I want to share my frustrations with you, my dear readers. I find it extremely annoying that these days you cannot turn on TV, read a newspaper or browse the Internet without being attacked by the Kardashians' news. Their weddings, divorces, fragrances, tapes... you name it. I admit, the ladies are attractive, but when a guy on a financial Web site tries to find a connection between the latest Kardashian news and the spot gold price (even if half jokingly), I think the obsession with the Kardashians has gone a bit too far. I don't know what these ladies are famous for or why the World should keep up with them. Instead I want to suggest a really good role model to keep up with (at least for us chess players). How about Frank Marshall?
I don't need to introduce such a strong GM, many times US champion and the author of numerous opening ideas (The Marshall Counter Attack in the Ruy Lopez is by far the most famous one). But first and foremost he was an outstanding chess tactician, so it is small wonder that it was he who played one of the most famous and beautiful moves in chess history. According to a well-known legend, after Marshall played his unbelievable move, the spectators started throwing golden coins on the chess board!
Try to find this move!
(Just like in most of my articles I give you a chance to test your tactical skills, so the games are given as a Quiz. Please remember that you can always replay the whole game from the first move if you click "Solution" and then "Move list.")
The next game is known as a 'pipe game'. If you don't know the story, read Marshall's annotations to the game. They are the most hilarious annotations to a chess game I ever read!
So, today I want to offer you to solve combinations from Frank Marshall's games. First try to find solutions for the next pretty basic combos. I included these elementary combinations for our less advanced chess friends.
That was a good warm up, wasn't it? OK, here are more complicated positions:
I hope you enjoyed our new show "Keeping up with..." and also learned typical tactical patterns.
to be continued...