Tip of the month

March 2018:

Swischenzug!!

Instead of playing the expected move (e.g. a recapture), think about interposing another move that poses an immediate threat that your opponent must answer.

Here is famous and well documented example from the first World Championship match between Karpov and Kasparov, played 05/10/1984.

This is position after Karpov's last move with white 46.b4:

Kasparov responded with 46... gxh4, expecting Karpov to recapture the pawn with 47.gxh4.

Instead Karpov played a Swischenzug: 47.Ng2! threatening to capture the pawn h4 with the Knight, so Black has no option to capture on g3 (if Black plays 47... h3 then 48.Nf4 h2 49.Kg2 and both h-pawns are toast!):

47...hxg3+ 48.Kxg3 Ke6 49.Nf4+ Kf5 50.Nxh5, threatening Ng7–e8–c7:

Therefore, the Black King must retreat:

50...Ke6 51.Nf4+ Kd6 52.Kg4 Bc2 53.Kh5 Bd1 54.Kg6 Ke7 55.Nxd5+ Ke6 56.Nc7+ Kd7 57.Nxa6 Bxf3 58.Kxf6 Kd6 59.Kf5 Kd5 60.Kf4 Bh1 61.Ke3 Kc4 62.Nc5 Bc6 63.Nd3 Bg2 64.Ne5+ Kc3 65.Ng6 Kc4 66.Ne7 Bb7 67.Nf5 Bg2 68.Nd6+ Kb3 69.Nxb5 Ka4 70.Nd6 1-0

I hope you've enjoyed this Tip of the Month.

Regards

Douglas