March Blitz and Memes
Hello, my fellow chess lovers, and welcome to another edition of Blitz and 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 drawn 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 routed out from the far flung corners of the InterWebs...
Good luck trying to solve all five puzzles on the first attempt, a couple of these are very subtle indeed.
So, without further ado, lets get to the Blitz and Memes.
Back-rank Frailties
I have heard it said that the purpose of all maneuvering is to bring heavy pieces to the 7th rank. In this 4th round encounter dylanthelee, playing White, illustrates this point perfectly.
Can you take advantage of Black's frailties?
The Discovery Channel
In this sixth round clash Out_of_the_Zoo, playing White, is able to take advantage of Black's last move.
Can you find the right channel to victory?
Dissolving an Attack
Our next tactic comes to us from the 7th round. White set up an incredible sacrificial attack, but decided to take the prudent step of castling...sometimes prudence doesn't pay, as he went from +1.75 to -3.48. Yuutin, playing Black is able to take advantage of the slip up by playing a natural move.
Can you see how to dissolve this attack?
The Sacred Geometry
In the third round JamMasterInsane, playing Black, was able to use the sacred geometry to uncork a beautiful tactic.
White lost piece coordination with his last move, can you take advantage of it?
A Pretty Push
And our final tactic comes from the second round, Yuutin, playing Black, is able to use his bishop, knight and pawns to great effect.
White's pieces are cramped, can you see how to win material?
And that was it, that was March Blitz and Memes.
Congratulations to IM rnanjo for winning with a 6.5/7 score. And of course, more importantly, congrats to you champions who were able to solve all five puzzles on the first attempt...ever upward...Excelsior to you!!
As always, thanks for reading and feel free to share these puzzles with your friends down at the bar or library.
Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.
