„He sees it. This is the remarkable part, he sees something pretty…what is the finishing touch?” GM Anish Giri asked himself during the live commentary of today’s game. Two strong grandmasters with an engine on their hand couldn’t figure out Ding Liren’s plan during the 6th game of the world championship 2023.
With the white pieces, Ding played 41. d5 (first image), foreseeing a beautiful finish he concluded three moves later, forcing GM Ian Nepomniachtchi to resign. Can you calculate the winning sequence and the essential role of the pawn on d5 (second image), Ding carefully placed there already three moves ahead?
In the 2016 World Chess Championship, the reigning champion Magnus Carlsen faced the strong Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin. After a close start of the tournament resulting in seven consecutive draws, Karjakin took a shocking lead by winning Game 8 with the black pieces, leaving only four games for Carlsen to equalise. Carlsen levelled the match in Game 10 to force a 6–6 tie at the end of classical play. Only in the rapid tie-break, Carlsen dominated with two wins to seal a 3–1 victory and retain his world title.
The last game featured a sharp position with both sides starting a fierce kingside attack. On move 49, Carlsen (white) was granted the opportunity to play Rc8+, leaving Karjakin (black) with the options to either 1) block with the bishop or 2) run the king to h7.
While Karjakin quickly saw that blocking the check with a bishop loses due to the simple exchange sacrifice, he calculated that Kh7 is safe. Which brilliant follow-up after
49. Rc8 Kh7
by white, leading to forced checkmate, did the Russian grandmaster miss?
The Lasker Trap, coined after the only German and longest reigning world champion in history, Dr. Emanuel Lasker, is a famous position resulting from the Albin’s Countergambit.
In a sharp position, black offers a completely free bishop to white on b4. If taken, it will be black who ends up with a full piece due to a rare chess concept. Do you see which crucial option has been overlooked by white?
Viswanathan Anand, aka “The Tiger from Madras” is a 5 times world chess champion known for incredible speed and adaptability: Throughout many different world championship formats, Vishy came out victorious: He won through the FIDE knockout system in 2000, became the champion in a double-round tournament in 2007 and subsequently defended his title in classic head-to-head matches against top-tier challengers in 2008, 2010, and 2012.
Unfortunately, one of his best-known games is a careless loss played with the black pieces. In this position from the Russian (Petrov’s) Defense against Alonso Zapata in 1988, his plan was to defend the hanging knight by playing Qe7, adding a second defender. However, even before playing it, Anand resigned immediately after just six moves. Which terrible move by white had been completely overlooked by the first Indian Grandmaster?
How else to start if not with a classic. White to move and mate in 4
