Level
4-Rook
Chess Diagram
[Event "Puzzle #21"][Date "2008.05.23"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "2r5/3nqpkp/r1pR2p1/pp1bP3/4NQP1/1P6/P1P3BP/5RK1 w - - 0 30"]
Vancouver has always been a place blessed with famous players participating in matches or tournaments. The list contains names such as Paul Keres and Bobby Fischer, together with a few local ones. Duncan Suttles is one of them, an enigmatic player with an unusual style of play, holding the Grand Master titles in both over the board and correspondence chess. Bruce Harper and Yasser Seirawan (his long time friends) managed to accomplish a difficult task of writing a 3 volumes book about Duncan's chess adventures, book called "Chess on the edge". The book was officially launched in mid March this year (2008) and gave the opportunity to the younger generations to learn who Duncan was on the chess board. Bruce, Duncan and Yasser have done an excellent job.
Buy "Chess on the edge" regardless of your level (find it at Amazon)! It will offer you countless moments of intellectual pleasure and maybe it will influence your play as well...
Duncan Suttles - Ostojic, Belgrade 1969 (part of the book; used with permission) is an excellent example of positional play with a clear plan in mind. After move 29... Bd5 they reached the following position (see diagram). Questions:
a) White to move and win (8 points)
b) Identify all positives and negatives for both sides in this position; each correctly identified element receives 1 point
The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #22.
Puzzle #20 solution:
This proved to be one of the hardest puzzles so far. Quite a few noticed the trapped Kh8, or Qf8 tied up to the defence of the f6-pawn. See solution below.
White used pins and forks as tactical elements (answer to question "b"), plus the power of the Queen + Knight combo as a strategical element (answer to question "c").
[Event "Puzzle #20"][Date "2008.05.15"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "5qbk/p6p/1rp2p2/2pp4/2P2Q1N/1P6/P4PPP/4R1K1 w - - 0 27"]27.Re8! Qf7 {All but three solvers chose much weaker lines. White takes advantage on the mis-coordination between the Black pieces and maximizes the potential of all her pieces with devastating results; the game continued with} (27...Qxe8?? 28.Qxf6#) 28.Qd6 Rb7 29.Nf5 Qg6 30.Qe6 Rf7 31.Rxg8+! Qxg8 (31...Kxg8? 32.Ne7+ {White wins}) 32.Nh6 Qg6 33.Qc8+ {Black resigned}
Correct solutions:
Jacob and John D - 9 points
Karl - 8 points
Matthew, Wilson, David, Jeremy and Frank - 5 points
Alejandro, Joanne, Nicholas, Katerina, Nathaniel and Algerd - 3.5 points
Standings:
76.0 John D
73.0 Jacob
69.0 Jeremy
54.0 Matthew
45.0 Katerina
39.5 Karl
33.0 Joanne
29.0 Wilson
24.0 Algerd
22.5 Frank
...
16 more solvers with less points
Buy "Chess on the edge" regardless of your level (find it at Amazon)! It will offer you countless moments of intellectual pleasure and maybe it will influence your play as well...
Duncan Suttles - Ostojic, Belgrade 1969 (part of the book; used with permission) is an excellent example of positional play with a clear plan in mind. After move 29... Bd5 they reached the following position (see diagram). Questions:
a) White to move and win (8 points)
b) Identify all positives and negatives for both sides in this position; each correctly identified element receives 1 point
The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #22.
Puzzle #20 solution:
This proved to be one of the hardest puzzles so far. Quite a few noticed the trapped Kh8, or Qf8 tied up to the defence of the f6-pawn. See solution below.
White used pins and forks as tactical elements (answer to question "b"), plus the power of the Queen + Knight combo as a strategical element (answer to question "c").
[Event "Puzzle #20"][Date "2008.05.15"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "5qbk/p6p/1rp2p2/2pp4/2P2Q1N/1P6/P4PPP/4R1K1 w - - 0 27"]27.Re8! Qf7 {All but three solvers chose much weaker lines. White takes advantage on the mis-coordination between the Black pieces and maximizes the potential of all her pieces with devastating results; the game continued with} (27...Qxe8?? 28.Qxf6#) 28.Qd6 Rb7 29.Nf5 Qg6 30.Qe6 Rf7 31.Rxg8+! Qxg8 (31...Kxg8? 32.Ne7+ {White wins}) 32.Nh6 Qg6 33.Qc8+ {Black resigned}
Correct solutions:
Jacob and John D - 9 points
Karl - 8 points
Matthew, Wilson, David, Jeremy and Frank - 5 points
Alejandro, Joanne, Nicholas, Katerina, Nathaniel and Algerd - 3.5 points
Standings:
76.0 John D
73.0 Jacob
69.0 Jeremy
54.0 Matthew
45.0 Katerina
39.5 Karl
33.0 Joanne
29.0 Wilson
24.0 Algerd
22.5 Frank
...
16 more solvers with less points
Using open lines