Finding Chess Jewels

MICHAL KRASENKOW FINDING CHESS JEWELS improve your imagination and calculation About the Author Michal Krasenkow is a Grandmaster, a multiple international tournament winner, a former World top-ten player who reached the 2700 rating, and a two-time Polish Champion. He's a FIDE Senior Trainer, has worked with many top players including Vishy Anand, and has been the national coach of Poland since 2010. He's made numerous major contributions to opening theory, and has written books on the Open Spanish and the Sveshnikov Sicilian. Contents About the Author Contents Introduction 1 Jewels Jewels: Solutions 4 5 6 14 77 2 Brooches Brooches: Solutions 100 172 3 Necklaces Necklaces: Solutions 207 299 Introduction In general I consider that in chess everything rests on tactics. If one thinks of strategy as a block of marble, then tactics are the chisel with which a master operates, in creating works of chess art. Tigran Petrosian I am sure this is not the first workbook of chess tactics you hold in your hands. However, it is a bit different from the collections of exercises based on the principle of competition, in which you collect points and then proudly count yourself amongst experts or, regretfully, amongst dullards. Here, however, you will enjoy every exercise, whether you find its solution or have to look back after seemingly fruitless efforts. That’s because the solutions are always hidden, unexpected and spectacular – that was the criteria of selection. There are two kinds of beauty in chess: the ‘beauty of paradox’, where the Gordian knot of problems is cut with a tactical strike or a subtle, hidden manoeuvre; and the ‘beauty of logic’, where a player, using his opponent’s minor inaccuracies, consistently imposing more and more strokes, paints the canvas of victory. This book deals with the first kind of beauty. Pay attention to the fact that I have not said anything about sacrifices. Indeed, a sacrifice, a break from the routine notion of material relations, always causes fascination, but it is by no means a compulsory condition of brilliancy. Imagination is one of the most important qualities of a chess player. Partly, of course, predetermined by a player’s innate abilities, it can, however, be significantly developed. The room for progress is vast. In fact, most of possibilities hidden in the multitude of chess positions could hardly be discovered before we obtained tools possessing perfect imagination: chess programs. For an inanimate computer, all moves, obvious or phenomenal, are equivalent, and when you analyse with a chess engine, you can only wonder what huge reservoirs of niceties remain out of human sight. So, the unattainable ideal is with us; the only problem is how to approach it. There is no other way than training your brain: solving numerous tactical exercises, tackling endgame studies, and analyzing games without computer assistance. The more positions you solve and analyze, the better your brain works, the greater the pool of tactical methods you master, and the easier you can find the right way in a number of similar situations. What signals suggest a possible tactical solutio