January's Blitz 'n' Memes
Welcome everybody to another exhilarating edition of Blitz 'n' Memes...
If you're a fan of puzzles taken from amateur online blitz tournaments, then you have come to the right place, because that is what I do.
As always, the tactics have been selected from the Japan Chess Federation's monthly blitz tournament: TGIF Blitz. The tourney takes place on the 3rd Friday of every month, 21:00 JST, right here on chess.com. It consists of seven rounds of blitz, with a time control of 3+2; and is open to all JCF club members.
The Memes on the other hand were scoured from the infinite corners of the InterWebs...
The Goddess of Chess, Caissa, is smiling down upon us, as we have a couple beautiful tactics in this month's edition. It won't be easy to find all 5 on the first try...
So, without further ado, lets get to the Blitz 'n' Memes.
March of the Penguin
Our first tactic is from the 6th round, IM rnanjo, playing White, is able to convert this difficult looking endgame.
Perhaps you have seen the "March of the Penguin" meme, one lone penguin marching off into a stark Antarctic background, with only snow-covered mountains in view...
An existential crisis, determination in the face of overwhelming odds, or nihilistic selfishness? Who can say...in any case, this position reminded me of that penguin.
Go on march like that penguin.
A Confidential Meeting on g8
The next position again comes from the sixth round, JamMasterInsane, playing White, ends this ending in a thematic manner.
The queen begs the bishop a few moments confidential business with her, that business consists of creating a mating net and mating the Black king by reaching g8.
How does one go about creating such a mating net?
One Battle After Another
Our third tactic is from the third round, BigTy, playing Black, forces his way into a winning position.
Black plays one forcing move after another to expose the White king and ensure a won endgame.
May the Force be with you.
Knight Moves
Another tactic from IM rnanjo, this one coming from the 5th round, while playing Black.
Black has to go all-in just to keep an equal position, nothing other than an aggressive knight move will do.
Aggression is the name of the game.
Road to the King
Our final tactic is a doozy, played in the 3rd round, IM rnanjo, playing Black finds God tier accuracy.
This puzzle is especially difficult as there are so many winning moves, but IM rnanjo, played the most accurate moves in a blitz game, so I cannot expect less from you.
Hints: Aggression is the name of the game, go for style points, once more, during the continuation there is a queen move, play ...Qe7 over ...Qe8.
And that was it, that was January's Blitz 'n' Memes...
Congrats to IM rnanjo for winning with a perfect 7/7 score...
And of course Congrats to any of you absolute beasts that crushed this with a 5/5 score, this was a difficult one.
As always, thanks for reading and feel free to share these tactics with your friends down at the Bar or Church.
Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.
P.S. If you're a fan of chess themed t-shirts, feel free to invite the "Click Button" to a game of chess, smear all his pieces with Gorilla Glue...
