Saturday, April 28, 2007

CT-FART 534

I had a brain fart while I was doing this level 30 Tactic on CT-ART:

Exercise 534

White to move




Black looks solid. The weakness is the g6 pawn and the “misplaced fianchetto” bishop.
I had a hard time with this one. There are no clear “seeds of tactical destruction”. I first approached this by looking at the diagonals for White. The Bishop on b1 and the h7 square where the queen indirectly has a line of force going to that square. Then I started to look for ways to clear the diagonal and the h-file. I saw Nxf7 followed by Qxe6. But then I was at a loss.

Clearing the diagonal was not the plan. Rather, the tactic is the all the defenders are barricaded on the queen side so to speak. So, this sequence popped out with the intent of ripping open the kingside 1.Nxf7 Kxf7 2. Qxe6+ Kf8 3. Bh6+ Ng7. Still down materially and the position ran out steam. The correct NEXT move is even harder to see. Instead of the check with 3. Bh6 right away, 3. Bxg6 threatens mate on f7 and white gives up a SECOND piece in order to weaken once triangle of pawns. The Bishop of e7 is in the way for Black. The position continues with 3. Bxg6 hxg6 4. Bh6+ Ng7 and now the queen can take 5. Qxg6, down materially two whole pieces but with a killer position. Black is cramped to the point that White will be able to compensate the material losses.

5…Bf6 6. Rxe8. Qxe6 ( deflection) 7. Qxf6+ Qf7 8. Bxg7+ and Black is lost. ( next move is Re1+ and Black drops the queen).

In other news, I almost beat my 1880 opponent the other night at the club but blew a move 34 and gave the game back. I had such a strong position but fatigue got the best of my calculations and I missed a recovering move he had. It was reassuring to know that I almost tied for first place in the Under 2000 section at the club this month. I plan on conitnuing to focus on a consistent thought process and practicing tactics and game analysis. No new theory. So far this month, I picked up 50 USCF rating points!

4 comments:

Blue Devil Knight said...

Ugh a tough problem.

Anonymous said...

i got as far as the horse taking and the queen checking, then i went into trowing all my pieces at the pawns to destroy the castle, which wasn't even close. great problem...

congrats on almost tying and on the 50 point gain.

transformation said...

i am very confident that you have not intentionally avoided putting my link at your sidebar because there is no place for senior friends of the knights? but seriously, nice work.

what can i possibly tell you that you already do not know? of what class can i bring that you do not already possess amply?

but one thing. i have done ct-art3.0 in a very seriously minded fashion. and to share one tid-bit, i for mine feel in all my bones that the way to do it, is to NOT whip out the tries, finding solutions in a hasty haze of negative inference, but to labor on each problem slowly, practicing real chess, real calculation, however long it takes, like some 'deep think' of GM kind.

as i have said many times, both extensively to wormwood and loomis here, i dont so much wish to memorize the answers as to EXPERIENCE calculating them. i feel two circles like this is worth double four circles done like mad, trying to remember, rather than to 'see'.

greetings from the pacific northwest, and thank you always for you most excellent, unusually thoughtful comments at my blog. fy, i replied concertedly there to you today, as i did others, constructively.

warmly david

BlunderProne said...

DK,

On the contrairy, check my side bar again but scroll down to "From my chess club and other chess fans"

I haven't seen a link on your site to mine. Maybe I have the same blindspot ;)