CHESS – A LOOK AT SHARP TACTICS

Firstly, I’ve an important announcement about the game festival. (If you don’t know about our game festival, please see here: LINK)
competition
Let me clarify that our games will be reviewed meticulously and that only the top ten will be selected for voting. Moreover, I know that annotating a game properly, and at the BEST level, can take quite some time.
That’s why we’ve decided to extend the latest date for submitting your games until 28 April. So hurry up and get a chance to win amazing prizes! :)
prize
Find more info. about the game festival here: LINK
Additionally, please tell us about how you’re preparing your games. Did you beat any strong players ortitled players? :) Feel free to comment below and tell us how you’re preparing for the festival.
design1
Important as it is to have very well-developed positional understanding and excellent strategic skills in chess, every player must have sharp tactical skills as well. After all, tactics and strategy are the main weapons that one uses to win a game. :)
There is a famous chess quote that goes like the following:
“Chess is 99% tactics”.
- Rudolph Teichmann

A lot of chess players seem to be aware of the tactical motives (like pin and knight fork). Still, they have a hard time applying that knowledge to their own games.
Therefore, I thought today that we could have a keen and closer look at the tactics. Let’s get started! :)
Example-1
Kovacevic, A (2564) – Pap, G (2517) 
eg1_1
Black to play
White played the opening superficially, allowing Black’s knight to dominate in the centre. He lost the sense of danger and his last move, 11.Nb3? – aiming to play via the-c5 square – was just a waste of time.
Black reacted energetically and quickly punished White’s poor opening play. 11…g5! – decisively undermining White’s centre! It is a well-known idea which sometimes Black implements in the French Defence or Closed Sicilian.
12.g3 gxf4 13.gxf4
eg1_2
Black to play
13…Nxe5!! An excellent intuitive sacrifice that completely demolishes White’s centre. Even the direct forcing line is not visible and this is not a difficult decision. Black gets two pawns for a piece and a straightforward powerful attack against his opponent’s king.
king
Therefore, the general principles underlying the attack are very clear, even if the details seem to becomplex. In such cases, one should not hesitate to sacrifice material. 14.fxe5 Qxe5 15.Kf2
Returning material is often a recommended method to defend an attack. But in this case it wouldn’t help, as the following line shows:
[15.Bg2 Bh6 16.Qd4 Qxe3+ 17.Qxe3 Bxe3
eg1_3
Black to play
18.c4 bxc3 19.Nxc3 Rb8 20.Bxd5 exd5 21.Nxd5 Bh6. In the developing open position, apart from being a pawn down, White’s knights are definitely inferior to Black’s bishop pair.]
15…Rg8 Black quickly involves all his reserves in the attack – a simple and effective plan. The position is playing by itself. 16.Nd4 Nf6 17.Qd3
Either of the following is hopeless: [17.Nf3 Ng4+ 18.Ke2 Qb5+ 19.Ke1 Qxa4–+; or 17.Bf4 Ng4+ 18.Kg1 Bh6 19.Bxe5 (19.Bxh6 Nxh6+ 20.Bg2 Bb7–+) 19…Bxd2–+ And despite the fact that queens are exchanged, White’s position is lost.] 17…Ng4+ 18.Ke2 Bh6
eg1_4
White to play
The time is ripe for the execution. 19.Rg1 Bxe3 20.Nf3 [20.Rxg4 Bf4+ 21.Kd1 Rxg4–+] 20…Qb5 21.Rxg4 Rxg4 22.Kxe3 Qxa4 White has a huge material advantage, but the exposed position of his king prevents him from creating any serious counter-play.
counter attack
The remaining moves were 23.Qxh7 Qa5 24.h3 Qc5+
eg1_5
White to play
25.Kd2 Rf4 26.Qg8+ Ke7 27.Qg3 Qd5+ 28.Ke3 Qe4+ 29.Kf2 Bb7 30.Qg5+ Kf8 0–1
Example-2
Caruana, Fabiano (2829) – Kramnik, Vladimir (2769)
eg2_1
Black to play
Black has an exchange, but White has some compensation. Black in this position has an interestingmove. What did Caruana play? 34…g4! This is the start of a very interesting combination.
Black will obtain two rooks and a bishop for a queen, which is enough to win. 35.Bxg4 All these moves are forced. 35…f5 36.Bxf5 exf5 White has already given up a piece, so what is his idea? 37.Nf6+!
eg2_2
Black to play
Now White regains some material. 37…Qxf6 38.Rxf6 What is the best way to capture the rook on f6?38…Bd5+! Black now has a very strong attack. White does not have enough pieces to defend. [38...gxf6?? The problem with this move is that it exposes Black's king. 39.Qh6 For example, a move like this gives White drawing chances.] 39.f3
eg2_3
Black to play
39…Rb2+ 40.Kg1 Rxf6 41.Qe8+ Rf8 42.Qd7 Rb5 43.Kf2 We can see that Black’s pieces are coordinated and that White does not have any threats. Black is winning.
eg2_4
Black to play
43…f4 44.gxf4 Rxf4 45.Qc8+ Rf8 46.Qxa6
eg2_5
Black to play 
46…Rxf3+ 47.Ke2 Rb2+ 48.Ke1 Rc3 Black is threatening checkmate. White resigns. 0–1.
Now, let me provide you with some practical exercises based on the above examples, which you can evaluate yourself.
Exercise-1
Kramnik – Svidler
ex1
Black to play
Exercise-2
Berkes – Baryshpolets
ex2
Black to play
Exercise-3
Batsiashivili – Wen
ex3
Black to play
After you have come up with your solutions, you may look at the answers here: LINK

====================================================================






PREMIUM WEBINAR:

Quick Links for other products:

RCA Game Festival and Next Webinar

Recently, I made the announcement that we’ll be conducting our next game festival in the following days. As promised, I’m very happy to announce that the RCA game festival starts today! :)
competition
What is a Game Festival?
Remote Chess Academy will be conducting a unique competition, where your skills in annotating your own game(s), and the ‘quality’ of your games played, will be judged.
Have you ever played a mind-blowing chess game that you will remember forever?
Then annotate that game yourself and send it to us – if we think that your game and your annotations are good, you’ll win awesome prizes! :) The game can be an over-the-board (OTB) game or one that you played on the Internet.
You can find more info. about the contest and rules here: LINK
design
Important note: This will be the final article published in our current site. We’ll no longer publish articles here. However, we’ll publish them in our NEW site – you can find our new blog here: LINK
design
Let me ask you a question – how can you play better in the middlegame andendgame?
 question
Maybe you can develop your middlegame skills by having good knowledge of tactical and strategic ideas and by having a good planning and thinking system.
But then comes the endgame – the so-called ‘ocean’. Indeed, it is an ocean and there are many things about the endgame that one should learn. As the great Capablanca says:
capablanca
“In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else”.
Moreover, as I used to say – what matters is the QUALITY of your learning and not the QUANTITY.
quality
Therefore, you just have to learn the key ideas or, in other words, the essentials of middlegame and endgame play.
To discuss this, we have a new member of the RCA team. :) I am happy to announce that we have one more Grandmaster in our team of webinar presenters– our new guest coach GM Levan Aroshidze.
levan1
Additionally, he will be making his debut for RCA next Saturday. GM Levan Aroshidze will host the webinar “Endgame and Middlegame Essentials” onSaturday 18 April at 3 p.m. GMT (check timings here: LINK).
You can find more info. about the webinar and sign up by clicking the image below:
 webinar

<<Join the webinar now>>

P.S. I’ll be announcing more info. about the game contest very soon. There is also something interesting! :) Therefore, stay tuned and get our updates.


==================================================================




PREMIUM WEBINAR:

Quick Links for other products:

Our new site, webinar bundle and important news

Firstly, I’d like to introduce our NEW site (LINK) to you. Although you might have known about our new site by seeing the pop-up below, or from our Social Media pages (for instance, Facebook page: LINK), still, I want to share with you some of the benefits and improvements on our new site.
new 
The new site has the following improvements:
  • The online training platform (OTP)
  • New support system (with live chat option)
  • New design – simplified look
  • Multiple product browsing options
  • One-step checkout process
  • Advanced search options
  • And lots more
Indeed, our team members have put all their efforts into making this huge achievement possible, thereby making the site easy and essential for YOU! :)
So, how you can check our new site?
You will see a pop-up at the bottom of this page; see the image below:
All you need to do is click on the “Take me there” button or you can simply visit our new site here: LINK :)
So now you can check our new site and ‘test’ everything; then you can let us know your suggestions and thoughts on the new site by clicking the pop-up shown at the bottom of the site; see the image below:
You just have to click on the “Tell us what you think” button in the pop-up and submit your feedback! :) It will take no more than 2 minutes for you to do this – it is as simple as that.
Alternatively, you can contact us (LINK) to tell us what you think about the new website or just leave a comment below.
Moreover, we’ll permanently switch to the new website very soon. And I’m sure that you will be benefited, as you can already see the improvements made in the new site, listed above! :)
design
Secondly, I’ve some good news for you – I’ve added a special offer for those who buy my webinars. Now you can get all my webinars, saving $11! :)
Get the “GM Smirnov Bundle”, which is now added to our shop, and watch all my webinars – this is a great opportunity for you if you have missed them.

<<Get the bundle now>>

Note: you can also get other webinar bundles – All 2014 webinars: LINK andWebinar Bundle: LINK
design
Additionally, we’ll soon conduct a Game Festival and it will be somewhat similar to the one we conducted previously. :) I’ll announce more details in the upcoming days.
staytuned
Therefore, as usual, just stay tuned and catch our updates.

==================================================================




PREMIUM WEBINAR:

Quick Links for other products:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)