Forks at the End of the Road

NM CoachJKane

Apr 17, 2016, 8:16 AM | 2

Hi Chess Friends,

A few years ago I had an interesting last round tournament game cut short by an opponent's faulty tactic. He thought that he could sacrifice a bishop and win it back with interest, but missed a deadly fork at the end of the combination. See if you can find how black can refute white's Bc4xe6+.

I occasionally use this puzzle with students and it made it into my friend's book. I thought about it again recently, when a similar tactical error by the current US Champion, Hikaru Nakamua, helped Sergey Karjakin to win the recent World Championship Candidates Tournament. Nakamura's error is a bit more complicated, but he essentially missed the same idea that my opponent had. Cutting off tactical complications too early is a problem that plagues even the best of us! Can you refute black's combination?

Were these puzzles easy or hard for you? Do you have any similar educational failed tactics from your own, or a favorite classic game? Let me know in the comments.

NM Jeremy Kane

Jeremy Kane is a National Master and three-time Wisconsin state champion. He is the Curriculum Director for chess.com. He has been teaching chess in person and online for over 15 years and has designed hundreds of lessons, available on chess.com/lessons. He is the author of Starting Out The Trompowsky on Chessable and The Next To Last Mistake, a book on defensive ideas in chess.

He is the developer of the Caro-Kane Variation of the Caro-Kann Defense.

email: jeremy@chess.com

Twitter/X: @chessmensch

Forks at the End of the Road

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