Club Packed for Kid's Night 021118 - and Advanced Concepts - Part 2

White to move!

We had a crowd of 16 players this night for our monthly Kids Night. A good time was had by all.
Stop by the club on any Monday and you will find friendly people ready to play some casual chess.

Now for Part 2 in our series - Topic - exchange sacrifices.

The computer Igor3000 says that the moves 1. g3 or 1. Ba4 or 1. Be2 are equally as good as what is stated below. But Igor is an unfeeling machine. The adrenaline rush of the attacker and the panic attack for the defender are not measured by Igor.

In the diagram the position is very good for White. He has more space, more active pieces, can work on getting his knight into the hole at e5 and has 3 backwards pawns to play for (a6, c6 and e6). Black has just played …..Rb8 hoping to trade rooks, using the chess rule that the cramped player should trade pieces to free himself.
White knows all this and plays

1. Rb6!            Nxb6
2. cxb6            ……..
White breaks another chess rule. Besides giving up material, he trades pawns AWAY from the center. But White has a good reason for this as he wants the c5 square for his knight and so his dark squared bishop can have access to the a3-f8 diagonal. You see chess is all about controlling squares - and almost always center squares.

2. …….           Qb7
3. Ne5+           Kg8
4. Ba4             …….
White attacks c6 by bringing all his pieces into the battle. Chess is a war and not using your entire army is a waste of resources!

4. ……..         Qe7
This is desperation as 4. …..Bd7 5. Qd6, Be8 6. Bb4 and threatening 7. Qf8+ is hopeless for Black.

5. Bb4             Qf6
6. Qc3             h6
This stops the back rank mate threats but Black's queenside is under-defended.

7. Bd6
This simple bishop attack forces the win of a rook, so Black resigned.

Another example next time.