Test Yourself! Puzzles from the Eric Giola tournament!

Danny Feng and Azeez Alade tied for first (4-0) at today's CIS tournament. Danny beat Alexis Paredes in the last round and won the blitz playoff against Azeez. Anita Maksimiuk, Richard Wu and Anthony Ovando won the junior high novice section (Anita took first on tiebreaks.) Jessy Ramirez won the unrated section.

Puzzles from IS 318 players games:

1. Anita Maksimiuk - Kevin Budhu. Anita's queen is attacked. Where should it move and what happens next?

Anita

2. Alexander Bavalsky- Danny Feng

Black played 12... f5, which has the positional idea of controlling the light squares and continuing with Nd7-f6, gripping e4 and d5. Black also sets a trap.

a) Where should white move?

b) White actually played 13. Qd3, getting out of the pin on the e file. What should black play and what happens?

Danny

3. Danny Feng - Calvin Ky white to move.

Danny knows his openings very well: until his opponent's last move, 10... Nf7, he was still in "theory." How could he have won immediately here?

4. Alex ? - Matthew Kluska How should black defend the e pawn, 18... Re8 or 18... Bf6?


Matthew

5. Sean - Alex Bradford black to move

Alex


6. Adelaide - Austin Tang Black castled here, but what's a better move?

Austin

7. Casey Jacobs - James Black
what to take? black to move


James, Danny, and Anthony (front to back)



8. Walid - Aru Banks black to move

Aru

9. ?? - Kevin Dominguez. black to move

more photos

D'Andrea
Shaun Smith, tournament director

Rashawn Baldwin

Azeez Alade

even more photos here

answers

1) 1. Qg3! (1. Qe3 is also good, with the idea of 2. Ba3) 1... Bh5 (if 1... h5, 2. h3 isn't great because of 2... Nxe4, but 2. f6! gxf6 3. Ba3 is) 2. f6! Qxf6 3. Rxf6 +-

2) 12....f5! 13. Qd3 (13. Qf3 is best) 13... f4! 14. Ne4 this loses 2 pieces for a rook and pawn (14. Nc4! was the only saving move) 14... Rxe4 15. Qxe4 fxe3 16. fxe3

16... Nf6 17. Qf3 Qe7 18. Rae1 Ne4 and white won without problems.

3) 11. Nxf7!! Kxf7 12. Qf3+ Kg8 (12... Qf6 13. Qh5+) (12... Ke8 13. Re1+ Be7 14. Bg5) 13. Qd5+

4) The simplest and most efficient way to guard the pawn is ... Bf6. Matthew played 1... Rfe8 and quickly got a passive position. 2. Rac1 e6 3. Rc7 b6 4. Rfc1

Here, Matthew played ... b5 and went on to lose, slowly and painfully. But it's not too late: black can still activate with 4...e5! 5. dxe5 Bxe5 6. R7c2 (6. Rb7? Bxb2) 6... d4!

5) White threatens 7. Bxf7! Kxf7 8. Ne5+ K moves 9. Nxg4. Black should make a move that stops this, like 6... e6.

6) Instead of castling, Austin should have played 9...g4!! 10. Nd2 Qh4 with mate soon.

7) I was impressed with James' decision to take the bishop instead of the pawn. He eventually drew the game.

8) 6...Ng4! wins a pawn: white has nothing better than 7. Be3.

9) Kevin played 1... Nh4! 2. Kf1 Bd3+ 3. Re2 Qg2+ 4. Ke1 Nf3# (D)!