Tactics: Playing for a Win?
Black has just avoided a repetition by playing ...Ng6-e7. Who is playing for the win in this 10th round game from the 2015 Continental Championship between US GM Alexander Yermolinsky (White) and Canadian GM Anton Kovalyov (Black)? It is one of 14 Critical Positions available for download in this week's Canadian Tactic.
Hint: the game continued:
Spoiler: Highlight to viewWhite played 25.Rac1 which misses his chance and went on to lose.
Best is:
Spoiler: Highlight to view
25.Qh7! , and if 25...Rc8? 26.Bxh6! shows one point.
Instead, after 25.Qh7! Nf5 White has to find...?
Solution:
Spoiler: Highlight to view
25.Qh7! Nf5 26.d5!! this is the key move; it's a winning breakthrough:
26...Nxe3 27.Rxe3 is simplest, though 27.Qh8+ then d6+ chases the King into the open and is a forced win.
26...Qxd5 27.Rad1 Qxa2 28.Rd7 Ne7 29.Bxh6 gxh6 30.Re3 with a winning attack on f7.
The complete game, and more from the Montevideo Continental Championship, with games and annotations by GM Eric Hansen, will appear in the next issue of Chess Canada, the CFC's online newsletter. This position is is one of 14 Critical Positions in this week's issue of Chess Canada. You can find the full set of Critical Positions in PDF form from the link below. Solutions are in the 2015.05 issue of Chess Canada.