@ nuclearturkey: Thanks for the reply, I have to admit that I wasn't fully aware of all the things you mentioned about the 2nd puzzle, but pawn on g3 was actually the first thing I saw. I'd like to see the full game or at least continuation to the end of the game.
Oh, and this is in my opinion best recorded live performance of it: youtube video
(for everyone else, the real thing starts at 2:45 and then at 5:35 - but it's not as great as it is in context with the rest of the song)
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@ nuclearturkey: Thanks for the reply, I have to admit that I wasn't fully aware of all the things you mentioned about the 2nd puzzle, but pawn on g3 was actually the first thing I saw. I'd like to see the full game or at least continuation to the end of the game.
Oh, and this is in my opinion best recorded live performance of it: youtube video
(for everyone else, the real thing starts at 2:45 and then at 5:35 - but it's not as great as it is in context with the rest of the song)
Sorry for the late reply. I meant to earlier, but forgot about it. The actual game I think was just a throwaway Blitz where he didn't put up much resistance there after (until I made a terrible blunder at the end to give him a draw), not really worth me trying to find it and post it here.
Me too. It's a classic performance.
Sometimes the boring move is the correct one!
I think his statement was made for the wrong reasons, but I do play better in the "boring" closed positions as it turns out. And to play the Torre Attack is admittedly quite "boring" as well..
I only skimmed through the posts, so I might missed some moves that have already been refuted.
Here is my quick glance at the positions - there are maybe refutations to them and I'd be happy if someone would point them out:
1st puzzle: as it's already been said, exchanging the bishop for the knight is the best move
2nd: I would play b4, so I could attack black's backward pawn on e6 with my knight.
3rd: Bf1 to move it on longer and open diagonal, the move also attacks a6 pawn, which is easily defended, but you can put even more pressure on it.
4th: I'd play Qe1 or Nc2 because black probably wants to play b4. Qe1 seems better than Nc2 to me, because you create the chance to put Q on open file and N is better placed where it already is than on c2.
5th: Ra1-e1 and then e4.
6th: 0-0-0 and then the same thing as in 5th puzzle, but I think it's better to play e4 first and then Rd1-e1 here.
2nd: You're right that d4 is the crucial square to fight for in the position. Partly because as you said soon White's Knight will be able to take up a great position there, but also there are other probably slightly more important reasons as to why it would be ideal for White to take total control over d4: If you visually take off all of the other pieces from the board, you can see that Black's pawn structure in general is very weak, particularly on g3. If his threats subside or the game gets anywhere near an Endgame he will be really struggling to stop White from taking control. Therefore in the position Black is pinning just about all of his hopes on a d4 advance at some point, which given White's uncastled King will be quite unpleasant for him! And all of Black's hopes are taken away from him by b4! attacking the main pawn controlling d4 (and as a direct consequence White's Knight can come as you said to d4, a great square)..
3rd: There are probably a few good moves in this position. Bf1 is one, I played Qc4 (it can't be kicked away by b5 as it weakens Black's position too much and can then be taken advantage of by a4 at some point). The purpose of the puzzle was to recognize the need to attack the 2nd weakness on a3, not to immediately win it through some tactic, but to 1st reduce the activity of Black's pieces as much as possible, which is the 1st step to gaining a decisive advantage from that type of position, in this case his Knight is forced to remain passive tied to the defense of a6. I'm sure you understood all that anyway..
I'll comment on the rest later.
4th: c2 is a crucial square to have defended, however the Queen is actually the wrong piece to have to be defending passively a square like that. And actually from c2 the Knight surprisingly is more effective than on d4 where it looks better than it actually is! It's a good puzzle to demonstrate that just because an outpost is more advanced than another, it doesn't make it the better square for a piece if from there said piece will be controlling less key squares connected with our or our opponent's plans. Qe1 though is probably equal to Nc2 if we plan to bring our Knight to c2 soon anyway..
5th: Another puzzle where we have a far superior position to the opponent and there's no need to rush with our plans if there is a way to limit or stop any counter-play from Black. Black did have prospects of at least complicating matters slightly on the Q-Side but has just played the crazy a4? So the simple a3! is the move. And those static Q-Side pawns also turned out to be terrible long-term weaknesses for him which after grinding him down were exploited..
6th: In the game I played the surprisingly deep multi-purpose move g4! Which I think was better than anything else. Although this time I can't say that with certainty. It immediately gives my previously passive Knight on h2 a great way to become really strong in a few moves time with Nhf1-g3 etc, as well as immediately pinning down the two major pawn weaknesses on f7 and h7 (if he advances one of them to be exchanged it makes my pawn advantage even more clear).. I'll post that game soon.
I'll give you a trophy paranoidandroid since I think you understood the 1st and 3rd ones.
Thanks! I think I was too lazy when analyzing 5th and 6th. I could also say it was the same with 4th, I didn't even look closely at the mobility of that knight.
This puzzles are great, you should post more of them. I can always go to chesstempo or search forums here for tactical ones, but positional puzzles are much more rare on the Internet.
Thanks!
Here's one not from one of my games this time. I just studied it from a video lecture. It didn't mention who the players were. I'll give you a clue: it follows a similar theme to a lot of my other puzzles.
Rc2 was first thing I saw. It isn't that dangerous though. Or maybe f6 to kick the knight away. White's d-pawn is obviously a weakness, but it seems well protected. I like Rd6 to protect black's weak pawn on b6 with yet another piece and it gives the possibility to double the rooks on c-file. After Rd6 and f6, I'd play Rc4 to start putting some pressure on white's weakness.
How has this bs spam not been deleted and the user banned yet? -- so depressing...
Rc2 was first thing I saw. It isn't that dangerous though. Or maybe f6 to kick the knight away. White's d-pawn is obviously a weakness, but it seems well protected. I like Rd6 to protect black's weak pawn on b6 with yet another piece and it gives the possibility to double the rooks on c-file. After Rd6 and f6, I'd play Rc4 to start putting some pressure on white's weakness.
Again in order to find the solution all aspects of the position must be considered:
Black has a very strong central Knight, while White's Knight will not be able to remain where it is because it can always be kicked. White has a long term isolated d-pawn weakness and Black has total control of the c-file, White's Rook on b5 is also quite misplaced. All these things add up to give Black a massive positional advantage. So again it's the type of position where we must play prophylactic chess in order to stop our opponent's plans before rushing to advance our own. If we can try to put ourself in our opponent's shoes and ask "if I were White what would I want to accomplish here?" the actually strong possibility of Ng4-e3! may have presented itself. And it actually can cause definite problems to us being able to further our advantage if our Knight gets kicked back or exchanged as even with a positional advantage Rook Endgames are notoriously drawish. Therefore after all these things have been considered of course the obvious move is h5! when all of White's meaningful counter-play has now been squashed. I must admit though I didn't find the Knight maneuver for White myself even though I assessed the position correctly and was trying to look for any chances he may have. The game continued 2.Rd2 f6 (having stopped the threats it's now important to kick away the piece that was causing them) 3.Nf3 Rc4 4.b3 Rc6 (threatening Nc7) and Black soon won White's Rook and the game.
I think you got black and white switched around in the 1st half of your description. Somewhere in the middle, it switched back =P.
I think you got black and white switched around in the 1st half of your description. Somewhere in the middle, it switched back =P.
lol Sorry, yeah. I'll change it.
Since the first puzzle has been analysed to the bare bone, here's my take on the other puzzles:
2nd - 1. b4 looks powerful. The idea is to remove Black's c5-pawn thereby granting the knight access to the dominating d4-square.
3rd - 1. Qc6-b7 is tough to meet.
4th - 1. Nc2 followed by bringing the queen to d4 ends Black's counterplay.
5th - White would like to play e4, but can't due to ...Nf4+, picking off the g2-pawn. Therefore, White should play 1. g3!, denying Black's knight of any advanced outposts. Then White will follow by doubling on the h-file.
6th -This is, in my opinion, the most difficult of the puzzles. Black wants to gain space on the kingside with ...f5, so my choice is 1. g4. A sample continuation is 1. g4 h5! 2. gxh5 Rxh5 3. Ke2 f5 and White has a small advantage at best. Can anyone better this?
I hope the member of staff who keeps deleting everyone's comments for no good reason will someday give an explanation for their actions. Also, you delete my harmless comment, but completely ignore the spam. Why?
Since the first puzzle has been analysed to the bare bone, here's my take on the other puzzles:
2nd - 1. b4 looks powerful. The idea is to remove Black's c5-pawn thereby granting the knight access to the dominating d4-square.
3rd - 1. Qc6-b7 is tough to meet.
4th - 1. Nc2 followed by bringing the queen to d4 ends Black's counterplay.
5th - White would like to play e4, but can't due to ...Nf4+, picking off the g2-pawn. Therefore, White should play 1. g3!, denying Black's knight of any advanced outposts. Then White will follow by doubling on the h-file.
6th -This is, in my opinion, the most difficult of the puzzles. Black wants to gain space on the kingside with ...f5, so my choice is 1. g4. A sample continuation is 1. g4 h5! 2. gxh5 Rxh5 3. Ke2 f5 and White has a small advantage at best. Can anyone better this?
2nd: See post 53.
3rd: 1.Qc6 Nb8 (this is the best square for his Knight anyway, see my latest thread) 2.Qb7 Re7 followed by a c-pawn advance is a bit awkward for White. For more on this puzzle see post number 53 and my latest thread.
4th: Nc2 is correct, but d4 doesn't seem like the best square for your Queen considering it won't be able to make additional progress, and your plan should be to play on the K-Side. For more info see post 60 and 43.
5th: See post 60.
6th: See post 60 and 61.
Edit: now that the spam post has been deleted, take one away from all those reference post numbers.
my take on the first diagram
In your line, what happens after 5...Qxe3+?