by Oliver Reeh
All combinationsThe key phrase is "back rank"! Don't you sometimes feel a certain sense of triumph when you manage to plant a piece on your opponent's 1st (8th) rank? Preferably with checkmate, of course!
In Salimova,N - Muzychuk,A White finished after 22.Rxd5! exd5 and ...
Magnus Carlsen, winner of the FIDE World Cup 2023, is a rare guest in my tactics section.
About the White mate in Carlsen,M - Pantsulaia,L I almost wrote 'Truly world champion-like!' out of sheer habit. For some time now the correct phrase would have been 'Truly ex-world champion-like!', but that somehow sounds strange.
In Zhang,J - Bivol,A the black knight paved the way for the queen,
also in Lagarde,M - Praggnanandhaa R. In the second case, however, it's not about winning immediately, but about long-term compensation based on deep positional assessment - a terrific performance by 'Pragg' and my first favourite, presented in the first interactive Fritztrainer format:
"Pragg's Powerplay" is the title of this video - which knight move will you start with?
The next two cases see the White queen as the sole entertainer, so to speak!
In Wang,H - Svane,R Black should have aceepted perpetual check with 40...Kh8, but after 40...Kh6?? (okay, it was blitz) on the other hand ...
In Injac,T - Sovetbekova,N Black has to to counter the threat of Qh8+, but 41...Kg5?? was the absolute wrong way to go.
"Tandem vs. tandem" - have you mastered the
coordination of queen and knight to perfection?
In between, a brief excursion into a classic chess topic: What do the following two positions have in common? White has the move in each case.
Right, it's Bxh7+ in each case! In the first case it's only about winning a pawn, but I have a great deal of respect for how White achieves (mating) success in the second diagram!
Two examples deserve special mention:
Firstly, the winning continuation of Vachier-Lagrave,M - Sindarov,J. Incidentally, the side to move is ... Black!
The other was the game Smirin,I - Shevchenko,K, in which 22...gxf3! has to be calculated to win. In the final position six moves later, Black has a rook up - and instead of giving a final discovered check, White preferred to throw in the towel!
Finally, my favourites number 3 and 4.
Supported by the strong Rb7, White in Zhu,J - Francisco Guecamburu,C launched a skilful 'Invasion':
How did White continue the invasion into the opponent's camp?
Eline Roebers in action! If you assume that the young Dutch talent in Roebers,E - Mona,K moved a rook here, you'd be right.
But which one? The whole thing ended
spectacularly ... See 'Combination with a run-up'.
As always, I hope you have lots of fun with the tasks!