SPOT ON CHESS PUZZLES for Thursday of April 6th, 2023

Welcome back!

Two puzzles for you today, one easy and one more of the intermediate variety, in terms of the challenges involved in solving. Of course this can be a relatives sort of thing varying from individual to individual. That is to say that what one person finds challenging another may find impossible or easy. Take your time and you will get them solved and do some learning in the process - all part of your chess improvement journey. Two games are covered today... from which our puzzles are derived.

In 1994 I found myself to be in chess heaven! There were two parallel candidates cycles: FIDE versus PCA. The then current World Champion Garry Kasparov formed his own break-away organization which was known as the "Professional Chess Players Association". The PCA was a short lived organization but the contest of wills between Garry K and FIDE leadership led to some really amazing chess being played. And Data Kamsky was one of two MVPs for that year. He would go through in the FIDE cycle and end up playing a World Championship Match against Anatoly Karpov which - in my opinion - was a much more interesting and hotly contested chess match than the Kasparov versus Anand PCA World Championship Match. More about this fascinating historical stuff later though.

I hope you enjoy today's extremely long lesson... I have included the two games down below. Play over them only after you have viewed the video lesson or you will have spoiled your opportunity for chess improvement through effort. Of course it's up to you.

GAMES:

[Event "Candidates Match rapid playoff"]
[Site "Sanghi Nagar IND"]
[Date "1994.08.07"]
[Round "10"][Result "1-0"]
[White "Gata Kamsky"]
[Black "Viswanathan Anand"]
[ECO "A46"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.c3 g6 4.Bg5 Qb6 5.Qb3 Ne4 6.Bf4 Nc6 7.d5
Nd8 8.Nbd2 Nf6 9.e4 d6 10.Bb5+ Bd7 11.a4 Qc7 12.O-O Bg7 13.e5
Nh5 14.exd6 exd6 15.Rfe1+ Kf8 16.Bxd7 Qxd7 17.Qb5 1-0

[Event "Candidates Match"]
[Site "Sanghi Nagar IND"]
[Date "1994.08.03"]
[Round "7"][Result "0-1"]
[White "Viswanathan Anand"]
[Black "Gata Kamsky"]
[ECO "C78"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bb7 7.d3
Bc5 8.a4 O-O 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bh4 d6 11.Nc3 g5 12.Bg3 b4 13.Nd5 Na5
14.Nxf6+ Qxf6 15.Ba2 b3 16.Bxb3 Nxb3 17.cxb3 Qe6 18.Rc1 f5
19.exf5 Qd5 20.d4 Bxd4 21.Rxc7 Rf7 22.Qc2 Rxc7 23.Qxc7 Rf8
24.Qc2 Bc5 25.Re1 Bb4 26.Rd1 Qe4 27.Qxe4 Bxe4 28.Ne1 Bxf5
29.f3 Rc8 30.h4 Be6 31.Nd3 Bxb3 32.Ra1 Bd2 33.hxg5 hxg5 34.Ra3
Bc2 35.Be1 Bxe1 36.Nxe1 Bf5 37.Rb3 Kf7 38.Rb6 Ke6 39.Rb3 Kf7
40.Rb6 Ke6 41.a5 Rc1 42.Kf2 Rb1 43.g4 Bg6 44.Ng2 Bd3 45.Ne3
Bb5 46.Nf5 Rxb2+ 47.Ke1 Kd5 48.Rxd6+ Kc5 49.Rg6 Re2+ 50.Kd1
Rf2 51.Rxg5 Rxf3 52.Rg8 e4 53.Kd2 Rd3+ 54.Ke1 e3 55.Rc8+ Kb4
56.Rc2 Rb3 57.Rc1 Rb2 58.Nd4 Rg2 59.Nc6+ Kb3 60.Nd4+ Kb4
61.Nc6+ Ka4 62.Ra1+ Kb3 63.Nd4+ Kc4 64.Nxb5 Rg1+ 65.Ke2 Rxa1
66.Nc7 Rxa5 67.Kxe3 Ra1 0-1

Thanks for watching today's video... A Like, Share and Subscribe would be greatly appreciated: I thank you in advance. Hope you enjoyed today's lesson - if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them down below and I will respond ASAP. Happy Friday tomorrow and have a Great Weekend! ~ Coach Sean.