Take another look at this Drawn Bishop wrong color ending!!!

 Any chess neophyte can tell you that if the rook pawn is queening square that is not the some color as opponent's Bishop, the game will be drawn, BUT  let us not forget Lasker's infamous ceteris paribus(what does ceteris paribus mean from Latin-"all things being equal")

Well all things were definitely NOT equal in the following ICC 3 minute blitz game!!!

Note that Black's a6 pawn on a White Square would be Queening on the Black a1 square. Problem appears to be the stand impotent pair commentary since Black's prelate only guards White square diagonals!! 

So I doubt any of you would believe that Black to move it is mate in 10 in the diagrammed position. The give away hint is that Black must let White Queen his pawn on the a8 square.  This involves Black's Rook pawn becoming a Knight pawn and mating White King at a1 with pawn to b2 checkmate!!  Mind you White would have a just Queened pawn at a8 witnessing the Regicide. It is all about mating patterns and having the huge balls to count it out!!

Fortunately for Boaz1775,  this knuckleheaded American did not discover the mate in 10 and lost the game on time. 

Also please note that I am not referencing the dimorphic mating patterns as alluded to in scholarly effort by Guo-Hua Ding, Yun Tang, Zhi-Hua Lin, Xiao-Li Fan, and Li Wei  

Protected Passed Pawn Converted to Winning Diagonal Opposition

 

Lovable NYC chess coach, writer, teacher, mainstay contributor to USCF periodical Chess life Bruce Pandolfini has an extreme fondness for the term Jettison. 

In the above diagrammed position with 3 pawns per side, Blacks protected passed d5 pawn appears stuck unless one is acquainted with the endgame principle of diagonal opposition. So note that if Black plays pawn to d4 the White Monarch is forced to capture the jettisoned peon. After the Black King captures  White's f6 button, the Kings are on same diagonal separated by a single square and White's c5 pawn will eventually fall leading to a winning KP ending for Black.

In this example Bruce's term jettison essentially deflects the White King into a losing KP ending. 

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.

f4 pawn move creates enduring tactical theme

 

Double King Pawn openings have a notorious tactical character. Gary Sacco, a talented tactician at the Internet Chess Club based in Pennsylvania United States of America, fell prey to a vicious tactical shot after he played pawn to e5 attacking the Black f6 Horse.

Can you find the move that ignores this pseudo threat? Hint: White irreversibly weakened the DARK g1-a7 diagonal early in this double King Pawn opening. Some book authors refer to the theme as diagonal clearance based on a game ending  absolute pin!!! 

Somewhat related is the short supply of competent Client Data Protection professionals.

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. 

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!