Greetings,
This weekend Manitou Springs is a hotbed of chess activity. The Colorado Closed, Scholastic Closed, and Senior Championship are being held at the Masonic Lodge to pit the top rated chess players in Colorado against each other, along with the top youths and seniors. In addition, the casual chess night at Agia Sophia falls on this Saturday just up the road in Old Colorado City.
This week’s newsletter is my second in a series on tactics and my personal system for organizing tactics, called the DROP method.
Peace be with you,
Paul Anderson
Read The Newsletter!
( cschess.webs.com/apps/blog/entri … r-removal- )
- Game Of The Week: R Is For Removal
- This Week In Chess: unrated Swiss results
- Game Viewer: Paul Anderson v Alex Freeman ( cschess.webs.com/ )
- Springs Fundraiser Standings by Buck Buchanan
2012 Calendar Of Events for the Colorado Springs Chess Club:
cschess.webs.com/apps/calendar/
For additional events, see the following websites:
Denver Chess Club: DCC (denverchess.com)
Colorado State Chess Association: CSCA (colorado-chess.com/)
Wyoming Chess Association: WCA (wyomingchess.com/)
Kansas Chess Association: KCA (kansaschess.org/)
ps - Newsletter preview with pgn (for board diagram and video see The Newsletter):
Last time on the DROP method of tactics, I talked about Discovery (cschess.webs.com/apps/blog/show/ … 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. The second category in the DROP method is Removal. See, D is for Discovery and R is for Removal. You might be able to guess the other two, but I will discuss those in a later newsletter.
Some chess players may have learned the tactic as Removal Of The Guard. I have just shortened the name to fit the acronym. Removal is a broad kind of tactic including such ideas as Clearance, Deflection, Interference, Undermining, and Sacrifice. All these tactical ideas involve the same idea: to get a piece (The Guard) to stop doing its job (Guarding). Sometimes the guard is watching a valuable piece, sometimes the guard is watching the king, and sometimes the guard is watching a square.
Here is an example from a recent game I played against Alex Freeman in the Springs Fundraiser. I match up well against Alex, as we have faced 3 times in rated play (twice in the Springs Fundraiser: 2011 and 2012), and I have won all 3 games we have played. Also, I tend to win our blitz games together. So, I think Alex was concerned about staying ahead of me in time and not losing a good opening by not having enough time to figure out subtle endgame play. However, this quick play backfired, as he lost a pawn in the opening and set me up for a killer tactic by avoiding queen trades.
It may look like the knight is guarding nothing. However, a white queen on d8 mates and the knight guards that square! All white has to do is get the guard of d8 to stop doing its job. Clearly, from the title of this newsletter, a Removal is going to be the tactic played. Yet, as I mentioned earlier, there are several types of Removal. In this case, a Removal By Attack (20. b5) and Removal By Capture (20. Bxc6) both accomplish the task. Which one to chose?
[Site “Colorado Springs”]
[Site “http://cschess.webs.com/”]
[Date “2012.04.14”]
[Round “4.3”]
[White “Anderson, Paul”]
[Black “Freeman, Alex”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D40”]
[WhiteElo “1992”]
[BlackElo “1670”]
[PlyCount “39”]
[EventDate “2012.04.14”]
[TimeControl “1800”]
- d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c5 5. Bg5 Nc6
- cxd5 exd5 7. dxc5 d4 8. Ne4 Qa5+ 9. Bd2 Qd8 10. Nxf6+ Qxf6 11. b4 Bg4 12.
Qb3 d3 13. Bc3 Qe7 14. Qb2 O-O-O 15. O-O-O dxe2 16. Bxe2 Rxd1+ 17. Rxd1 Bxf3 - Bxf3 Qg5+ 19. Qd2 Qf5 20. Bxc6 1-0