Only use an Engine if you can NOT solve it !

[Chessqueen]

Most players even 1900 USCF players have problem with simple tactics , and they have read dozens of Opening Books probably a few middlegames books and a few books on strategies and a few books on endgames, but are NOT well prepared with Tactics when it present itself in front of their Eyes playing actual games. Sunday I went to a local Chess club and saw this position when I saw two players playing game in 10+5", but the player playing white still had 4.5 minutes on his clock and he is rated 1921. He missed this golden opportunity to come ahead and played a stupid move. Please it is too easy to get any engine rated above 2100 and find the correct move, actually there are two great moves, please for any rated player between 1800 to 1950 please provide your two great White moves, this should NOT take you more than 15 seconds to figured out, for each of the two great moves that you can make

[d]3r2k1/pp1q1pp1/2pr3p/6bQ/3P4/1BP2P2/P3R1PP/4R1K1 w - - 0 1

[Ajedrecista]

Hello:

I am unrated but surely under 1700 Elo. I figured 1.- Bxf7+, Qxf7; 2.- Rxe8+, Qf8, 3.- Rxf8+ on my own. Later confirmed by SF 12. There are other variants exchanging one rook (2.- ..., Rxe8; 3.- Rxe8+, Qf8; 4.- Rxf8+, Kxf8; but once you lose material, it is usually a good choice to keep as much wood as possible OTB).

1.- Bxf7+, Kh7 is also winning for white according to SF 12, but I would not follow the next winning moves. I also pondered on 1.- Re7, also winning by SF 12 analysis, but once again I would miss the winning continuations. These brutal attacks are not easy for me. OTOH, I played a game at LiChess today were the Spassky - Fischer theme ..., Bxh2; g3 was featured, where I tempted black not playing h3 and black fell into the trap, hence winning the bishop and later the game. I think that I have succeeded with this tactic in the four corners ('poisoned' pawn on a2, a7, h2 and h7).

1.- Qxf7+, Qxf7; Re8+, Kh7; 3.- Bxf7 was tempting but it only wins a pawn, which might be the stupid move you were writing about.

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[Chessqueen]

Hello:

I am unrated but surely under 1700 Elo. I figured 1.- Bxf7+, Qxf7; 2.- Rxe8+, Qf8, 3.- Rxf8+ on my own. Later confirmed by SF 12. There are other variants exchanging one rook (2.- ..., Rxe8; 3.- Rxe8+, Qf8; 4.- Rxf8+, Kxf8; but once you lose material, it is usually a good choice to keep as much wood as possible OTB).

1.- Bxf7+, Kh7 is also winning for white according to SF 12, but I would not follow the next winning moves. I also pondered on 1.- Re7, also winning by SF 12 analysis, but once again I would miss the winning continuations. These brutal attacks are not easy for me. OTOH, I played a game at LiChess today were the Spassky - Fischer theme ..., Bxh2; g3 was featured, where I tempted black not playing h3 and black fell into the trap, hence winning the bishop and later the game. I think that I have succeeded with this tactic in the four corners ('poisoned' pawn on a2, a7, h2 and h7).

1.- Qxf7+, Qxf7; Re8+, Kh7; 3.- Bxf7 was tempting but it only wins a pawn, which might be the stupid move you were writing about.
Here you forgot that after 1.- Qxf7+, Qxf7; Re8+ You can take White Rook with your Rook, but after RxRe8 you can still defend with your king by
placing your Queen on f8 but it would be taken with White Rook or you can simply move your King to h7 giving your Black Queen

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[d]3r2k1/pp1q1pp1/2pr3p/6bQ/3P4/1BP2P2/P3R1PP/4R1K1 w - - 0 1

I looked at the same possibilities, but I always follow the advice of the Magician from Riga Mikhail Tal, that when the King is Pin never to start a tactical combination with your piece that is pinning the King, therefore, on this case the White Bishop is pinning the King, So I then looked at the Re7 and if BxRe7 then Qxf7+ after Kh8 RxB and Now the Queen is forced to take the Rook or Mate is followed NEXT; but if after Re7 the QxRe7 , I follow with RxQ BxRe7 Qxf7+ Kh8 and QxBe7 winning a whole piece and the f7 pawn.

[Chessqueen]

Hello:

I am unrated but surely under 1700 Elo. I figured 1.- Bxf7+, Qxf7; 2.- Rxe8+, Qf8, 3.- Rxf8+ on my own. Later confirmed by SF 12. There are other variants exchanging one rook (2.- ..., Rxe8; 3.- Rxe8+, Qf8; 4.- Rxf8+, Kxf8; but once you lose material, it is usually a good choice to keep as much wood as possible OTB).

1.- Bxf7+, Kh7 is also winning for white according to SF 12, but I would not follow the next winning moves. I also pondered on 1.- Re7, also winning by SF 12 analysis, but once again I would miss the winning continuations. These brutal attacks are not easy for me. OTOH, I played a game at LiChess today were the Spassky - Fischer theme ..., Bxh2; g3 was featured, where I tempted black not playing h3 and black fell into the trap, hence winning the bishop and later the game. I think that I have succeeded with this tactic in the four corners ('poisoned' pawn on a2, a7, h2 and h7).

1.- Qxf7+, Qxf7; Re8+, Kh7; 3.- Bxf7 was tempting but it only wins a pawn, which might be the stupid move you were writing about.
Here you forgot that after 1.- Qxf7+, Qxf7; Re8+ You can take White Rook with your Rook, but after RxRe8 and Kh7 you lose your Black Queen

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[d]3r2k1/pp1q1pp1/2pr3p/6bQ/3P4/1BP2P2/P3R1PP/4R1K1 w - - 0 1

I looked at the same possibilities, but I always follow the advice of the Magician from Riga Mikhail Tal, that when the King is Pin never to start a tactical combination with your piece that is pinning the King, therefore, on this case the White Bishop is pinning the King, So I then looked at the Re7 and if BxRe7 then Qxf7+ after Kh8 RxB and Now the Queen is forced to take the Rook or Mate is followed NEXT; but if after Re7 the QxRe7 , I follow with RxQ BxRe7 Qxf7+ Kh8 and QxBe7 winning a whole piece and the f7 pawn.


Note: What I realized is that most players below Expert level spend too much time memorizing Openings and Learning middlegames strategies and reading endgames books, but they fail really bad in Tactics, which is the most important part of chess for aspiring Expert players. My Online teacher told me that in India there were two type of Chess Schools, the 1st school focus on teaching lots and lots of Opening, Middlegame strategies and endgames Knowledges, and the 2nd school started by just teaching chess Fundamentals like the books of Jose Raul Capablanca and Bobby Fisher teaches Chess, but they thought their chess students lots and lots of tactical positions and pattern recognitions of those positions and they realized that for students below the expert level the 2nd school method advanced their young chess players twice faster to reach the Expert Level and then and only then they concentrated on teaching those expert Kids lots of chess openings and traps , Middlegames strategies and Endgames techniques to reach their next level which is Master Level.

[M ANSARI]

Where on earth do you get a Bxf7??? I don't see any white bishop!

[M ANSARI]

Never mind it seems to have been a glitch, I see it now on b3 ... somehow it did not show without several page refreshes. This is a simple tactic and would rate around 1400 to 1500 ELO on the chess.com tactics trainer as the pattern is very obvious. I think this type of tactic is never missed by any reasonably strong player even at bullet, but that doesn't mean that it can't be missed sometimes by even the top GM on earth . Chess blindness can sometimes be incredible ... I mean look Magnus Carlsen, by far the strongest player ever created by planet earth actually missed a completely winning simple tactic here. The thing is that MC was not the only strong player to miss it .. Aronian also missed it!

[d]8/8/8/1R1pk1p1/3r4/P2R1P1r/1PK5/8 w - - 0 0

MC actually played Rxd4 ??? and ended up drawing the game.

[Chessqueen]

Never mind it seems to have been a glitch, I see it now on b3 ... somehow it did not show without several page refreshes. This is a simple tactic and would rate around 1400 to 1500 ELO on the chess.com tactics trainer as the pattern is very obvious. I think this type of tactic is never missed by any reasonably strong player even at bullet, but that doesn't mean that it can't be missed sometimes by even the top GM on earth . Chess blindness can sometimes be incredible ... I mean look Magnus Carlsen, by far the strongest player ever created by planet earth actually missed a completely winning simple tactic here. The thing is that MC was not the only strong player to miss it .. Aronian also missed it!

MC actually played Rxd4 ??? and ended up drawing the game.

[d]3r2k1/pp1q1pp1/2pr3p/6bQ/3P4/1BP2P2/P3R1PP/4R1K1 w - - 0 1
I Just gave it to few of the players that I know on chess.com who are rated average around 1850 and told them to solve it by using a chess clock with 30 seconds, out of 10 players only 2 solved it without using any engine , but you simply did not see it until you used your engine, since this position has been here for at least 8 hours, which does NOT need page refreshes, anyway since only two who tried to solve it honestly and solved it, tell me that this tactical puzzle is rated for club players around 1850 to 1950.

[d]8/8/8/1R1pk1p1/3r4/P2R1P1r/1PK5/8 w - - 0 0
But with your position, there is NO tactical shot, all that is required is to know what piece to move or take with, Black simply has to play Rxd3 and Black is winning immediately

[Collingwood]

I mean look Magnus Carlsen, by far the strongest player ever created by planet earth actually missed a completely winning simple tactic here. The thing is that MC was not the only strong player to miss it .. Aronian also missed it!

MC actually played Rxd4 ??? and ended up drawing the game.

[d]8/8/8/1R1pk1p1/3r4/P2R1P1r/1PK5/8 w - - 0 0
But with your position, there is NO tactical shot, all that is required is to know what piece to move or take with, Black simply has to play Rxd3 and Black is winning immediately

No. It's White to play. f4+ wins.

[Chessqueen]

I mean look Magnus Carlsen, by far the strongest player ever created by planet earth actually missed a completely winning simple tactic here. The thing is that MC was not the only strong player to miss it .. Aronian also missed it!

MC actually played Rxd4 ??? and ended up drawing the game.

[d]8/8/8/1R1pk1p1/3r4/P2R1P1r/1PK5/8 w - - 0 0
But with your position, there is NO tactical shot, all that is required is to know what piece to move or take with, Black simply has to play Rxd3 and Black is winning immediately

No. It's White to play. f4+ wins.

Of course if it is White to move f4+ is an easy move to find, but it is just a single winning move NOT a tactical sequence of forced moves which are much much harder.

Yesterday my online trainer had me playing versus a 1935 Blitz player from India and we we reached this position with only 40 seconds left on my clock and he had 57 seconds left on his computer, which is plenty of time time to finish me off plus his position was much better. I was playing with the Black pieces and since I am NOT to used to play Blitz 5+1" my position was horrible with the Black position with NO pawns in front of my King to protect me, my position was very open and exposed, but he got careless specially after I saw a beautiful tactical Combo (Win or die move) which gave me the only and since he was feeling over confident he chose the worse reply to my desperate last move. I was actually looking at this move for the last of my two moves and calculating to see if he would place his Rook on d3 and he did, since his next move seems very logical to give me check with his Rook on h3+ which was the moment that I was waiting for. See if you can find that fantastic tactical combination move Please do NOT use any engine above 2100 since if you take at least 10 seconds you should be able to calculate at least 5 forced tactical moves if you are at least 1850

[d]7k/pb3q2/1p3p2/2prp1p1/6P1/1P1R4/PQ3PP1/1B5K b - - 0 1

[kiroje]

I mean look Magnus Carlsen, by far the strongest player ever created by planet earth actually missed a completely winning simple tactic here. The thing is that MC was not the only strong player to miss it .. Aronian also missed it!

MC actually played Rxd4 ??? and ended up drawing the game.

[d]8/8/8/1R1pk1p1/3r4/P2R1P1r/1PK5/8 w - - 0 0
But with your position, there is NO tactical shot, all that is required is to know what piece to move or take with, Black simply has to play Rxd3 and Black is winning immediately

No. It's White to play. f4+ wins.

Of course if it is White to move f4+ is an easy move to find, but it is just a single winning move NOT a tactical sequence of forced moves which are much much harder.

Yesterday my online trainer had me playing versus a 1935 Blitz player from India and we we reached this position with only 40 seconds left on my clock and he had 57 seconds left on his computer, which is plenty of time time to finish me off plus his position was much better. I was playing with the Black pieces and since I am NOT to used to play Blitz 5+1" my position was horrible with the Black position with NO pawns in front of my King to protect me, my position was very open and exposed, but he got careless specially after I saw a beautiful tactical Combo (Win or die move) which gave me the only and since he was feeling over confident he chose the worse reply to my desperate last move. I was actually looking at this move for the last of my two moves and calculating to see if he would place his Rook on d3 and he did, since his next move seems very logical to give me check with his Rook on h3+ which was the moment that I was waiting for. See if you can find that fantastic tactical combination move Please do NOT use any engine above 2100 since if you take at least 10 seconds you should be able to calculate at least 5 forced tactical moves if you are at least 1850

[d]7k/pb3q2/1p3p2/2prp1p1/6P1/1P1R4/PQ3PP1/1B5K b - - 0 1

Qh7+ Kg1 (Rh3 Qxh3+ and Rd2+ and takes the queen) Rxd3 Qc2 Qe4 looks good