Stalemate Tricks
Hi Chess Friends,
I thought I'd provide a few puzzles this week on the theme of stalemate, often the last tool someone can use to draw a game. Sometimes it's the result of a brilliant defensive idea and other times carelessness on the part of the winning side. For example the position at the top of the article came from a game between two elementary age kids and rather than finding the mate in one, black drew by queening his pawn. Hopefully you can do better. I failed to find the draw in the following blitz game.
The player with black, forgive me for not knowing the name, did much better in the following game. See if you can find the draw.
And now for one of the most amazing finishes to a chess game that I've ever seen. See if you can find how Grandmaster Erwin L'Ami took the material and avoided stalemate. Despite how it looks in puzzle books, stalemate tricks don't always work!
Good luck in your own games. Feel free to post any clever stalemates or ways to avoid them in the comments.
