Tactics and some blindfold puzzles

The answers to all puzzles will be at the end of the post.

White to move and win in 7 moves.  This puzzle is a 2741 rated puzzle with a 3.8% pass rate.

For those of you who are brave enough, I challenge you (when you think you have the solution for the puzzle) to look at the different lines that I have provided (in the answers) and try to visualize them in your head to see either why white is winning or losing.  This is a tougher blindfold exercise than the puzzles below.

 

Here are some easy blindfold puzzles to improve your visualization

1.  With a knight on b1, how many moves will it take to get to f6?
2.  With a bishop on a3, would the move Bg8 be legal?
3.  With a knight on b1, could the knight make it to f3 within 3 moves?
4. Find the fastest checkmate: Black: Kg8 White: Kg1, Qb7, Bb2 (White to move)
5.  Find the fastest checkmate: Black: Kc2 White: Ke2, Qa3, Nd1 (White to move)
6.  How many moves would it take for a knight to go from b2 to e6?

 

 

 

Answers to blindfolded puzzles:

1. 3 moves (Nb1, Nc3, Nd5 or Ne4, Nf6)
2. No, a3 is a dark square and g8 is a light square.  (A bishop can never change the colour square that it is on)
3. Yes, in 2 moves (Nb1, Nd2, Nf3)
4. Qg7#
5. Qb2#
6. 3 moves (Nb2, Nd3, Nc5, Ne6)

 

Answer to Tactics Puzzle:

The correct solution is Rg6, Qf8, Qf6, Rc8, Nh3, fxg6, Ng5+, Kg8, Qxg6+, Qg7, Qxe6+, Kh8, Qxc8+ and white is winning.

Here are some sample lines if you are stumped about a certain sequence.

1. Rg6, fxg6, hxg6+, Kg8, Nxe6, Qd7, Qxh6, Qxe6, Qh7+, Kf8, g7+, Ke7, g8=Q+, Qf7, and either queen taking on f7 will be mate.
2. Rg6, fxg6, hxg6+, Kg8, Nxe6, Qd7, Qxh6, Qxe6, Qh7+, Kf8, g7+, Ke8, g8=Q+, Qxg8, Qxg8 and white is winning.
3. Rg6, fxg6, hxg6+, Kh8, Nxe6, Qd7, Qxh6+, Kg8 (or Qh7 and Qxh7#), Qf8#
4. Rg6, Qf8, Qf6, fxg6, Qxf8 is winning for white
5. Rg6, Qf8, Qf6, Rc8, Nh3, fxg6, Qxg6+ (this is a mistake), Kh8, Ng5, Qg7, Nxe6, Qxg6+, hxg6 and black is winning here
6. Rg6, Qf8, Qf6, Rc8, Nh3, fxg6, hxg6+, Kg8, Qxe6+, Kg7, Qxd5, Qf5 and black is winning here

Thanks for your time

-Riley Khan

 

Etobicoke Open 2019 Spring Standings and tournament review

First, what everyone came here for, the players and the standings. Ignore the ratings, they are out of date, all players should search their names online for their true updated ratings which might come out in a week or so.

 

Why didn’t I type them out? 2 very important reasons:

1) Laziness

2) When you’re in a chess tournament, you know exactly what it’s like to run to the posted papers and check all the standings and follow down (or up) until you see your name. I didn’t want the website to show things any differently.

The tournament was a big success. 37 CFC players and 8 non-CFC players came out for some hard-fought, pulse-pounding and palm-sweating chess. The upsets were obscene, with a player at an 1100-level rating drawing against a 1600, and a player with a rating of Zero coming in and going 4.5/5 to win the combined section where the highest rated players were at 2034, 1996 and 1992. I let him play there because he said he was a University chess champion in Iran, and while I normally  don’t entertain these sorts of claims, this time I believed him.

The next tournament will be held at the same place and under the same conditions. It will be a 2-day, 5-round, 70+10 metaphorical knife fight and it will be for donations only if it is held at the Etobicoke Civic center. The money from the previous tournament will likely be put towards maintaining our nonprofit status (an absolute necessity for our club) and saving towards buying our own tournament equipment instead of having to borrow it from another organization as we did with this past tournament (a big step forward that would allow us to run tournaments more often than once a year).

Stay tuned to our website and our instagram for updates on what’s going on here. Come play at our club on Thursday evenings at Woodbine mall. E-mail us, we’d love to hear from you. See you soon.

 

– Jeremy