All Around The Maypole

It looks bleak for White. Down two passed pawns. White to move. Your task is to find the draw.

White to Play

You've probably seen this before but it's always a good idea to look at famous chess combinations to re-enforce the ideas in your mind. That way you can quickly spot the same ideas in your own games.

Solution to Black to Play Pts 1 to 4

Black to Play Part 4

Black to Play Part 3

Black to Play Part 2

Credit for this position goes to IM Igor Khmelnitsky from his book "Chess Exam: Tactics"

Black to Play

You're playing Black. What's your move?

Cesaralexander Wins A Good Game

cesaralexander joins Tellurium for T49
Here's a wild game he won a few seasons ago.

Seaborgium With A Clutch Victory

Seaborgium rejoins Rhenium for T49.
The game here is from T45. This was the situation: Round 6. The team needed a win to make the playoffs. No other result would work. The other three games were drawn. So it all came down to this game. Seaborgium made his offers but Cristina made none. Just before the final deadline Cristina made a forum post "I accept so and so time" but didn't actually post the agreed time. This so called game time came and went with no game being played. The deadline passed. Our team argued that since Cristina had neither made any offers nor accepted one, the game should be forfeited. The TD thought otherwise and instructed Cristina to accept one the remaining offers, post it, or forfeit. Cristina did so but the accepted offer, the only one possible, was less than 24 hours away. Seaborgium, as per the rules, did not have to accept this time. He could simply ignore it and get a fofeit win. And we're in the playoffs. I would never suggest to a player not to play a game. We all just want to play. But privately I thought that he should take the forfeit so we all could play some more in the playoffs. So when the game time approached I logged on to ICC. And there was Seaborgium starting his game. We all were going to kill him if he lost. So you can see there was a lot tension and excitement about this game.

So we got into the playoffs and made it to the championship round. We lost this match but not on the chessboard, but by a TD decision. But that's a story for another day.

Barie Shows Some Tactics

Barie joins Rubidium for T49. Here he plays a good game. Two nice tactics eventually lead to a winning endgame.