Today’s tactical exercise comes from the tenth round game between Kamsky, playing white, and the struggling Yasser Seirawan. It’s white to move:

The position looks a bit dicey for black, with white’s rook eying his king down the half-open g-file. White’s pieces seem well-placed for a king-side attack. His next move opens up a big can of whoop-ass.

White played 1. Bxh6!, and suddenly black is all kinds of screwed. The sacrifice must be accepted, since after something like 1. … Rg8, white would simply play moves like Bf4 and h6, after which his attack will quickly crash through on the g and h files. So black played 1. … gxh6, but this loses to the follow-up sacrifice 2. Rd7!

Now what does black do? He’d like to take the rook with 2. … Nxd7, but this loses to the pretty 3. Qd2 (threatening mate on h6) Kh7 4. Ng4

and black is just helpless against the threat of Qxh6+. With white’s pieces marauding around his position, black won’t last long by moving his queen. So he played his only other option with 2. … Qxd7 3. Nxd7 Nxd7. At first blush this may not look catastrophic, since black has a lot of material in exchange for the queen he just lost. But white is not yet finished. He now plays 4. Qd2!

The dual threats of giving mate on h6 and taking the hanging knight on d7 ensure that white will pick up another piece. Black resigned a few moves later. An impressive game for Kamsky, and sadly typical of how the tournament went for Seirawan.

Happily, the U. S. Championship continues to produce one nail-biter after another. Today’s tactical exercise comes from the game six match-up between Gregory Kaidanov as white against Robert Hess as black. As you can see, we have a rather unusual material balance:

If you remember your basic point-counting (Pawn=1, Bishop and Knight=3, Rook=5, Queen=9), then you see that black’s three minor pieces are effectively equivalent to white’s queen. On paper, at any rate. In practical play the three pieces are generally better, so long as they can cooperate effectively. In the diagram, white has just moved his rook to d1 A trade of rooks would definitely be to his advantage, since it would make it more difficult for black to organize an attack on the white king. But black is not forced to trade. He has a shot in this position that clarifies things immediately.

Black played, 1. … Bd4!, attacking the queen in the corner. If white tries 2. Qc1, then he loses to the fork 2. … Ne2+. His best move is 2. Rxd4, but after 2. … Ne2+ 3. Kh2 Nxd4, black’s material advantage will win in the end. So white played his only other possible move, 2. Qb1, but now 2. … Bd3! is very strong:

White resigned, since 3. Rxd3 Nxd3 4. Qxd3 Bxf2+ wins the white queen. Alas, the white queen has nowhere to go.

Gregory Kaidanov was having a good tournament prior to this game, having beaten the defending champion Gata Kamsky. Alas, after being on the wrong side of this one he committed a bad blunder in the next round. In our next position, Kaidanov is playing black against Alejandro Ramirez:

Earlier in the game, Ramirez had played an inspired attack and seemed to be crashing through. But then he ran into equally inspired defense, allowing Kaidanov to trade into a better endgame. In the diagram black would be winning easily were it not for white’s passed a-pawn. Here Kaidanov played the weak move 1. … Ke4. As one of the commentators pointed out during the game, black’s spidey-sense should have been tingling at the thought of putting his king on the same diagonal as the a-pawn’s queening square. White replied 2. a6. Black now has to give serious thought to how he is going to stop white’s pawn. He should have played 2. … d3, leading to the forced sequence 3. Bd5+ Kd4 4. a7 d2 5. a8Q d1Q 6. Qa4+ Kc3 7. Kxe3 Qxd5, and even though white is a pawn up the game would probably end in a draw. Sadly, Kaidanov thought he had a better way to stop the pawn.

He played 2. … Rc3. Play continued 3. a7 Rc2+ :

It looks like black can stop the pawn now, but he missed a trick. 4. Be2 Ra2 5. a8Q Rxa8 6. Bf3+

In the chess biz that’s called a skewer. Black’s king must move, and then white will snap off the rook. Kaidanov played on for a few more moves, but the writing was on the wall.

So the U. S. Championship produces one exciting game after another. Hopefully Gelfand and Anand will find their balls and put on a show in the remainder of the match. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, the U. S. Championship continues apace. Here’s a little tactical exercise from the first round. White was Hikaru Nakamura, black was Robert Hess. This position actually arose out of ye olde Evans Gambit, one of the oldest openings in the books. It is white to move and win:

Of course, white can win prosaically with 1. Rg3 or 1. Qg6. Black’s pieces are just too far away from the kingside to help with the defense. But Nakamura found the flashiest, and most convincing, win. Answer below the fold.

Mate is inevitable after 1. Rxg7 Taking the rook is forced, since it is the only way to stop mate with the queen on h7. So play continues 1. … Kxg7 2. Rg3+ Kf8. After 2. Kh8, white would play 3. Qg6, and mate follows on the next move. Back to reality, white plays 3. Qh7, bringing about this position:

Now black is up a rook, but he is just helpless against the threat of mate on g7 or g8. A nice win for Nakamura!