Sunday, April 10, 2011

Chess960: Elementary opening transition tactics

Here's a beauty tactic from the same game as the previous post. I missed this one as well!

Black's dilemma is that both his knights are forked due to a typical Chess960 remnant where the corner knight is undefended. At the time I thought "ok how can I trap the queen after she takes the corner knight? There must be a way!?" However because I was concentrating so hard on how to trap her, I missed the obvious!

SP140 black to play: find the drawing move
  1.      ... NxB   the only move and the obvious beginning
  2. QxN?  ... e4!   the sneaky little move!
  3. KxN? ... Bg3+! winning the queen
Likewise RxN?...Bxh2+! so black's remaining knight cannot be captured! White's only real alternative is:
  1. Qd5  ... Bf4!  withdraw the queen but then the rook falls!
Just get out of here it's too sneaky and very funny! White is now bankrupt and depressed. The only option white has is:
  1. KxN  ... BxR   take that damn knight but gone is the rook
  2. Qxe4 ... d5    and black is R v N+P up in material.
Chess960 is truly weird at times but then again it can put a smile on your face even if you miss the tactic. Turns out that black's corner knight is poison if white tries to take it. So the drawing move for black is NxB.

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