Devastating Rook Pin Along your Opponent's 2nd Rank

 I was reminded of a former chess buddy J.P. Hyltin who resided in Austin Texas and often played in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. He once drew with legend Joe Bradford after memorizing Big Joe's Benko Gambit line if I recall and wore a T-Shirt about his pregnant wife's GM candidate fetus. 

He was probably a genius in many regards including his profession in some branch of engineering, but I remember him saying that an overwhelming number of decisive tactics involved exploiting or creating a lethal pin. I also respected his views on the absurd DWI laws in our country where way too many repeat offenders end up killing people never having spend a day behind bars!!! His Austin friend and lawyer Mike Simpson Esquire defended many of those types usually the weekend when the Longhorns played the Sooners. I think  Victor Yaward  and Luis Salinas had strong opinions on vehicular homicide as well.

The following position involves the latter. See if you can figure out the winning move in the following position with White to play:

ICC player Danifrani had just withdrawn his Queen to the f6. Can you see how this move is a losing blunder due to the presence of the White Rook on the c7 square? I missed it in the game, but eventually won on time in a 3 minute no increment time control blitz game.

Outside Passed Pawn Wins Again

 A very common error in King and Pawn endings is to keep pushing your pawns forward in a middle game attack fashion. However, that often leads to lost endings! 

In the following three minute blitz game played at the Internet Chess Club in Pennsylvania, Black played the losing move pawn to b4. Do you see why?

After some pawn exchanges on the b4 square, White(Gianky59 from the country of Switzerland ) wins easily by capturing Black's f5 pawn which forces the creation of outside passed White h pawn which will drag the Black Monarch way out of play!!!

ChessFactor content provider IM Andrey Ostrovskiy does an above average job of explaining the mechanisms associated with these type of structures that involve "on the edge of the board" type of motifs. Istanbul, Turkey chess benefactor Mert Bahadır is an ardent fan of Andrey's pedagogy and self-effacing style.

BTW Black would have easily drawn by replacing the blunder b4 with the drawing Kd6 which leads to a sterile, innocuous drawn position!

Benoni-Three Minor Pieces for a Queen

Chess luminaries Pachman and Silman both had astute observations regarding when 3 minor pieces were stronger than a Queen. Irascible "How to Reassess your Chess" Jeremy stated that as long as the Queen did not have a "disruptive pawn" that the Queen would usually lose to the three minors.

 Rewan Demontay and David Miedema have also thrown in their opinions on this fascinating imbalance which happens to be the term that made Silman's book famous but also with the significant flaw of oversimplifying at times.  Jeremy now spends some of his time reviewing Kung Fu Movies or some other Asian themed avocation. 

Cristinel Leaua of Romania unwittingly sacrificed his Queen for three minor pieces in the following Benoni Defense played at the Internet Chess Club in the United States of America.  His move Ng4 was actually a blunder as he amateurishly saw only Bd4 pinning Queen at e3 to the White King located on g1 square.  White wins two Horses and one Prelate which led to a convincing victory for the first player!
 

Stunning Pawn Sac in Dead Drawn Looking Ending

 In the following blitz game played at USA based Internet Chess Club, TheBlackCat must have thought he had an easy draw. Black despite having an extra pawn, had no way to promote his passed g3 pawn.

I was not able to figure out a brilliant pawn break through based on the "weakness of White's f4 pawn". Do you see it?!?!? That's right pawn to e5, followed by pawn to d4 leads to the capture of White's f4 pawn and Black should win! 

H C Schonberg would have easily discovered these two naked pawn sacs based on the informant notation Xf4. Contemporary commentator Naroditsky would have noticed it in less than 10 seconds probably between his binge viewing of Breaking Bad. He was cool kid at Stanford when I was working on my post doctoral stuff. He may have been the reason I never finished because his love of Royal game was soooo damn infectious along with his massively expansive vocabulary. The late Emory Tate may not have found it because he did not reach many endings based his tendencies to have things resolved in the middle game. 

Monkey See Tactic, Monkey Play Tactic

 My Russian friends at ICC are among the most rational and concrete thinking guys I have ever known. However, Potoslonam must have been having trouble with family or girlfriend when he egregiously blundered with Knight captures d5 pawn in the following diagrammed position. 

His weak amateurish idea was to pray(I know most Russians are atheist) that Black captures the horse on d5 leaving his f5 Horse en prise. Black now wins easily with Qg1 threatening mates on g3 square and Qh1 mate. The White Queen cannot defend both threats so the Russian disconnected and lost.

Hockey fan Mark Scheig is also a talented chess player and a friend of the affable Russian expert of our beloved Royal Game.

Trading Queens a Losing Blunder in the blitz game

Swedish player Gianky59, a weak 1498 player, after playing better than his low USCF rating, offered a Queen exchange on the e3 square which leads to a LOST King and Pawn ending in the following diagrammed position.

After the exchange on that dark square, Black plays Kf5 to be in attacking range of White's over advanced and vulnerable 3-2 Queenside Majority. Black is easily winning because she can make an outside passed h pawn! 

 

Strong Knight WEAK King

 Some of my old Russian buddies often spoke of a weak opponent King location as a long term positional consideration. I had a hard time with this concept initially, but over the years have learned exactly what these wise Russian School of Chess dudes actually meant.

In the position below, which arose out of a Dutch Defense Staunton Gambit, the country of India player AabhasJindal resigned when he could  not see an adequate way to defend his d pawn.  Chigorin would have rolled twice in his grave mocking the passive and gutless style of a guy who just gives up when his unjustified attack did not work.

The Indian's King is certainly pathetic at g1 blocking in his own Rook at h1 while also being placed on the weak g1-a7 dark diagonal. However, resigning and not playing on suggests a lack of maturity and resolve. He forgot or never learned Andy Soltis' recommendation to make your  opponent win the game as a last line of defense. 

I do understand that experienced Android Developers working as Mobile Engineers do not have as much time for chess and respect that. Life in Udaipur, Rajasthan can be competitive and a man has to feed his family first and then give up time for leisurely pursuits.