Tactics: Visiting Cozens
This week's Canadian Tactic comes from the game Cummings - Leyell (2014-15 4NCL).
Canadian IM David Cummings was visiting England in May, and joined his old 4NCL team for a weekend game. He came back with a combo to remember.
White to play and win.
Hint: one of David's first chess books was....
Spoiler: Highlight to view
"The King-Hunt" by W.H.Cozens.
Solution:
Here's the game, with notes by IM David Cummings
Cummings, David H (2337) - Lyell, Mark (2312) 4NCL England 2015.05.02 Round: ? Result: 1-0
1. d4 f5
2. Nc3 Nf6
3. Bg5 d5
4. f3 c5
5. e4
2. Nc3 Nf6
3. Bg5 d5
4. f3 c5
5. e4
After only 5 moves we have a fairly rare and sharp position, which only gets more crazy in the next few moves..
5... cxd4
5... Nc6 is an alternative.
6. Qxd4 Nc6
7. Bb5 Kf7?
Black tries to make things "interesting" but it is hard to believe this can be a good move. 7... dxe4 was preferable, when after 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. fxe4 fxe4 10. O-O-O+ White has good play for the pawn.
8. Qa4 d4
Black continues with his plan to build a pawn centre, but 8... dxe4 was again better.
9. O-O-O e5
Already a critical point of the game. Here I came up with a piece sacrifice based largely on intuition.
10. Bc4+!?
10. f4! was best here, blasting open the position to expose Black's King.
10... Kg6
Black could play 10... Ke8 though unless Black saw that he is losing by force, it would be hard to admit that the whole 7...Kf7 concept was a mistake.
11. exf5+?!
Proceeding with the piece sac, though objectively 11. h4 or 11. f4 were better.
[#]
11... Bxf5
This move, and Black's next, are natural, but lead to a lost position. Instead, Black should grab the offered piece with: 11... Kxg5 and after 12. h4+ Kh6 13. g4 he has the counter-intuitive 13... Bxf5! when White needs to find 14. Nh3 ( the main point being that after 14. gxf5?? Black has the astonishing resource 14... Qa5! which simply wins for Black ) 14... Be7 and in a game between two humans, anything could happen. The computer gives this position as dynamically equal, a sample line being ( If now 14... Qa5 White has the counterblow 15. g5+ Kg6 16. Qb3 ) 15. g5+ Kg6 16. gxf6 gxf6 17. Rdg1+ Kh6 18. Ne4 Na5 19. Ng3 Bd7 20. Bb5 Be6 though I'd still prefer to be White here.
12. g4 Bd7?
Critical Position White to play and win. White has two pieces hanging, but... The real losing move, although after 12... Kxg5 White has the extra resource 13. f4+ with a strong attack
13. Qb3!
Creates unstoppable threats on the a2-g8 and b1-h7 diagonals.
13... Qe8
Black simply can't defend against both threats of 14.Bf7+ and 14.Bd3+. My opponent sportingly plays the resulting king-hunt out until checkmate is on the board.
14. h4
editor - 14. Bd3+ also wins 14... e4 15. Nxe4 Nxe4 16. Nh3 +-
14... Na5
15. Bf7+ Qxf7
16. h5+ Kxg5
17. Nh3+
Diagram [#]
17... Kh4
17... Kh6 18. g5+ Kxh5 19. Qxf7+ also mates quickly.
18. Nf2+ Kg3
Now everything wins of course, but White has a nice mate in 3 with:
19. Ne2+ Kg2
20. Rdg1+ Kxf2
21. Rh2#
One of my earliest chess books was "The King-Hunt" by W.H.Cozens. It was nice to get to play one in 19th century style! 1-0
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IM David Cummings is the current Pan American Senior Champion (+50), a title he won in Brazil in December 2014.
This game, and two others by IM David Cummings will appear with his notes in an upcoming issue of Chess Canada, the digital Newsletter of the Chess Federation of Canada.