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Puzzles From The Master Games

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Hey there, and welcome back to Astro's Supercluster, a place where you are stormed with some breathtaking chess games, tales of great chess players, and a place where you get a chance to join me in my chess journey! 

Puzzles are one of the most fun ways to improve your chess and train your brain. In fact, they are considered the best way for beginners to improve their game. From improving our tactical vision to improving our calculation, solving puzzles on a regular basis helps our game in a variety of different ways. So, go and check out the Chess.com puzzles section right now (but do not forget to come back here)! However, I guess this meme will exactly describe the life of some of the regular puzzle solvers :

 

(Shoutout to the Squid Game, lol.)

The fun of solving puzzles grows even bigger when those puzzles are presented before us from real-life games, and that is what I will be doing in this post. You will be presented with some really spectacular moves and combinations from 7 games played by several chess masters, in the form of puzzles. So, buckle up, and get ready for this drive! 

Note: The games aren't given the position according to the level of creativity and sharpness required to find those moves. They are ranked according to the year they were played.

            #7: Bird - Morphy, 1858

This game was played between the " Pride And Sorrow Of Chess ", Paul Morphy, and another very strong player of the 19th century, Henry Bird. This is one of those games, which epitomizes the creative genius inside Paul Morphy. It took only 17 moves for the young Morphy to unleash the beast inside him, which sealed the deal for him. 

Here, Bird just played 17. O-O-O. But little did Henry Bird know about Paul Morphy's next move. Alright, here is a puzzle from the position that occurred after 16 and a half moves of play. Can you find Morphy's next two absolute brilliancies? 

Two consecutive incredible moves played by Morphy here. 19.c3 was followed by 19...Qxa2, and for the next couple of moves, the black queen continued to harass the white king. 

But, unfortunately, it was on the 22nd move of the game, when Henry Bird made a fatal blunder, and it was now the time for the 3rd brilliant move of the game. Can you find the move that Morphy played in this position? 

Another astounding move was played by our protagonist, and the game ended after a few moves, as Henry Bird resigned. 

As expected, a beautiful game played by Paul Morphy here, who was way ahead of his time as a chess player.

Alright, let's move on to game No. 6!

      #6 : Rotlewi - Rubinstein, 1907

                           RUBINSTEIN'S IMMORTAL 

This game was played between one of the world's best players in the period of 1907-22, Akiba Rubinstein, and another Polish chess player, Georg Rotlewi, who achieved considerable success in his short career. 

Rubinstein was primarily a positional player whose endgame play was of unparalleled subtlety, but when he was provoked he could be a fierce attacker. In this game, he exploits Rotlewi's inaccuracies with great energy, first inducing his opponent to weaken his kingside, and then delivering one of the most stunning combinations ever played. 

White has made slight inaccuracies and a few mistakes in the game until now. As you saw above, white's 22nd move wins the game on the spot for black. But, it's only winning if black finds the right move. And guess what, Rubinstein did! It is now time for the jaw-dropping combination, which is the reason why this game is known as " Rubinstein's Immortal ". Can you find the two astounding moves that laid the foundation of the combination? 

Two incredible finds by Akiba Rubinstein here! The game went on for a couple of moves more, and after 25 moves of play, Rotlewi resigned, as he couldn't avoid a rapid mate. 

A stunning finish to the game. The advantage of moving first is a valuable but fragile asset, take good care of it! Let's move on to game No. 5!

       #5: Levitsky - Marshall, 1912

                               GOLD COINS GAME 

 This game was played between Stephan Levitsky, a Russian chess Grandmaster, and Frank James Marshall, who was one of the world's leading players in the first quarter of the 20th century. 

This game is famously known as the " Gold Coins Game ", because apparently Marshall's final blow was so spectacular, that it is believed the audience showered some gold coins on the chess board and on the players. 

Until the move 22, Frank Marshall had a clear advantage. He had a chance to win the game on the spot on the 21st move, with 21...Rxf2, which would have either led to a checkmate, or a huge material advantage for black. But, if he is given the option to choose between a simple and routine win and a crazy win consisting of cool sacrifices, he will definitely choose the second one. 

Can you find Marshall's two absolute brilliancies that he played after 21.Qg5?

After this unbelievable move by Marshall, Levitsky just resigned. Does it give you the feeling of a mic drop? All the possible responses by white lead to a checkmate, even the best move ( which was Qxg3 ) would benefit Marshall, as he would emerge with an advantage of a minor piece in the endgame. This was definitely the coolest move ever played in the history of chess. Marshall continued to play successfully until the late 1920s, but he was never considered a contender for the world championship because of his regular failures against the world's absolute top players, like Lasker and Capablanca. In the entertaining book Frank J. Marshall's Best Chess Games ( 1942 ), he wrote " I started when I was 10 years old, and I am still going strong. In all that time I don't believe a time has gone by that I have not played at least one game of chess. " The words of a man who loved chess. 

    #4: Bernstein - Capablanca, 1914

This game was played between Ossip Bernstein, and one of the legends in chess history, José Raúl Capablanca. After playing a sound opening, the Cuban follows up by stunning the chess world with a new and somewhat controversial concept. Bernstein tries in vain to search for a refutation but is pushed backwards as Capablanca's activity increases. Bernstein, who was annoyed by Capablanca's passed pawn, thinks that he has finally found a way to eliminate it. Capablanca, however, was one move ahead of his opponent in the whole game and ends the game with a crushing move, which was enough for his victory. 

Capablanca's next move is a thunderbolt ( yeah just like @Lightning's profile's bg ), which cruelly exposes the weakness of white's back rank. Can you find the stunning move that the future world champion played in this position ( It was 1914 and he wasn't the world champion yet, so...)? 

What an absolute monster of a move. White has no options, except to get mated or lose the rook or the queen, and hence, Bernstein resigns after Capablanca played this thunderous move. This game is an example of why Capablanca is regarded as a genius.

Always be aware of the back-rank checkmates and back-rank weaknesses! Let's move on to game No. 3!

          #3: Adams - Torre, 1920 

This game was played between the strongest Mexican chess player ever, Carlos Torre, and Edwin Adams, who was best known for being Torre's trainer, and for this game and its sensational combination. 

What started as a normal training game - a young talent against his teacher - takes on immortal status when the teacher finds a spectacular combination. From a fairly quiet opening, Torre fails to resolve the problem of his weak back rank, which Adams didn't fail to take advantage of. There have been questions asked about whether Torre and Adams really played this game, or whether it is a composition. But whatever it is, let's just enjoy it!

According to analysis, black's 17th move is a mistake. It seems more logical than 17...gxf6, then why is it a mistake? It is because white now has the chance to exploit black's back rank weakness. You are now treated to one of the most spectacular sequences in chess history, which consists of six consecutive brilliant moves! Can you find the combination that Torre's teacher played in this position?

What a brilliant way to exploit a particular weakness in your opponent's position. The white queen covers the squares b5, c6, and d7, and now that the a4 square is also covered ( because of 21.a4!! ), there is no killing counter sacrifice on e2. This completes the domination of the black queen, and it has finally run out of moves, and now it is either mate or loss of a " full " queen. Hence, the young Torre resigned here. 

If you want everyone to believe that you really did play a fantastic combination, be sure to play it in a tournament game! Let's move on to game no. 2!

         #2 : Bagirov - Gufeld, 1973

                        THE " MONALISA " OF CHESS 

This game was played between Vladimir Bagirov and Eduard Gufeld, at the USSR Championship in 1973. 

A sharp King's Indian by Gufeld leads to a position where the two sides are attacking on opposite wings. However, Gufeld finds some tremendous line-opening sacrifices to channel his pieces rapidly towards the white king. A scintillating sacrifice to force mate rounds off the game. This game is also known as the " Monalisa Of Chess ", and " Gufeld's Immortal ". 

White was slightly ahead in most parts of the game, but one mistake completely turned the tides, and now, it is black who is attacking white. Can you find the mind-blowing combination that Bagirov played in this position? 

Game, Set, Match. As they say in tennis. This is why, it is sometimes very important to sacrifice some pieces to bring the other key pieces into the attack! What a game by our protagonist, Gufeld!

Alright, let's move on to the final game now!

     #1 : Diemer - Trommsdorf, 1973

This game was played between Emil Diemer and Fro Trommsdorf. Yes, Diemer is the guy who is famous for the chess game featuring 17 pawn moves in a row, by him.

  If interested, click on this video which will lead you to the recap of the 17 pawn moves in a row game, by GothamChess. 

However, this game is famous for an insane battle between these players, and for one of the most savage moves, the chess board has ever witnessed. 

After 31 moves of play, the advantage was clearly with white, but in the search of tactics, Diemer blundered on the 32nd move of the game. That might look like a sensible move, but it blunders a very disgusting tactic. Can you find the move that Trommsdorf played in this position? 

What a move by black here. I mean, the craziest, the most insane, savage, whatever word you would like to describe the move will not be enough. 33.axb3 is the only move that doesn't loses on the spot. And Diemer did play axb3, but black unfortunately did a few mistakes and could not capitalize on the fantastic move that he played. The players repeated moves at the end, and the game ended in a draw. But, all the variations after b3 are definitely worth your time!

Wow, what an insane battle between these two players. Both had their chances, it was white who had a strong grip on the game for most of the time. But, as they say, it's never late to blunder mate in 1. Well, he didn't blunder mate in one, but he did blunder, to a very savage tactic, and Trommsdorf didn't fail to notice it. If black had played the right continuations, it was an easy win for Trommsdorf. But, there was no better way to end this ride!

And with this game, we end this beautiful drive, where we went through some insane moves, tactics, and combinations, and where you got a chance to check out your ability at this beautiful game of 64 squares! 

THE " Wow, Did You Really Make It To The End? " PART OF THE BLOG 

Wow, did you really make it to the end? Congrats, if you did, and thanks for viewing this post! I hope you enjoyed the blog, the games, and the puzzles! I mean, aren't we just thankful to chess players sometimes? 

This will be an end to this blog, and this post will also be my submission for BlogChamps season 3 qualifiers, so wish me luck! Again, thank you for reading this post, and stay tuned for my upcoming works!

Regards, 

@AstroTheoretical_Physics