Tactics Time Chess Newsletter: Happy Mother's Day

Published: Sun, 05/13/12

Newsletter Issue Mother's Day 2012

Tactics Time

Happy Mother's Day!

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. ~Ambrose Bierce


H

appy Mother's Day to everyone who is a Mother or has a Mother :-)

Today's Newsletter is written by "Chess Mom" Anthea Carson. Anthea is a very active tournament chess player, and also has children that are active chess players. Thanks Anthea!

In the position on the right it is White to move.

Answer below.

   Mother's Day for a Chess Mom

   I used to be in the top 100 chess females in the US. I bounce in and out of that list still. Paul Anderson likes to tease me that I was booted out of the list by the new Colorado female chess star, Katie Wise. (That's who I played on Thursday night, and that game is subject of this newsletter.)

   Yes, it's true, Katie Wise is now in the top 100 chess females in the US and I'm not! In fact, her rating is much higher than mine has ever been, and she's reaching this high rating at a much younger age than I did, and has reached it much faster than I did.

   But I always say, if they had a list of chess playing moms, I bet I'd be in the top 100 for that list, and might stay there a long time!

   Here's my game against Katie from Thursday night at Colorado Springs Panera Bread.

[Event "May Thursday Panera Bread "]
[Site "Colorado Springs, CO"]
[Date "2012.05.10"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Carson, Anthea"]
[Black "Wise, Katie"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A85"]
[WhiteElo "1718"]
[BlackElo "1885"]
[PlyCount "53"]

1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bg5 Bg7 5. Qd2 O-O 6. Nh3 {Anthea plays the horsefly} c6 7. d5 Na6 {Katie sees the beauty of the horsefly} 8. g3 Nc5 {Anthea ignores the fly, knowing he is just a silly pest that deserves no attention.} 9. Bg2 Nfe4 10. Nxe4 Nxe4 11. Bxe4 fxe4 12. d6 Bf6 13. Bxf6 Rxf6 14. c5 exd6 15. cxd6 Qf8 16. O-O-O b5 17. Ng5 Rxf2 18. Nxe4 Rf5 19. Qc2 c5 {Katie opens the file. I like to deliberately place my queen on the file in front of my king, in a taunting manner. It can and has backfired from time to time.} 20. Nxc5
Bb7 21. Qb3+ {Taking the bishop right away would be a serious blunder. But I knew it was safe due to the interposing check. If her queen weren't already on f8, that would be where her king would go. Then she could win back the knight.} Kg7 22. Nxb7 Qc8+ 23. Qc3+ Kh6 {King goes to the horsefly square.} 24. Qxc8 Rxc8+ 25. Kb1 b4 {Attempting to trap the knight.} 26. Rc1 Rb8 27. Rc7 1-0 {Katie resigns.}

You can play through this game here: http://tacticstime.com/?page_id=3316.

   Notice how the knight on h3 managed to be annoying all game, even though it wasn't really part of the action? At least not initially. And in the end Katie had to swat that horsefly but missed, due to a tactic. That's the purpose of the horsefly. To buzz around looking for annoying tactics.

   Katie once asked the purpose of the horsefly. I told her the purpose was to get the knight to f5 and make it hard to dislodge by playing d5 to stop e4. The horsefly is technically a black opening against the Bird, so this is really not actually called the horsefly, but who cares?

   She said is that the only goal of the horsefly?

   I said, yes.

   She laughed, and decided it was silly. She has lost twice to the horsefly since then. So after the game I convinced her to watch my video of the horsefly, starring my daughter, Tara. Katie patiently watched the video.

   Here's a link to that video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN-iixuGhkA.

Answer:

Black played the trappy 20...Bb7 on the previous move. Black's Bishop on b7 is undefended, and attacked by the knight on c5. However taking the bishop right away would be a mistake, because of Rc1, which would pin the queen to the king.

So instead of the immediate Nxb7, white plays the in between move 21. Qb3+, which gets the queen off the same file as the King, and after black gets out of check, can then take the bishop on b7.

Happy Tactics!

Your Friend,

Anthea

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