This week’s puzzle was taken from a game played last Sundayday in the German Bundesliga.
RJCC alumnus GM Luke McShane was playing white against teenage French GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi.
It’s Black to play in this position.
I asked you to choose between:
a) Be7 and
b) Bf8.
Black erred by choosing 32… Be7, allowing a tactic winning a pawn: 33. fxe5 fxe5 34. Nxe5 Nxe5 35. Rxe5+ Kxe5 36. Bf4+ Ke6 37. Bxc7, and Luke eventually exploited his extra pawn in the ending.
32… Bf8, amongst other moves, would have been about equal, as 33. fxe5 is met by g6 because the h6 pawn is now defended.
There are two lessons from this.
- You have to see your opponents’ tactics in advance as well as your own.
- Some tactics might just win a pawn, so you have to be, like Luke, an excellent endgame player as well as being good at solving tactics puzzles if you want to excel at chess.
If you rejected Be7 because you spotted White’s continuation, and therefore chose Bf8 instead, you score 10/10.
Here’s the complete game: as always click on any move for a pop-up window.