Tactics: Bold, Brilliant or Bad?
This week's Canadian Tactic comes from the 2014 World U16 Olympiad. From a lifelessly closed position, Black sacrificed her queenside pawns to bring her King up the board to win White's isolated h2-pawn and create her own passed pawn. White to play and show whether Black's bold play was brilliant or bad.
The game ended:
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65.Ne2 Kxf2! Takes away the N's transit squares to h1. After 66.b5 h2 White resigned. 0-1
Hint:
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Think "stalemate".
Solution:
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65.Ne4 Only move! 65...h2 66.Ng3 Kxf2 67.Nh1+!! Kg2 68.Ke2! Kxh1 69.Kf1!
The point of this study-like maneuver: Black's King is stalemated and the Knight is overworked. White wins after, e.g. 69... Nd6 70.b5.
From the game:
Vangsgaard, Freja (DEN) - Zhou, Qiyu (CAN)
World U16 Olympiad. rd.5.
Gyor, Hungary
2014.12.16
This game, and others from the 2014 U16 Olympiad will appear in an upcoming issue of Chess Canada, the CFC's online newsletter.