oday I want to tell you about a new book written by my friend Anthea Carson called "The Dark Lake".

 

   In the position on the right, from one of Anthea's games, it is Black to move. 

 

   Answer below.

   Anthea is a really good friend of mine, and I have played more rated games of chess against her than any other player. 

 

   She is a super active chess player, chess teacher, chess author, and chess mom.  She is ranked at the 96th percentile for women in the country, and has played over 1700 rated games of chess looking at her USCF statistics page: http://main.uschess.org/datapage/gamestats.php?memid=12614322.

 

   A few years ago she wrote the charming children's chess book "How to Play Chess Like an Animal" with Life Master Brian Wall.  http://chesslikeananimal.com/

 

    Her newest book is called "The Dark Lake", and is now available via the Amazon Kindle for only 99 cents.  Even if you don't own a kindle (like me), you can download it and read it with the free Kindle reader software, and I have heard that there is also an iPad app that can be used as well.

 

   Check it out!

 

   http://www.amazon.com/The-Dark-Lake-ebook/dp/B007EG96U8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1330643900&sr=1-1

 

   Anthea and I recently did a podcast (http://tacticstime.com/?p=3006) about the book, and similarities between chess and writing.  She made some really interesting points.

 

   For example in chess you don't want to waste time on stupid moves that don't help your position.  In writing you don't want to waste time on plot elements that don't move the story forward.

 

   In chess the pieces can only move in a certain way, and always move that way.  In a story you don't want your characters to be changing their behaviors too much or the reader will be confused.

 

   Check out the podcast, and read the transcript for more information about the book and more on these similarities between chess and writing.

 

 

   Here is the complete game:

 

[Event "Kansas Open"]
[Site "Bethany College, Lindsborg, K"]
[Date "2007.07.15"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Van Deeb, Mike"]
[Black "Carson, Anthea"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A58"]
[WhiteElo "1629"]
[BlackElo "1678"]
[PlyCount "66"]

[EventType "game"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. bxa6 Bxa6 6. f3 g6 7. Nh3 Bg7 8. e4
Bxf1 9. Rxf1 d6 10. Kf2 Qb6 11. Kg1 Nbd7 12. Qe2 Ne5 13. Nc3 O-O 14. Nf2 Rfb8
15. f4 Ned7 16. e5 Ne8 17. e6 Ndf6 18. exf7+ Kxf7 19. Qe6+ Kf8 20. Re1 Qd8 21.
Nfe4 Nc7 22. Qh3 Nxe4 23. Rxe4 Kg8 24. f5 Bd4+ 25. Kh1 Qf8 26. Rf4 g5 27. Rg4
h6 28. Bxg5 hxg5 29. Rxg5+ Bg7 30. Rf1 Rxb2 31. Qd3 Ne8 32. h4 Ra3 33. h5 Qf6
0-1

 

   You can play through this game here: http://tacticstime.com/?page_id=3050.

 

   Answer:

 

   Anthea traveled to Kansas in 2007 and went a perfect 5 for 5 in the reserve section of the Kansas Open.  Here she found a nice double attack with 33...Qf6! which attacks the rook on g5, and adds another attacker to the knight on c3, which is pinned to the queen. 

 

   Note that 33...Rxc3 right away doesn't work because of 34. Qxc3, because the bishop on g7 is pinned.

 

 

   Happy Tactics!

 

   Your Friend,