photos and puzzles from ps 150

Stephen Yurgel

1. Patryck was black here against Yazmeen. What amazing tactic does he have?

2. Isaiah (black) hung his queen earlier, but he has a chance to trick his opponent here. What clever move could have have played?

3. Vincente (black) has two chances to win a piece here. How?

4. Later in the same game (vs. Devin), Vincente found a nice tactic. Where?

5. I was proud of myself to recognize an important positional moment here in Jack's game at the end of the day. It's not easy (at least for me) to go back and forth looking at beginner games and seeing lots and lots of simple tactics and doing huge amounts of talking, and then actually think about chess again when you look at a 1500's game. White to move.

6. Carlos (black) vs. Eriberto Guzman. Black forgot his opening lines and got a bad position, but he has one last chance to save himself. (kudos to Carlos and Eriberto for analyzing their game together afterwards and finding this great moment).

answers below pictures!

Farai Mandizha, Isaiah Lewis and Adam Dabrowski (winner of the non-rated beginner section!) (photo by Haby Diallo)

Sumayyah

me, analyzing with Michael Yu

William (Michael's older brother)

me, analyzing with Isaiah (photo by Haby Diallo - I love her composition choice!)

answers!

1. Patryck can play 1... Nxe4, which wins a pawn because 2. dxe4 loess the queen to 2... Bxf2 3. Kxf2 Qxd1

2. Isaiah wished he had tried 1... Bxf2, which wins a pawn and the exchange if white plays 2. Kh1, but wins back the queen and equalizes in case of 2. Kxf2 Ng4+!

3. Either 1... Nxf3+ or 1... Nxd3+ wins the Bf4.

4. I found this funny: 1..Ng3 forks the rooks.

5. Black really wants to play c6-c5 and Bc6 to activate both bishops. White should try to stop this freeing advance and also to trade the dark-squared bishops to reach a good knight vs. bad bishop ending. The right move is 1. Nb3, with the idea of 2. Bc5, exchanging bishops.

6. 1... Rdxd6 threatens white's back rank, and after 2. Rxd6 Rxd6 3. Bb2 Rf6! wins the two bishops for the rook.