ODT100629

=**The road to rapid improvement**=




 * Problem:** Black to play and mate in 3.

The 2010 Otago/Southland Primary and Intermediate School teams championships were held at Dunedin North Intermediate on 12 June and attracted a record 23 teams. The Primary grade was dominated by the Enrich@ILT A team from Invercargill on 20½/24 points. 2nd were St Clair Primary A, 14 points and 3rd (on countback) were Maori Hill on 12½. The Intermediate grade was a much closer contest, and victory was snatched by the Home School team on 16/24 points followed in 2nd place by Tahuna Intermediate 15 points and 3rd (again on countback) the Balmacewen B team on 14½.

While practice under tournament conditions and guidance in chess principles certainly helps, chess improvement requires individual effort. Learning chess notation and playing over annotated games from books, magazines and newspaper columns is key to absorbing the finer points of the game. The next step is to record your own games and then analyse them afterward, writing your own annotations. Losses should be given extra attention, as they provide the most instruction. This is the quickest way to find the gaps in your chess understanding and improve the quality of your play. Today's game is a fine example of doing just that by Leighton Nicholls (12), board one of the victorious Home School team in the Intermediate grade. The notes to the game contain excerpts from his own comments in quotes. He was playing Black against Poutama Crossman-Nixon (12) of the DNI Red team. media type="custom" key="26232984" “The Queen's Pawn Game is used to describe openings in which the game opens with 1 d4 d5 but White does not follow through with an early pawn advance to c4 (Queen's Gambit).” “3... g6 is a lot more popular than Nc6. Bad opening play from me.” A little too harsh on his own move here, based on the results of searching a games database. But reserving the possibility of playing a later ...c5 to attack White's d4 pawn certainly has merit. “My options for White here instead of a3 would have been Bf4, g3 or e3.” “Maybe I should have played 4... Bf5, but my plan was to follow up by Bd6, 0-0, Re8, pushing the e6 pawn up to gain two centre pawns and blast out the centre.” Very logical and the diagonal for the c8 bishop will then be re-opened. “Defending against 6 b5, which pushes my c6 knight back to e7 and blocks in my bishop.” The immediate 5...Bd6 also counters this, but Black's plan would be disrupted by 6 b5 nevertheless. “Not sure what this was intended for, 6 Ra2? just wastes White's time.” “Plan almost finished.” “Re1 is a blunder, followed by...” “... a winning pawn fork.” A tactical motif commonly overlooked at this level, unless young players sensitise themselves by practicing forks and double-attacks. “A questionable move. I thought White would have played 12 Bxf3. The problem now is that this move cannot be reversed and White's kingside is ripped right open and is a good striking point for Black.” “My plan is to take advantage of the open kingside and checkmate.” “13 Bf1 is probably the best move here [to] stop the Qh3 threat, but probably not for long.” Indeed 13 Bf1 Qf5 14 f4 Qg6+ and the black queen takes up an attacking position. Setting up the puzzle that is today's diagram. The only way to postpone mate was 14 f4 blocking the d6-h2 diagonal (if 14 Bf1? Qxh2#). But after 14 ... Ng4 White must give up her queen with 15 Qxg4 to avoid mate e.g. 15 Qd2 (defending f2) Qxh2+ 16 Kf1 Nxd4! and ...Qh1 mate can only be delayed a couple more moves. Black finds mate in 4 based on a common kingside attacking pattern, yet again the reaping the profits of study. A slightly faster method is the solution to the diagram. An example of logical, well-directed play by Black. White, who played much better in the competition than this one-sided game would suggest, simply lacked the store of chess patterns that is soon built up by the study of master games.
 * 1.d4 d5**
 * 2.Nc3 ---**
 * 2.--- Nf6**
 * 3.Nf3 Nc6**
 * 4.a3!? ---**
 * 4.--- e6**
 * 5.b4!? a6**
 * 6.Ra2?! ---**
 * 6.--- Bd6**
 * 7.e3 O-O**
 * 8.Bd3 Re8**
 * 9.O-O e5**
 * 10.Re1? ---**
 * 10.--- e4!**
 * 11.Be2 exf3**
 * 12.gxf3?! ---**
 * 12.--- Qd7!**
 * 13.Bd3? ---**
 * 13.--- Qh3**
 * 14.e4 ---**
 * 15.--- Bxh2+!**
 * 15.Kh1 Bg3+**
 * 16.Kg1 Qh2+**
 * 17.Kf1 Qxf2 mate**


 * 0-1**


 * Solution:** 1 ... Qxh2+ 2 Kf1 Nxd4! 3 Ne2 Bh3# or 3 Re3 Qh1#.