Colorado Springs Chess News

Game Of The Week

This week's game comes from the August Swiss 90 (5SS, G/90+30).  It was the fourth round, and I was facing by best student, Calvin DeJong.  More than any other student of mine, he put into practice the advice I had given him.  So, he had all my secrets in a couple months.  It took me over seven years of testing out different ideas over the board to realize these things.

One of my secrets was the DROP Method of tactics.  It was a way of simplfying the myriad descriptions chess players use to describe tactics.  I remember looking online at lists that contain over thirty different tactics.

When I was a child learning chess, I only remember three:  Pin, Fork, and Skewer.  How could there be so many about which I was not told?  Well, the reason was because most teachers weren't separating the basic tactics from the more advanced problems.

There are four basic kinds of tactics:  Discovery, Removal, Overload, and Pin.

The other tactical ideas players describe come from combinations.  A combination occurs when 2 or more of the basic tactics are needed to realize the material gain.  The more times a basic tactic is needed in a particular line or series of moves to gain the material goal the more difficult the problem becomes.  And this is what makes chess challenging.

Combinations have always been the most intriguing aspect of Chess.  The masters look for them, the public applauds them, the critics praise them.  It is because combinations are possible that Chess is more than a lifeless mathematical exercise.  They are the poetry of the game; they are to Chess what melody is to music.  They represent the triumph of mind over matter.

(Reuben Fine)

So, when both the teacher and student missed a combination, I was interested in discovering why that happened.  The game was still relatively young.  Neither player had made 20 moves and had plenty of time on their clocks.  Therefore, the difficultly in seeing the combination must have come from the nature of the position.

After looking a the position, I realized that it was one of those rare positions that combined all four of the basic tactics.  So, a player has to be familar with the pattern of each of the different kinds of tactics and good at calculating four moves deep.  Clearly, both of us were not up to the task that night.  See if you can do better...

White to move

See the diagram and answer here:

http://cschess.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=204382282

Make It A Combo

http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=111138

[Event "August Swiss 90"]

[Site "http://cschess.webs.com/"]

[Date "2017.08.22"]

[Round "4.1"]

[White "DeJong, Calvin"]

[Black "Anderson, Paul"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "B06"]

[WhiteElo "1876"]

[BlackElo "2001"]

[PlyCount "60"]

[EventDate "2017.08.01"]

[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. d4 c6 2. e4 g6 3. Be3 Bg7 4. c3 d6 5. Bc4 d5

6. exd5 cxd5 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. Nf3 Nf6 9. Nbd2 O-O 10. O-O Ne8 11. Re1 Nd6 12. Bf4

a6 13. Nb3 b6 14. Ne5 Bb7 15. Qe2 Nb8 16. a4 e6 17. a5 b5 18. Nc5 Bc6 19. b3

Be8 20. Nxf7 Bxf7 21. Nxe6 Bxe6 22. Qxe6+ Nf7 23. c4 bxc4 24. bxc4 Qf6 25. Qxd5

Qxf4 26. Qxa8 Bxd4 27. Ra2 Ne5 28. Qd5+ Kh8 29. Kh1 Nxd3 30. Rf1 Nxf2+ 0-1

This Week In Chess

On August 22nd, the Colorado Springs Chess Club continued the August Swiss 90 (5SS, G/90+30).

Standings. August Swiss 90

# Name Rtng Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Tot Prize

1 Paul D Anderson 2001 W6 W4 W2 W8 4.0

2 Brian Jo Rountree 1856 W13 W5 L1 W4 3.0 $5.00 GOW

3 Mark McGough 1876 W15 H--- L5 W10 2.5

4 Michael Smith II 1573 W14 L1 W7 L2 2.0

5 Aleksand Bozhenov 1994 W9 L2 W3 U--- 2.0

6 Derek Eskeldson 1270 L1 W15 L8 W14 2.0 $5.00 GOW

7 Clinton D Eads 1229 L11 W14 L4 W9 2.0

8 Calvin P Dejong 1876 H--- H--- W6 L1 2.0

9 Scott Ch Williams 1233 L5 L12 W14 L7 1.0

10 Dean W Brown 1494 H--- H--- U--- L3 1.0

11 Peter Barlay 1912 W7 U--- U--- U--- 1.0

12 William Leo Wolf 1322 U--- W9 U--- U--- 1.0

13 Brian Henry Baum 643 L2 H--- U--- U--- 0.5

14 Douglas N Clark 159 L4 L7 L9 L6 0.0

15 Daniel J Rupp 989 L3 L6 U--- U--- 0.0

Projected Prizes: 1st $27.00; 2nd $18.00; U1300 $12.00