Setting Traps

In chess, setting traps can be fun. Especially when your opponent falls headlong into it.

By the way, I am not encouraging people to set traps. There are 2 problems with setting traps:

1. Your opponent detects your trap, you're well and truly busted
2. You didn't calculate deep enough and your trap ends up busting you (sort of like the Roadrunner cartoons).

In this case here, have a look at the following position.

This position arose out of the Sicilian Najdorf. I am White.

Black just played 23... a5 (see 1st diagram on left).

I was half tempted to play 24. g4 and do the usual pawn race (as so often happens when both sides castle on opposite sides) when I thought I play a little trick.

I didn't really think my opponent would fall for it but it did work.

The move I played was 24. Rhf1!

I know what you're thinking.... you just gave up a pawn!

Anyway, my opponent grabbed it without hesitation.

24. ....Bxh4 25. Rh1 Be7 (see 2nd diagram on left)

Now what has changed from the position?

Do you see what I see?

Yes, the next move is of course..... *drum roll* the classic Bishop sacrifice!

26. Bxh6 gxh6 (I ran this past Fritz and Fritz didn't even consider retaking the Bishop)

27. Rxh6 Bg5

My opponent tries to block the g-file but it's too late.

28. Qg3 (pinning the Bishop) f6
Once you start an attack, you don't stop.

29. Nf3 (no prizes as to what I am doing next)

Curiously enough Fritz gives this as White as having a winning advantage... Fritz tried a multitude of variations that I've reproduced below and none of them were sufficient to stop White's attack.

Analysis by Fritz 10:

1. +- (6.92): 29...Be8 30.Nxg5 Qg7 31.Rdh1 fxg5 32.Qh2 Rc7 33.Rh8+ Kf7 34.Rh7 Rg8

2. +- (5.11): 29...Qg7 30.Rg6 Rc7 31.Nxg5 fxg5 32.Rxg7+ Rxg7 33.Rxd6 Bxe4 34.f6 Rh7 35.Qxg5+ Kf7 36.a3 Re8 37.Qg4 Rh1+ 38.Ka2


29.... Bxe4
30. Nxg5 fxg5
31. Qxg5+ Kf7 1-0

At which point my opponent resigns as he will fall into a multitude of problems and White wins in a variety of ways.

The last picture on left paints a sorry tale for Black.

The Queen is getting skewered with 32. Rh7+ and Black is going to get mated eg. 32.Qg6+ Ke7 33.Rh7+ Rf7 34.Qxf7+ Kd8 35.Rh8#

Candidate Moves

First off, I apologise for the length of this article. This position arose out of the Queen's Indian Defence (notice how I play a variety of openings?). Make sure you have a good cuppa ready before delving into this article. Really.

In this article, what I am trying to do is put my thoughts down so that I know how my thought process works and check with other chess engines to fine tune my thinking process. I think this is a good step (as advocated by Blue Devil Knight on his Confessions Of A Chess Novice blog) towards improving your chess skills.

Anyway, back to the game (I am Black):

21. Qxe5. (see 1st diagram on left)

A few questions popped in my mind at the moment but one that is most important.

Should I move my Queen?

If I trade Queens, I liberate and free White's bishop after (21... Qxe5 22. Nxe5). My position has weakened. White has a strong Knight on e5 and my bishop is in a nasty pin. I could always retreat my Knight to the safe outpost on c5 to protect my Bishop but after (22.... Nc5 23. Bxb7 Nxb7). My pieces are all on the last 2 ranks and I am losing valuable tempo having to reactivate them. No, I am determined to strive for activity here and take central control. To do that, my Queen has to stay on the board.

Allowing White to trade Queens with (22. Qxc5) is not in my best interests either as I have to retake with my Knight else my pawn structure is fractured (if I do 22...bxc5) and we run into the same situation with (23. Bxb7) again (as I mentioned earlier). Hence, I need to move my Queen. So what candidate moves are there?

(21.... Qxc4)
(21.... Qxe3+)
(21.... Rfe8)

I discarded (21... Rfe8) immediately since I need to move my Queen.

(21... Qxc4) is nice, winning a pawn but that pawn is absolutely going nowhere. The pawn is isolated and that means that it is weak. When the pieces come off the board later, White will have difficulty defending that pawn anyway. Thus, I didn't think there's a rush to take the pawn for now. It's nice but not the best move, I thought.

That leaves (21.... Qxe3+). Now we're talking. Taking a pawn and giving check, winning a tempo. Don't forget that sooner or later one of the White Rooks is going to come and plant itself on the e-file so in this case, taking the most forcing move to gain a tempo is crucial. I chose the most forcing move.

21.... Qxe3+

Fritz apparently loves the idea of Qxe3+.

22. Kh1 (forced) Rfe8 (to get the Queen off the e-file)

23. Qb2 (forced) (see 2nd diagram on left) as White has to stop any potential Nf2+ tricks

Now we come to a curious juncture. White's move Rae1 or Rfe1 is definitely coming but if I calculate this right, I should be able to pull my Queen away from it in time.

At the moment, there are no obvious threats to Black. So I followed Makaganov's Famous Rule which is,"In a position where there are no immediate or direct threats, improve your worst placed piece."

So what is my worst placed piece?

Evidently my Rook on a8. So I moved it.

23.... Rad8 (taking control of the d-file)

It so turns out that Fritz also favoured this move.

Other considerations given by Fritz were (23....Nd6). Honestly, this move didn't occur to me because I have the positional advantage. Why give it away by retreating the Knight from its central outpost where it covers a lot of squares? The only thing I have to be wary of is my Bishop on b7 (which is unprotected) so I need to keep a close eye on Bb7.

24. Rae1 (surprise, surprise)

I thought this over for some time. My candidate moves were:

(24... Qc5)
(24... Qc3)
(24... Qd4)

Let's consider each move in turn.

(24... Qc5). I didn't really like this move. It moves my Queen, protects my Knight. But it doesn't threaten anything.

(24... Qc3) I didn't really feel like trading Queens at this point.
(24... Qd4) Same as above.

Then suddenly a thought came to my mind.

(24.... Qh6) Nice. I am threatening (25... Nxg3+) next. I've always loved moves that threatens my opponent because it forces my opponent to halt his attack to perform protective duties.

Only problem is: What do I do after that? So I start to explore this line further. What can White do?

(25. Ne5?) Possible. The Knight is threatening (26. Nxf7) forking Queen and Rook. But that would lead to (26... Nxg3+) forking King and Rook. If I take the Rook subsequently with (27...Nxf1), White can't play (Nxf7) anymore. But then I run into the problem of (28. Bxb7 Ne3) and then (29. Qc3!) (protecting both Knight on e5 and attack my Knight on e3). I also have the added problem of a possible Bd5 in the future where my f7 is coming under enormous pressure. I gained a Rook for my Knight but more importantly I have lost the dynamics of my position and White despite the small tradeoff, may even gain a slight advantage .

Surely, there must be another way. Ah yes, I found it (I'll explain later). I played

24... Qh6! Fritz complains here, preferring (24.... Qc5).

25. Ne5 (expected) (see 3rd diagram above on left) Nxg3+

26. Kg1 (forced)

Now comes the intermezzo move that took White evidently by surprise.

26... Bxg2! (see 4th diagram on left)

Fritz liked (26... Nxe1), taking the Rook first. However, I have a little trick up my sleeve.

Can you see the trick?

Let's see what White can play.

His Rook is obviously under attack twice. So let's consider the candidate move:

(27. Rxf7)

I'm going to take time out here and consider this variation so you have a good idea why this move is bad. There's a problem with this move. Because Black has an even more surprising move in store.

(27... Ba8!!) (see 5th diagram on left) What??!! You probably ask.

Here's the nasty trick.

White cannot play (28. hxg3) (taking the Knight because of (28... Qh1+ - highlighted by red arrow - 29. Kf2 Qh2+) skewering the undefended Queen.

If White doesn't capture the Knight and moves his Rook on f7 away, now comes the killer move:


(30.... Rd2) (highlighted by the yellow arrow) (threatening 31...Qxh2 followed by mate so White must give up the Queen)

If Knight on e5 moves to f3, Black trades Rooks anyway with ... Rxe1 followed by ...Ne5 (yellow arrow) and ....Rd2 and the position is absolutely crushing.

Now let us return to our position (see diagram on left) after 26... Bxg2.

27. Qxg2 (forced because 27. Kxg2 runs into the horrible fork 27....Rd2+! winning the Queen)

Now (27. Nxf7 doesn't work because of 27... Qg6 28. Nxd8 Be4! with threats of 29... Nxf1+ or 29... Ne2+ and best of all, White still cannot play hxg3 because of mate on g2 after Qxg3+)

Now let's get on with what White actually played.

28. Nxf7? (see last diagram below on left)

And now the final trick presents itself.

28.... Qxh2+!

And White is now busted. Interestingly, Fritz didn't like this move. Well.... duh. Of course I am going for the endgame and trade off the Queens.

29. Qxh2 Nxh2
30 Rxe8+ Rxe8 (White Resigns as he is a whole Rook down)

1-0

Phew.

I have no doubt that my chess skills is not up to scratch and my piece co-ordination still lacks finesse. This is an area I definitely need to improve upon.

Interesting Tactic

I was on FICS again this morning and played a 1300++ rated player.

We arrived at the position shown.

I am Black. White had just played
28. Rd1
placing my Queen under direct fire.

I knew that if we trade pieces, I have an advantage all the way to the endgame.

So after much thinking, I played the move.

28.... Qf4!

A very surprising move. I loaded this into Fritz and Fritz didn't even consider this move. But tactically it works.

White cannot play Bxd5. The Knight on d5 is forbidden fruit.

The reason I can play this and not worry about the Knight is because White has a back rank problem and is weak on the dark squares.

Let's say White plays
29. Bxd5 Rxc1 (2nd diagram)

Now the situation's very clear.

White now must play

30. Rf1 (Rxc1 leads to mate after Qxc1 while Qxf4 is also impossible because of Rxd1 leading to mate) Rxf1+
31. Kxf1 Qxe4
32. Bxe4 Rb1 (and Black has a decisive material advantage going into a R v B endgame with a passed a-pawn)

My opponent didn't play this series of moves btw.

Trap #2007-09-10

On FICS today, I encountered the following position. The position looks roughly even. My opponent just played 23... d3 which I think just simply loses the d-pawn and the ensuing endgame looks to be winning for white. However, I thought over this position for a while then decided to lay a little trap for my unususpecting opponent... guess what did I play?

Highlight the spaces between the brackets for the moves.
[24. Bc4+ (24.. Bd5 was needed but this simply loses the d-pawn for nothing) but my opponent fell into the trap and play continued with 24... Kg7? 25.cxd3 Bxd3?? (25... Bd5 was again necessary) 26. Re7+ 1-0 as Black loses after 26....Rf7 (26... Kh8 27. Rh1#) 27. Rxf7+ Kg8 28. Rd7+ Bxc4 29. Rxd8+]

An Opening Trap

I played another blitz game (I should really give up blitz games, they're bad for my play) on FICS. This one involved a Ruy Lopez: Deferred Stenitz Var.

I am White and it is Black's turn. Can Black play 1....Bxe4?

Highlight the answer below (within the backets):

[No. 1... Bxe4 runs into the nasty Rook pin with Re1 followed by f3, winning the Bishop. Black might achieve some counterplay because of the open a7-e1 diagonal to the White King but it's still very much in the early stage and it is doubtful Black has sufficient compensation for a lost Bishop.]