of the movie, but White actually wins after Black promotes his g2 pawn to a Queen if Black is careless where he places his Monarch after Nd7 check. Just a fascinating position!!! Note that Nd7 is a discovered check which also supports the Queening f8 square!!

The Guangdong doctor tried to modify genes to make the FrankenBabies immune to AIDS. The Chinese recognize this a illegal. No surprise this doctor wanted to become a proxy God after hanging out with the radical liberals in Berkeley California!!

Back Rank Clearance Tactical Motif

Not sure if back rank clearance is common parlance, but perhaps a glance at the diagrammed position will define it by picture. 

It is well known that hanging (en prise pieces) are the origin of any tactical sequence. Combine that with King safety and it is not difficult to see why Bishop to the g4 square initiates the fireworks against knightjouster5 during a blitz game at the internet chess club. BTW GM Jesse Kraai believes online chess along with the COVID-19 might irreversibly damage the long time control aspect of our beloved Royal Game. He and Greg Shahade are extreme adversaries in the short versus long time control paradigm shift!! Kraai's pithy and incisive column in Chess Life should win multiple awards!

Back to the diagram. White's hanging Queen at c2 and rook at a1 fully justify the "hanging attack" Bg4. Work through the variations. IT IS STUNNING!!

I am certain Saint Louis chess club commentator Jonathan Schrantz would include this in one of his instructional videos.

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!

The definition Rudy and Jimbo Loved

The Rudolf Spielmann definition(The late NM Jim Gallagher of San Antonio,TX was quite fond of this definition) of a chess sacrifice is the giving up of material where the goal is not necessarily to recover the material, but to create a difficult to defend position. Also the consequences of a true sacrifice are incalculable.




In the following position, with Black to Move, Bishop captures at h3 is to be considered. Black gets two pawns for the sacrificed Bishop and pressure on the the White Monarch. Since White has not done anything wrong other than not play for the initiative, you wouldn't expect him to be losing.

I have seen these type of sacrifices be well defended where the defender takes it to the ending while maybe dropping another pawn yielding an imbalance( A mainstay in Jeremy Silman's lexicon) of 3 pawns for the piece.

So a relatively common outcome for this type of sacrifice would be a minor piece and six pawns versus two minors and three pawns. All truly in keeping with the incalculable aspect of the piece sac definition Jim was so fond of.

Also it is vital that a strong chess player realizes that the goal of sacrifice is to not necessarily recover the material or to quickly checkmate the enemy King. A sacrifice can place psychological(the word that Fischer hated) pressure on the defender inducing mistakes leading to excellent practical results. Just don't sacrifice against Carlsen, even in a simul, as he proved in his win against Anand that he does not not make mistakes even under the blistering weather of an attack, e.g. how he got his Knight to e8 defending the mating square g7 on Black side of Nimzo Indian.