Q & B mates: Tactical Swaps: Dodgy Sacs:

Hi Chaps.

Recently on the Corner I mentioned this position from the game J.Mollison - M.Lunn



I was watching these two go over their game in the analysis room and
when this position arose I thumped out 19.Rf7 and had to demonstrate
that White mates in all variations. Adding "I know these things."

The Queen and Bishop work really well together in these positions
where you chase the King up the Kingside towards your King & pawns.
It's always mate.

Anyway. Heinzcat has had me looking for a game and I found an
old notebook amongst my tattered BCM's and thumbing through it I found this.

It has the Q&B mate and it also has loads of other tactical ideas and
instructive moments. it's also an entertaining game.

(I've not found your game Heinz - still looking).

This position is quite instructive to the budding attacking player.
I have just played 10. Bf7-C4



The 'natural' 10.Bb3 looks to be better. Sureley 10.Bc4 encourages 10...Nb6.
The defending player wants swaps off pieces.

Yes. That's what I want.
I want him to swap pieces!

EH?

Same position - fresh eyes.



Rightly or wrongly I've sacced a piece to keep his King in the centre.
My in play pieces must out-number his in play pieces for
this to have any chance of succeeding.

So....
I do not fear exchanges if he is taking off a defender for an attacker
if I can replace the attacker and he cannot replace the defender.

If he should play Nb6 and Nxc4 I have the d-file for a Rook.
In effect I have removed a defender and added an attacker. Gedditt?

As the game goes on you will see my attackers out-number
the defenders and When my Rooks join in all it's over.
(I of course sac both Rooks - his never move).

This is a postion from late in the game.



You can see the attacking strategy of out-numbering pieces in play has worked.

Also, as you will see in the game. I want to sac my b-pawn for an
open file trick, another reason why the Bishop went to c4.

This was the trick.



If he should play 12...QxR I have Ba6+ winning the Queen.
He gets a fair bag for the Queen but I have all the chances.
Exposed King, he's down on development....

Later this position arose. Black to play.



I want to play Rd8+ Bxd8 and Qf7 mate but the Black Queen
holds f7 so I am now trying to get her off f7.
My loose Rook chases the Queen.

Here:



if 24...Qg8 then 25.Rxa7. What fun i'm having.

Then this cute idea arose. Tactically holding the back rank.
Black to play.



26...Qa1 is NOT mate 27.Re1 Check wins the Queen.
Remember that idea, you will get chances to use it.

So Black played 26...Kg8 then the Queen & Bishop mating patterns
which started off this thread appeared.
I did not have to calculate them. You know it's a mate.

It was a 'friendly' played about 20 years ago.
I played the Bishop's most likely to avoid the Petroff.
I'm 99% sure the player was Peter Vanjello now living in London.

Recap:
As an attacker do not fear exchanges. Make the swap happen
on a square that is favourable to you. Get something from the exchange.

Think along these lines.
He has not removed an attacker - he has removed a defender,

Your Rooks are usually the last to enter the fray so always
think about opening files. Bc4, b4 and f4 were all made for the Rooks.

Then your usual tactical tricks come into play.
defelction, pinning and winning, discovered checks...etc.

Finally a confidence in mating patterns.
It saves you working things out and calculating.

Once you start thinking about these things you can go astray.
If the variation is long - then you can go wrong.

Is the original sac sound? OTB it looks OK. My opponent helped.

Sac a piece and then calmy castle. I got that from Morphy.

Now you are getting it from me. (pass it on).

Very instructive and nicely done. I'm trying to improve my attacking ability and your post has added some much needed knowledge that I know I'll be able to use. Thanks.

Great post - very instructive

Greenpawn you're the best! Anderssen, Morphy, Spielmann, Marshall, Tal and the other cavemen would be proud of you. I'm an aspiring caveman myself.

That bit about the number of INPLAY pieces made a lot of sense. I had always thought about that when I looked at Morphy's games but was never ab;e to put a finger to it. You hit it on the spot! Great post. Give us more!!!

But wait. It doesn't make sense. Why are there tactical players and positional players. Are we saying that there are some players that even though seeing the possibility of a tactic, they choose to ignore it?

Positional players are excellent tacticians, they know what kind of stuff to dodge.

Originally posted by heinzkat
Positional players are excellent tacticians, they know what kind of stuff to dodge.

Exactly, karpov was shwon a very promising pawn sacrifice by Geller, with excellent compensation on the long run, but karpov responded: Where is the mate? If it's not mate, I won't play it. This is the diference between so called positional and tactical players. However, with todays emphasis on concrete variations, the difference is not as big as it used to be. There are no more Tal's or Petrosian's, there are just those who prefer complicated play (Topalov, Shirov) and those who like clear positional plans (Kramnik, Adams).

Positional players don't ignore tactics, they just don't seek complicated play where they can outcalculate their opponents, they prefer to hang on to a positional advantage and exploit that. You can only do that if you're aware of all the tactics.

Postional and Tactcial Players?

It's styles and taste and heading for positions you enjoy playing.

A Karpov would never sac for unclear complications, a Tal would jump in
at the first invite.

The top players are able to operate in both spheres of the game.
It's when they are given a choice what path to take is when their
personal preferance takes over.

If there is one thing you take from this post is that you should
record ALL games you play - even the skittles stuff you play at work.

I have dozens of notebooks full of all the skittles games I played
at the Edinburgh Club. (I took that advice from Botvinnik).

It's funny how things work out.

Heinz saw a game on The Corner and asked for more information
about it. I went racking through old BCM's, found a notebook
and posted the above game.

That Corner:

http://www.chessedinburgh.co.uk/chandlerarticle.php?ChandID=74

Had another tactical ploy in a game of mine, infact you could call it
a positional trap.

I'm White, me to move, I'm looking at his undevloped pieces and
wondering how he will develop his f8 Bishop.



e6 is no good as d5 will open him up. So it's g6 and develop the
Bishop on g7.

So I played 9.Qd3 inviting 9....Bg6. 10.Qe2.



That's the g7-Bg7 idea stalled and i've sneaked my Queen onto
a better square. See it's not all hammer & smash, you have to be
a wee bit sly as well.

Black went pawn grabbing and I beat him, again through the sheer
weight of developed pieces.

"Black decided to take a couple of pawns allowing
me to revel in the joys of superior development."


If you go to the Corner you will see the whole game with notes and the
brilliant game. Reinless v Stepbrothers Germany 1941
which I know I got from an old BCM. (that's the one Heinzcat wants
more info on).

I still cannot find the game Heinz - still looking.

What about the games you play online like here on RHP? You record these as well? @ Greenpawn

I hardly play blitz on here anymore - same old faces.
I play on Uchess and sometimes save them - not the same as
OTB chess. I hate playing on a monitor, doubt if I'll ever get
use to it.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi Chaps.

Recently on the Corner I mentioned this position from the game J.Mollison - M.Lunn

[fen]r3k2r/p1Qn2pp/2p5/3p4/4p3/BP2P1P1/q2P3P/1N3RK1 w kq - 0 19[/fen]

I was watching these two go over their game in the analysis room and
when this position arose I thumped out 19.Rf7 and had to demonstrate
that White mates in all variations. Adding " xg7+ Kxg7 27. Qxd7+ Kf6 28. Qf7+ Kxg5 29. Be7+ Kg4 30. Qf3[/pgn]

this looks all very nice, but there are so many blunders from either side.

and no matter how hard you try to make it look logical, there is no way letting black exchange pieces with Nxc4 can be good for white.

I appreciate the work, but the main lesson I learned here was that articulate posting can do wonders in chess.

Yup! it's the way I tell em 😉

I checked out your blog.

I played out the game that got you to 1900 - congrats.

You are right, it's nigh impossible to lose if you get doubled Rooks
on the 7th. I don't think I've ever seen a loss for the Rooks.
They can always get a perpetual (blind pig they call it).

It's a pity, but you do stumble across some fools during games on
the net. I've come across a few who stop playing giving the
impression that have disconected. Why? It's a game.

Found a nice wrap up for you. (well I think so).

It would have been a good way to teach him some manners
and round it off.

You played 1.Rxh7+ Kg8 2.Rbg7+ Kf8 3.Rxh8 mate.

Let's do it and remain a piece down.

Greenpawn, such well written and instructive posts, to think you give up significant time to post this sort of material for free....a very very genuine thank you from this user 🙂

Thank you.

You do know I post the stuff here that I don't think is good
enough for The Corner. 😉

NO, I'm kidding.

Most of the time it's a wee trip down memory lane - I'm using this
forum as my diary.

It does not take long to do - I have the game and it's far easy to
post stuff on here than it is to post on the Corner.

The Corner needs passwords - 3 bloody of passwords - has to be in
html - uploading pics and the game mover...a pain.

Here I put the game into Winboard - copy and paste in diagrams
and then the game - easy.

I enjoy it.