Tactical Puzzels
19^th of March 1999

© 1999 by Alexander Baburin

Dear Chess Friends!

For me it has been one of those weeks - with work piling up, deadlines approaching faster than you can imagine it and other stuff like that. That made working on CBC No. 6 very difficult, as I have many interesting topics to shown in the next issues of CBC, but all of them require work and time. As for me quality is more important than quantity, I decided to take a break till next Friday. However, I just could not let you have your morning coffee on Saturday without chess! Therefore I selected 5 positions, so you check your tactical vision! They come from my work for Chess Base Magazine. Some of you may know that there I did reviews on the middle game for a very long time. However, now I am doing reviews on tactics, which is nice for a change.

In these positions there might be dual solutions - they do not imply a single 'only' continuation. In all of them it's White to play. Solutions are given in the end of this message. Enjoy!

Position No. 1

White: Kd2, Rh8, pawns c2, g2, h6.

Black: Kf7, Ra2, pawns e6, f5.

 

Position No. 2

White: Kg1, Qd1, Rc1, Rf1, Bf4, Bg2, Nc3, pawns a2, b2, d4, e2, f2, g3, h2.

Black: Kg8, Qd7, Ra8, Rf8, Bb7, Be7, Nh5, pawns a7, b6, c6, d5, f7, g7, h7.

 

Position No. 3

White: Kh1, Qh4, Re2, Bb3, Bg5, Ne5, pawns a2, b2, c3, f5, g2, h2.

Black: Kg8, Qb7, Rf8, Ba8, Be7, Nf6, pawns a6, b5, f7, g7, h7.

 

Position No. 4

White: Kb1, Rd3, Rd4, Bd6, pawns a2, b2, c4, f2, g2, h3.

Black: Ke8, Rc6, Rh8, Nd7, pawns a7, b6, e6, f6, g6, h7.

 

Position No. 5

White: Kg1, Qa2, Ra1, Rf1, Ba3, Bb3, Nf3, Ng3, pawns a4, c3, d4, e4, f2, g2, h2.

Black: Ke8, Qc7, Ra8, Rh8, Bb7, Bg7, Nb6, Nf6, pawns a6, b5, d6, e5, f7, g6, h5.

 

Ready to check your answers? Here the solutions come:

Solutions

1. Timman - Yermolinsky, Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee, 1999
   39 Re8!
   1-0
2. Peng - Darchia, Groningen Festival Women, 1998
   13 Nxd5!
   This strike wins by force - Black's knight should not have left the d5-pawn under-protected. 13...cxd5 14 Rc7 Qe6 15 Rxb7 Nxf4 16 gxf4 Bd6 17 e3 Rfd8 18 Qh5 Bb8 19 Rc1 h6 20 Rc6! 1-0
3. Van der Wiel - Van den Doel, Hoogovens-B Wijk aan Zee, 1999
   35 Ng6!
   This fork decides the game at once. 35...Re8 36 Bxf6 Bf8 37 Nxf8 Rxf8 38 Qg5 1-0
4. Hodgson - Wells, Oxford, 1998
   26 Be7!
   This neat move wins. 26...Ne5 27 Ra3 Nxc4 28 Rxa7 e5 29 Rd8+ Kf7 30 Bb4+ 1-0
5. Marin - Nanu, Rumanian Championship, Bucharest, 1998
   17 Bxd6!
   This blow decides matters. 17 ..Qxd6 18 Bxf7+ Kf8 19 dxe5 Qe7 20 Bxg6 Ng4 21 Nf5 1-0

That's it for now - we will be in touch next week. Meanwhile, if you like CBC, please recommend it to your friends - it's easy to subscribe and it's free (except for me - my Internet Provider will make a fortune on me this month!). Have a nice weekend!

Alex Baburin.