Table Of ContentNewsletter Issue #101 Tactics Time
Decide tactics first and only apply positional criteria if no tactic exists. -NM Dan
Heisman
T his game was also featured in the April
2004 Tactics Time Column, and was
played in the 2003 Edward Levy
Memorial.
In the position on the right it is White to
move.
Answer below.
In this newsletter I present another article
from the chesscafe.com Novice Nook archive that
I would recommend related to the topic of chess
tactics.
The Principle of Tactical Dominance
(http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman57.pdf)
This is a great article that discusses "Positional considerations" (such as weak squares, isolated
pawns, etc) versus "Tactical considerations" (such as winning a pawn).
Dan states the rule as follows:
Tactical criteria dominate positional criteria. Therefore, use of positional criteria is
almost always useless if there is a tactic that wins material or checkmates; decide
tactics first and only apply positional criteria if no tactic exists.
Dan gives several examples where his students (poorly) chose moves based on positional
considerations such as "A knight on the rim is dim", instead of tactical considerations such as
"This move loses a pawn".
Dan also mentions how weaker players will often waste time and energy in games thinking
about obscure or unimportant positional considerations, then make a move that loses tactically!
The article mentions how chess players, who have never learned the basics of tactics, such as
counting, are studying openings, and learning positional rules, that are basically useless without a
good tactical foundation.
I really like this article a lot, and how Dan has a real knack for pointing out the "Elusive
Obvious" that many weaker players suffer from.
Here is the complete game:
[Event "Levy Memorial"]
[Site "Denver"]
[Date "2003.09.18"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Firman, Nazar"]
[Black "Salinas, Chad"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C11"]
[WhiteElo "2513"]
[BlackElo "1920"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[EventDate "2003.09.18"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2003.10.22"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 a6 8. Qd2
cxd4 9. Nxd4 Bc5 10. O-O-O O-O 11. Qf2 Nxd4 12. Bxd4 Qc7 13. h4 b5 14. h5 b4
15. Na4 Bxd4 16. Qxd4 Qa5 17. b3 Bb7 18. f5 Bc6 19. f6 gxf6 20. exf6 Kh8 21.
Bd3 e5 22. Qg4 Rg8 23. Qf5 e4 24. Bxe4 dxe4 25. Qxa5 1-0
You can play through this game here: http://tacticstime.com/?page_id=2172.
Answer:
White can safely take the pawn with 24. Bxe4 because the d pawn is pinned to the Queen on
a5. In the game black should have played 24 ...Nf8 protecting against mate, but instead
played 24. ...dxe4 and resigned after 25. Qxa5.
Happy Tactics!
Your Friend,
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© Copyright 2011-2012 Timothy Brennan, All Rights Reserved.
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Newsletter Issue #102 Tactics Time
Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! - John J. Rambo (First Blood 1982)
T his game was played online by my good
friend Francisco Baltier (ZonaGrad) in a
3 minute blitz game.
In the position on the right it is Black to
move.
Answer below.
Francisco has an outstanding attitude when it
comes to playing losing positions. Most people
just start pushing wood, waiting to resign, with a
helpless feeling that there is nothing that they
can do to save the game.
Not Francisco. He goes into what I call
"RAMBO MODE".
He says to himself a quote from the original Rambo movie, "First Blood". In the scene the
commander is telling him that the mission is over. Rambo screams back "NOTHING IS OVER!!
NOTHING!!" Here is a 6 second YouTube video showing that quote (http://youtu.be
/71vqGyWTs3c).
Here is the dialogue, taken from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB):
Trautman: You did everything to make this private war happen. You've done enough damage.
This mission is over, Rambo. Do you understand me? This mission is over! Look at them out there!
Look at them! If you won't end this now, they will kill you. Is that what you want? It's over
Johnny. It's over!
Rambo: Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I
didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win!
Chris Peterson and Brian Wall made an outstanding video called "Fishing Pole: First Blood"
(http://youtu.be/exGSXjvKej0) , which features Francisco's win against GM Walter Browne in a
simul in Reno, with a brilliant Rambo theme.
Francisco even has an award named after him called the "Jim Burden - Francisco Baltier Award"
given out each year by Life Master Brian Wall. This award goes to the best game where the player
lost their queen for no good reason, and then still won the game. The award is given out on April
1 (April Fools Day), each year by creator Brian Wall.
The next time that you have a bad position say to yourself "NOTHING IS OVER!" (Sylvester
Stallone accent is optional). I have done this myself, and saved a lot of games where I was
losing!
Here is the complete game:
[Event "Rated blitz match 3 0"]
[Date "2011.11.02"]
[White "ZonaGrad"]
[Black "sTpny"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "1470"]
[BlackElo "1313"]
[PlyCount "47"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d3 Bc5 4. h3 Bxf2+ 5. Kxf2 c6 6. Bg5 d5 7. Nc3 Bg4 8.
hxg4 dxe4 9. Nxe4 Qb6+ 10. Ke1 Nxg4 11. b3 O-O 12. Qd2 Nd7 13. Kd1 f5 14. Kc1
fxe4 15. dxe4 Nc5 16. Be3 Nxe3 17. Qxe3 Rad8 18. Kb2 Nd3+ 19. Bxd3 Qxe3 20.
Bc4+ Kh8 21. Rae1 Qc5 22. Ng5 b5 23. Nxh7 Rf2 24. Nf6# 1-0
You can play through this game here: http://tacticstime.com/?page_id=2174
Answer:
Black has a nasty check with 18. ...Na4+ discovering an attack on the unprotected queen on
e2.
Black can also check with 18. ...Nd3+ (which was played in the game), but this check is not as
good, because it gives white the option to trade his queen for knight and rook, which is a pretty
even trade, and white was already ahead in material.
After 18. ...Nd3+ Francisco played 19. Bxd3? which hung his queen. But in true Rambo mode,
he came back and won the game!
Happy Tactics!
Your Friend,
Like Tactics Time on Facebook.
Follow Tactics Time on Twitter.
Check out the Tactics Time Blog.
If you know someone who could benefit from this, please feel free to forward it to them!
Not a subscriber yet? Like what you read?
Sign up to get future issues delivered straight to you at http://tacticstime.com!
© Copyright 2011-2012 Timothy Brennan, All Rights Reserved.
Tactics Time | Podcasts | Product Information | 101 Tactical Tips Unsubscribe to this newsletter
Newsletter Issue #103 Tactics Time
I get more upset at losing at other things than chess. I always get upset when I lose at
Monopoly. - Magnus Carlsen
T his game was played at a standard time
control at the 2003 Edward Levy
Memorial in Denver, between 2 strong
players in the open section.
In the position on the right it is White to
move.
Answer below.
Today, I wanted to share some links and
resources where I get a lot of the quotes, ideas
and games that I use.
Chess Quotes is a great website that has a lot
of chess quotes organized by topic, as well as a
chess quote of the day.
Chessville Chess Quotes is a huge collection of quotes, not all related to chess, but many related
to sports, success, improvement, and competition.
Brainy Quotes is an enormous collection of quotes on a huge range of topics.
Many quotes that I use are just taken from articles or chess books that I have read that I really
liked, that no one else has really labeled as a "quote" before. The articles on chesscafe.com
normally provide me with a lot of food for thought.
I also use Wikipedia quite a lot when looking up chess information, or information about
openings or famous chess players. The amount of chess knowledge that is now in Wikipedia has
grown enormously the past couple of years. You can learn a lot about chess just from Wikipedia.
Many of the play on words that I have used in the titles were from chess team names, used in
tournaments such as the U.S. Amateur team tournaments.
I find a lot of fun positions and ideas from The Planet Greenpawn blog, and redhotpawn forums.
I get a lot of Colorado games and ideas from the Denver Chess Club, Fred Spell's Colorado
Springs Chess Night Newsletter, Paul Anderson's Colorado Springs Chess blog, Brian Wall's
newsletter, Anthea Carson's Hubpages, and the Colorado State Chess Association page where
many games are contributed by Richard Buchanan.
I could not do this newsletter without all the people out there publishing games, and writing
their own blogs and websites, and I am grateful and thankful to live in a time when such amazing
resources are available.
Here is the complete game:
[Event "Levy Memorial"]
[Site "Denver"]
[Date "2003.09.18"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Ivanov, Alexander"]
[Black "Simms, Gary"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B30"]
[WhiteElo "2538"]
[BlackElo "2272"]
[PlyCount "13"]
[EventDate "2003.09.18"]
[EventRounds "5"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2003.10.22"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 e5 4. Bc4 d6 5. d3 Bg4 6. h3 Bh5 7. Nxe5 1-0
You can play through the game here: http://tacticstime.com/?page_id=2176.
Answer:
White took advantage of Légal's Trap with 7. Nxe5! The move 6. h3 loosen the bishop, getting
it to retreat to h5, so that 7. Nxe5 would work.
If the bishop were still on g4, then after 7. ...Nxe5 the knight would be protecting this bishop.
If black gets greedy and grabs the queen on d1, he will be mated after 8. Bxf7+ Ke7 9. Nd5#
with a Légal' Mate.
This is a very important tactical pattern to know! Note that it was a master rated 2272 who
missed this move!
Happy Tactics!
Your Friend,
Like Tactics Time on Facebook.
Follow Tactics Time on Twitter.
Check out the Tactics Time Blog.
If you know someone who could benefit from this, please feel free to forward it to them!
Not a subscriber yet? Like what you read?
Sign up to get future issues delivered straight to you at http://tacticstime.com!
© Copyright 2011-2012 Timothy Brennan, All Rights Reserved.
Tactics Time | Podcasts | Product Information | 101 Tactical Tips Unsubscribe to this newsletter
