O Is For Overload IX

Greetings,

Happy Father’s Day to all the chess dads out there!

And now, the newsletter…

Game Of The Week

A couple years back, I came up with a method to organize chess tactics. I called it the DROP Method (cschess.webs.com/apps/blog/cate … rop-method). The DROP method is an acronym for the basic kinds of tactics. It is meant to remind you not to drop your pieces and help you get your opponent to drop theirs.

I said that the DROP Method was a work in progress, and it was. So, I thought I would revisit each of the four kinds of chess tactics to provide more examples. The first kind of tactic in the DROP Method is Discovery, which I revisited on May 10th (cschess.webs.com/apps/blog/show … removal-ix). The third kind of tactic in the DROP Method is Overload.

Overload is a chess move that attacks a target.

The Overload is played when the player creates a threat on a target that cannot be defended. The classic example is choosing a target and piling more attackers on it than supports the defender can muster. When the number of attackers are greater than the number of supports, material can be won through a series of captures. Each capture creates a new target until the final support is exhausted and an unguarded target appears.

However, the Overload is, perhaps, the most broad kind of tactic. Not only does it use multiple attackers on one target, but also it uses a single attacker on multiple targets. The idea is the same: to gain a target than cannot be defended. So, most players will become familiar with the different types of Overload:

Battery (Overload with multiple attackers on a file or diagonal)
Fork (Overload with multiple targets by the Knight)
Double Attack (Overload with multiple targets by the other pieces)
Over-Worked Piece (Overload with multiple targets)
Skewer (Overload with multiple targets where a high value piece is in front)

Here is a position from the Colorado Springs Chess Club’s Corona, No Lime Rapid Online tournament. Since it is Father’s Day, I chose one of my losses. This one came at the hands of LM Brian Wall. Sort of. Part of the reason I lost was my blindness to the Overload tactic, which I finally saw on my fourth attempt. See if you can spot it right away.

White to move

See the diagram and answer here:

cschess.webs.com/apps/photos/ph … =206229917

O Is For Overload IX

chessvideos.tv/chess-game-r … ?id=115541

[Event “CSCC Corona, No Lime Online”]

[Site “http://cschess.webs.com/”]

[Date “2020.04.26”]

[Round “3.1”]

[White “Anderson, Paul”]

[Black “Wall, Brian”]

[Result “0-1”]

[ECO “D05”]

[WhiteElo “1728”]

[BlackElo “1911”]

[PlyCount “118”]

[EventDate “2020.04.26”]

[TimeControl “900+10”]

  1. d4 c5 2. c3 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 b6 5. Bd3 Bb7 6. O-O d5 7. Bb5+ Nbd7 8. Ne5

a6 9. Be2 Nxe5 10. dxe5 Nd7 11. f4 Be7 12. Na3 O-O 13. Nc2 f6 14. exf6 gxf6 15.

Bg4 f5 16. Be2 Nf6 17. Ne1 Ne4 18. Nf3 Bf6 19. Nd2 Kh8 20. Nxe4 fxe4 21. Bg4 e5

  1. fxe5 Bxe5 23. Rxf8+ Qxf8 24. Qe2 Qd6 25. g3 Rf8 26. Bd2 d4 27. cxd4 cxd4

  2. Rb1 d3 29. Qe1 Bd5 30. b3 Qa3 31. Bc3 Qd6 32. Rc1 Kg8 33. Bb4 Qf6 34. Bxf8

Kxf8 35. Qf2 Ke7 36. Qxf6+ Kxf6 37. Kf2 a5 38. Rc8 Bd6 39. Rd8 Ke5 40. Rh8 a4

  1. Bd1 a3 42. Rxh7 Kf6 43. Rh6+ Ke7 44. h4 Bc6 45. g4 Bb5 46. Rxd6 Kxd6 47.

Ke1 Bd7 48. Kd2 Be6 49. Kc3 Kc5 50. h5 b5 51. g5 b4+ 52. Kd2 Kd6 53. Ke1 Ke5

  1. g6 Kf6 55. Kf2 Kg5 56. Kg3 Bd5 57. Bg4 Bxb3 58. axb3 Kh6 59. Bf5 d2 0-1

This Week In Chess

On June 14th, the Colorado Springs Chess Club held the CSCC Killer Pawn Rapid Online event (3SS, G/10+10).

chess.com/tournament/live/c … ne-1258826

Place, CSCC Killer Pawn (3SS, G/10+10), Score

1 “#1JJ7X (1840)” 3.0

2 “#2CosmicNovaGalaxy (1323)” 2.0

3 “#3cschessnews (1784)” 2.0

4 “#3RayFchess (1647)” 2.0

5 “#5linuxguy1 (1550)” 1.0

6 “#6HermitCrab0 (1464)” 1.0

7 “#7bestatcheckers7 (1498)” 1.0

8 “#8KingVed (1453)” 0.0