Be very careful how you say Forking Knight

 The terse chess informant notation definitely applies to the following position. The Houston,Texas Master did not notice his King and Queen were forkable on the f2 and d2 squares or maybe he did but did not notice the f3 pawn was ABSOLUTELY pinned by the f5 Queen.

Hobart was more concerned about the weak c2 square which led to the blunder. He moved one of his rooks to c1 guarding c2, BUT allowing Ne4 forking King and Queen followed by resignation. His position was already loose with his King quite vulnerable. He fell victim to the burden of being the higher rated player by 600 USCF rating points. In this case, the first player was not going to accept a draw under any circumstances to a much weaker 1600 player.

The lesson to be learned is try to keep tabs on all weak squares even those induced by absolute pins. The informant notation(using a times/multiplication symbol) is (Xc2,e4)

Benin Chess Oddity

 I thought of social media Icon James B. Delmhorst  as I observed the following chess game by a dude named Suntzu76 from Benin Africa. This guy is very strong, but inexplicably resigned after dropping the exchange due to a Knight fork on the c6 square.

Now James from Connecticut, in the United States of America, firmly believes one has the right to steal any street sign with ones name on it. BUT what if your last name is STOP Mr Delmhorst? Would you really want to be responsible for a T Bone crash at a major intersection?!?

Fortunately, Nigerian Ministry of Education views chess as much more important than the ignominious online financial scams that originate in his country.

Instructive Mate in Seven

 The following position, resulting from a blitz chess game at the internet chess club, is a Black to Move and Win variety. The title of this article is a dead give away and provides enough information for an average player to figure out the forcing winning line.

BUT, would you discover the mating pattern in a real over the board game had you not been given the elephant in the room hint?  

Notice that White's f2 Bishop and f4 pawn occupy escape squares for the forlorn and isolated Monarch. Also fantasize about the g file being open after your Jonathon Rowson conversation with your h8 rook. Add the g7 Knight to the dialogue. After all, fianchettoed HORSES SUCK.

Tactically Defended Weak End Game Pawn

Alexander Shabalov had the fond nickname or sobriquet Shabba when face to face chess was all the rage. He and Yermo were buddies and life was good. Now online streaming resources have facilitated stay at home chess and writing talents like Daniel Naroditsky realized the USCF chess periodical were obtaining the rights to their priceless endgame commentary way tooooo CHEAP!

GM Naroditsky's Chess Life column was sucked away in Twitter induced vacuum.

This Knight versus Bishop was played against an aging Shabba at the internet chess club where the Horse on the f5 square is immune to capture due to winning KP ending for Black. Also  Bishop takes the pawn on c6 loses to the Knight fork check at d4! 

Black's doubled c pawns at c6 and c5 guard the key potential King entry point squares d5 and d4.

Was shocked to learn that folks like n.u.r.74(a colleague of Nazala Imaniah) are apparently making money by recording their facial reactions, at Youtube and instagram,  to movies and other stuff. She is some kind of Asian with nice teeth and is maybe making some click bait ad revenue by creating Male Felatio fantasies based on her supple lips. 

There are multiple safe prostitution accounts like hers where physical contact does not occur and solicitors hide behind screen names. I get a slight erection when she smiles and laughs a certain way, but have never clicked on any of her ads. 

Fork Trick with deeper motive

 ICC player blitzman fell prey to the fork trick in this game. The real motivation for  playing Q takes h2 pawn is NOT the obvious recovery of the material after Ng4 and the capture of the White Bitch at e3. 

The positional justification is Horse moving to the d1 square double attacking the paralyzed b2 and c3 White Pawns!! 

Predator Ward Farnsworth does above average job of extolling the virtues of positionally motivated tactics.The law professor's political preferences are quite sub standard as the buzz around UT campus suggests he voted for Trump. I beat Ward decisively in a Dallas Texas tournament, but he has certainly beaten me more decisively in his capacity to produce income and his status at a major university!!

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. 

Another Defenseless Stonewall Dutch Formation

 Superboy playing out of the country Denmark loves playing the Stonewall Dutch and I equally love showing him how positionally bankrupt his opening choice is!

This particular Dutch Defense is characterized by voluntarily weakening all the dark squares and then allowing White to trade off the dark square guardian, the f8 Bishop! So Black is irrationally putting all his faith on the rigid c6,d5,e6,f5 pawn structure which leaves White with the juicy and unassailable e5 and d6 dark squares as outposts.

In the diagrammed position, Whites positional hegemony is manifest(one of Stu Rachels favorite words even though as a philosopher he uses very common language in his school classes, almost afraid of using the SAT exam type of vocabulary)

White can win with the pawn avalanche beginning with the tactically supported h5. Note that if the anemic bad bishop at e8 captures, then the knight fork Nd7 picks up the impotent Castle(Rook)

I doubt that even Krishna Prem really believes the Stonewall is a viable opening. Krishna has invested quite a bit of time in producing monetized YouTube videos advocating the Stonewall Dutch and could lose ad revenue if it was widely known it had been refuted!

Max Dlugy knew long ago that Nh3 refutes the entire setup CRUSHING D. Gurevich forcing the aloof GM to switch to the Slav Defense which his best friend Yermolinsky had long suggested.

An invasive Steed Saves the Day

I figured out why the guy my YouTube account defaults to is so damn popular:

1. He does not babble on while playing out the opening moves like some chess commentators do who pretend to know what the best move is.
2. The dude has the most tranquilizing, soothing voice I have heard.
3. He provides just a dollop of history as he quickly gets to the critical positions of the chess masterpieces he presents 

I wonder what Antonio Radic would think about the following position where Black is down the  exchange with an exposed and apparently vulnerable King. Czech Republic jugadore Nadateho must have believed the game was his after playing the instinctive Qd6 check. 

However, it is White who has to be careful and could easily lose with a careless misstep after Black moves his Monarch to the "safe square" h5. A key feature of the position is White's inactive f1 Rook viz a viz Black's hyperactive Horse! White's error was to ingest Black pawns at the expense of not activating his his f1 Rook. Rowson would certainly scold White for not having intimate cozy conversation with his phlegmatic Tower. White also unnecessarily weakened the f3 square providing a simple goal for the Black Knight. White can draw but has to acquiesce to a perpetual check which is hard to do psychologically when you had been winning the entire game.

Long live Agadmator and his lucrative passive income stream. 3.2 million subscribers to his channel and counting!!

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?

Middle Game Trap of Queen

Trapping the King is the well known objective of winning a game of chess. Most players know that trapping the Queen usually wins the game too. This is certainly not always the case as Queen sacrifices have lead to some the most beautiful victories our Royal game has seen!

In the following diagram, saira playing Black out of Finland at the Internet chess club, essayed the aggressive if not slightly unsound opening of 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5?!(Albin CounterGambit) White turned the game into an Advanced French Defense in reverse.

As you can see the overly aggressive Finnish player is trying to conduct an attack with his Rook, Bishop and Knight all on the back rank. White has just played Qd3 trying to consolidate his material advantage.

Black elects to play Nf2 forking King and Queen and forcing White to capture the trouble making Horse. Can you see what the Finnish player missed in his forcing continuation? His oversight quickly led to his resignation.

Fork Trick Out of French Defense Opening

Avila, out of Guam playing at the internet chess club, plays aggressively if not sometimes recklessly. His style is well suited to blitz chess where fortune often favors the brave as David Bronstein repeats a few times in his famous Zurich international tournament book. I will never forget when Dmitry Gurevich got the opportunity to play against Bronstein, who Gurevich idolized as child, at the National Open in Las Vegas directed by Bill Snead who was a computer programmer from Amarillo, Texas. Gurevich got ground down by Texas legend Joe Bradford in grueling Rook and Pawn ending where big Joe demonstrated Karpovian boa constrictor technique! Dmitry was constantly repeating in the post mortem that the ending had to be drawn which is old truth whispered by the worshipers of Caissia about such endings!

The fork trick is likely more common in late middle games and endings, but in this case it presented itself seven moves into a French Defense where the Pacific Islander played d4 which permits the shocking Queen captures d4 pawn which wins a pawn due to Nc2 forking the Lady and the Monarch!

White played the surprisingly weak 1. e4  e6 2.c4 against the French defense apparently trying to prevent the French signature move d5.

Queen Sac Leading to Knight Fork

The following tactical chess position arises rather early in a game where Black essayed a French Defense. Avila from Guam playing at ICC confidently plays d4 in a position where he appears to stand much better. He has two pieces out compared to Black's what appears to be offside Knight at b4.

Veteran chess players know that there are always exceptions to general rules. What is the exception to the rule that claims the better developed player should have an initiative in the diagrammed position?

Put another way, what move should Black play to gain a lasting initiative which should eventually win the game for him?  Hint: The title of this post completely gives it away!