Modern Chess Combinations–Volume 7

Modern Chess Combinations: July, August, September 2016 is now out with over 120 puzzles for you to solve. It is available on Amazon. The Kindle free sample contains dozens of combinations, so you can first practice those positions and see if you like the selection. This publication is a collection of over 120 best combinations played by strong chess players in tournaments that took place the third quarter of 2016. I first filtered the correct combinations with various computer-assisted approaches, and then manually went through the entire collection to select only the puzzles useful to practical chess players.

The highlight of this edition are the games from the Chess Olympiad, where the USA team won the gold medal in the main tournament. Here are a couple of samples:

Heberla, B. - Ali Marandi, C.
TCh-TUR Super League 2016   2016.08.05 , B13

White to move

Solution: 30. Re1!!

Putting the rook under attack, but the bishop must guard the d8 square.

30. ... fxg5

( 30. ... Bxe1+ 31. Kxe1 fxg5 32. d8=Q+ )

31. Re8+ Kf7 32. Nd6+ Kf6

33. fxg5+

The final blow, since the pawn must be captured.

33. ... Kxg5 34. Nf7+ 1-0

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Indjic, A. - Cruz, Cr
42nd Olympiad 2016   2016.09.08 , E38

White to move

Solution: 32. Bxe5+!?

The first move suggest itself, but the correct follow up is harder to find.

32. ... Kxe5

33. Qb2+!!

( The obvious 33. Qh2+? fails to 33. ... Ke4 )

33. ... Kd6

( 33. ... Ke4 34. Qd4# )

34. Qh2+!

With the king on d6, the check along the h2-b8 diagonal is deadly.

34. ... Kc5 35. Qc7+

35. ... Bc6 36. Qxc6# 1-0