Club Newsletter
Our annual dinner and elections were held on December 8. The following officers were elected:
Treasurer: Mario Schenkel
Secretary: Keith Bell
President: Spencer Mathews
Vice President: Ronnie Rutledge.
GAMES AND PUZZLES
As
always, it is appropriate to submit any of your games or puzzles for
publication in the ROOKFILE. The solution to last quarter's
chess problems are on page 2 and 3 of this Rookfile.
09101: 1.
Qd1, Kxc5; 2. Qb1,Kd5; 3.Qe1, and if 3....,Kc5, 4.Qa5 mate while
if 3....,c5; 4. Qe4 mate. Had Black chosen 1....,Kxe5; the mirror
image solution would be 2.Qf1,Kd5; 3.Qc1, and if 3....,Ke5; 4.Qg5 mate
while if 3....,e5; 4....,Qc4 mate.
09102: The baisc idea is
for Black to play 1....,Bf4 which threatens both 2....,RxP mate and the
mate by 2....,Rc1 and 3....,Rh1. White can delay his king's
demise for up to five moves, but cannot prevent it. If White
checks on the eighth rank, Black's King escapes to h7 and the mate at
g3 can be postponed only by 2. Re3. The way to draw matters out
the longest is to answer 1....,Bf4; with 2.RxB,Rc1; 3.Re1,RxR;
4.Rf1,RxR; 5.any,R-h1 mate.
10103: This is the muddiest
problem. The key idea is 1.BxB. Clearly Black can't play
1....,KxB; because of 2.Qh6ch and mate next move. The idea of
playing 1....NxQ also fails to 2.f6! after which only delaying measures
are available. Ultimately White will get in Rh8 mate. The
two scariest lines are 1....,Qg5 and 1....,f6. After 1....,Qg5,
White has 2.QxQ,NxQ; 3. Bf6!,Nh7 (or Nh3); 4.RxN and White will bring
his d1 Rook to h1 and chase down the poor Black King by getting to h89
before it can find a flight square. After 1...,f6;2.Qh6
(threatening 3.Qg6 taking away the flight square at f7)Kf7;3,dxech
(sealing off the d-file). After these moves, the Black King
can be forced to e7 since the White Q can go to g6 if Black tries to
put his King on e8, when Bxf8ch opens the seventh rank to White's KR
and Q. This will lead to mate because the Black King can't ever
get off the seventh and eighth ranks.
GAME:
Notes by Spencer Mathews
Cantrell
– Steifle: 1.d4,d5; 2.Nf3,Nf6; 3.c4,dc (the Queen’s Gambit
Accepted for those of you who’d like to look it up in your
opening books); 4.Bg5,Ne4 (I’d prefer …e6 intending
…Be7); 5.Bh4,Bg4; 6.e3,g6; 7.Bc4,Nd6 (…c5 may be better
– ultimately Black will have to deal with pressure down the
c-file, and 8.dc, can be answered with …Qa5 ch); 8.Bd3,Bg7;
9.N/bd2,Nc6; 10.a3,0-0; 11.0-0,h6; 12.Qc2,g5(This weakens the Black
kingside; but since the Black c-pawn is blocked, there are few options
to create counterplay ); 13.Bg3,Rc8; 14.b5,a6; 15.R/ac,f5; 16.Qc5 (Is
16.h3 worth a try? If the bishop retreats, the f5 pawn is lost,
so Black is compelled to play 16….,BxN; conceding the two
Bishops),e6; 17.Rc2,Rf7; 18.R/fc1 (White has quite a lot of power aimed
down the c-file. Usually, however, when such a
“battery” is built, it’s better to have the most
powerful piece in the rear),Ne4; 19.Nxe4,fe; 20.Bxe4,Bf8; 21.Qc3,Bf5;
22.Qd3 (now White gets the Queen out of the way of the Rook battery),h5
(but now Black threatens to inconvenience the Bishop); 23.Rc5,h4 (oops
– why not 23…,BxR?); 24.Rxf5,ef; 25.Bxf5,hg; 26.Be6,gf+;
27.Kf (For those who doubt the importance of controlling the center,
take a good look at the position. Even though he is a piece
behind, White has his choice of Rooks. He’s threatening
Qg6+ which will leave the g5 pawn to be gobbled up by the White Knight
who will then add another attaching piece on the kingside.
Black’s lack of space in the center keeps him from moving pieces
to the kingside to help in the defense. In view of this,
Black’s next is understandable.),Kg7; 28.Bxf7.Kxf7; 29.Qh7+,Bg7;
30.Qh5+,Kf8; 31.Nxg5,Qe7 (Perhaps 31….,Qe8), after all, Black is
a piece up and may be able to find his way out of the complications);
32.Rc5,Nd8; 33.Rf5+,Kg8; 34.Qh7 Mate.
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