Pattern Recognition 1: The King's Bowtie

When a Kings wears a pawn bowtie, he is vulnerable for a Sac on the diagonal to draw him out. Here Rook X f6 followed by Qh4+ and mate to follow.

A Big Think is needed

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1572620


My impression of this position before a big think is it involves Bxg7 and N-f7 and Q-h3 and possibly a rook lift. Perhaps that advanced pawn will come in handy. Although starting with a pawn push might be interesting but I think unlikely. Unsure of move order I need to see if Q-h3 is too slow and I need to sac first due to black playing f6 first. RXd6 might be the appropriate first move....

It's feeling to me like a corridor mate after the smoke clears or a queen mate close in.

Qc6 from black looks likes trouble. I wonder is some point a rook blocks this check.

As I said, it needs a big think. hmmm.

I'm curious as to who may be following this. If you read this,please leave a hi or a short comment. Thanks

Save to Study tonight 30 BTM

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1590198

After short review, I'm not seeing a mate and think it played to win material. I need to think about it more.

Philidor save for study

The Attacking Manual 1 &2

Jacob Aagaard took up the big challenge of writing 2 books to cover the subject of Attacking Chess. This is meant to be a modern day Art of Attack in Chess.

I think it's somewhat above my rating and something to study deeper in the future. I've asked a number of local libraries to purchase it. He has a number of positions that he would like us to think about for 10-20 minutes for plans. One could easily spend a year working with these books.

Volume 1 is his ideas on the nature of dynamic chess while Volume 2 is more like the Art of Attack. Aagaard makes the point that the A or A descriptions are not clear.
I agree with him.

below are two excerpts from the publisher

http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/attackingmanual1.pdf

http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/attacking_manual_2.pdf

3 1/2 stars is hard

BTM Euwe's Sharp Position

Working on this with BTM. I want to study this at length this weekend.

I'm thinking rf2 could lead to a perpetual check but need to think about this at length.

Save for Study

Save for Study tonight

Middlegame tactic

Save for study tonight

If you are hoping to learn something

If you're hoping to learn something about tactics and chess from my blog......

I will respectfully redirect you to someone who knows what he is talking about.

Dan Heisman Archive of a decade of Novice Nook.

2.13 circle 1 640

2.14 circle 1 670

2.15 circle 1 700

2.16 circle 1 709

Begin with an End in Mind- WTM

As Dan Heisman says Loose Pieces fall off. Here with White to Move, it's important to evaluate some options to see if you can grab the queen as well as preventing mate.

I am not only building patterns for a specific positions but for opportunity recognition in games. I'd hoping to further develop my tactical "spider" sense that there is a possibility of a tactic when a position arises.

Here Black's Queen is a clear target and worth some clock time to see if she call be caught.

Interestingly enough this position occurs when black is focusing on Queen to G2 for the mate.

589 Sharpen Your Tactics.
Game found here
Gelfand vs Kanstler 1987

Minor Piece Endgame Study

Capturing this for future study.

2.11 first circle problem 600

Brain cramp

From today's puzzle of the day, I'm having a brain cramp on this though the options are pretty limited. I'm going to brute force the candidate moves and build an option tree tonight.

2.10 First Circle 582

Hopefully

Hopefully, I will make up for lack of detailed interesting posts * by adding the chessgames.com puzzle of the day to my sidebar. It's a great site worthy of lengthy and daily visits. I enjoy the puzzle (published 12:00 am EST) and the game of the day and the comments from the community . Many of my sidebar links are to collections at this site.


I'm pleased with my initial circle and I'm at the first pass familiarity stage with many of the positions. I'm working on the complete problem set many of the harder set which I don't get pass the first move or two of the analysis. (I do try to follow as much of the continuation as I can)


* posts are left intentionally sparse so I can concentrate on building tactical circle momentum.

2-6 505 circle 1

2-7 526 c1

2-8 550 c1

2-9 563 Woot! Hit half way point on first circle #563 . problems getting progressively harder,combinations longer and variations more complex although there are still some 1&2 star problems in the mix.