The Isolated Queen's Pawn

I played this today on ICC, G/25. This illustrates what to do when you have an Isolated Queen's Pawn, and when your opponent does nothing to stop you: you put your rook behind the pawn, and push it down his throat.

White: Yours Truly
Black: "Some 2150"

1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 Nc6 6. Nf3 g6 7. Nc3 Qd8 8. d5 Nb8 9. Qd4 Nf6 10. Bc4 Bg7 11. O-O O-O 12. Bg5 Bf5 13. Qh4 Re8 14. Rad1 Qc7
15. d6 exd6 16. Nb5 (16. Bxf6 Bxf6 17. Nd5 Bxh4 [else ... Nxf6+] 18. Nxc7 also wins) Qc5 17. Nxd6 Re6 18. Bxe6 {Black resigns} 1-0

Put Chess Diagrams in Your Blog

I have added a handy little tool to generate diagrams from FEN positions. For example, if you are using WinBoard, click File->Copy Position To Clipboard, paste it into the FEN Position text box on the right of this page, and then click Create Diagram. A URL will be generated in the textbox underneath, which you can copy and paste. If you want to display the diagram as an image in your blog, check HTML and it will return an IMG HTML tag.

King and Pawn vs. King trick: Still Wrong

In an embarrassing earlier post, I said "once the pawn reaches the 6th rank, a draw is forced once the king reaches the queening square." WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG

White to move: DRAW

• 1. e7+ Ke8 2. Ke6 =
• 1. Kd5 Ke7 2. Ke5 Ke8 3. Kd6 Kd8 =
• 1. Kd5 Ke7 2. Ke5 Ke8 3. Kf6 Kf8 =
• 1. Kd5 Ke7 2. Ke5 Ke8 3. Kf5 Ke7 =
• 1. Kd5 Ke7 2. Ke5 Ke8 3. Kd5 Ke7 =
• 1. Ke5 Ke8 = as above
• 1. Kc6 Ke7 2. Kd5 Ke8 3. Kd6 Kd8 =
• 1. Kc5 Ke7 2. Kd5 = as above

Black to move: WHITE WINS, genius

• 1. ... Ke8 2. d7 Kf7 3. Kd7 and 4. d8=Q 1-0