07 May, 2022

Instinct first ?

My initial focus was around the Queen, ie moving the Be7 to allow check or to capture Ra7 ( as the Bishop is pinned ).

Next I switched to adding an attack on the Bishop via Nd5 or Rxd6 : one easily defended, the other not sensible.

Only then did I return to my instinctive move Ng6+ , and this coupled with my Rook thoughts formed the basis of the solution. 

Further checking, I move and have that pleasant feeling of being correct :) 


White to play after 1... exf


03 May, 2022

Another one of those stupid moves

 As always seems the case, once you uncover one 'stupid' move, it starts appearing more often.


Below, with Black to play, my first thoughts were drawn to 

1) trapping the white Rook, 

2) capturing the pawn on c5, 

3) exploiting the fork on c4 ( Rook check forking Bc1, after capturing c3 ) 

and finally to the correct solution, pausing briefly after seeing white's riposte to the first move, and knowing how to respond.


Black to play

Maybe, one of these days, I will have an opportunity to use see and use this is a real OTB game !