Exeter Chess Club

by Sam Loyd, 'Organ Pipes'

Solution in the comments!

I played an extremely boring last-round game at Torquay, choosing the English Defence, which is usually good for a scrap at my level.

Archer-Lock,C - Regis,D Torbay Open Riviera (5), 20.11.2011

1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e4 Bb7 5.Bd3 f5 6.Qh5+ g6

The Queen check is supposed to weaken the black King's-side, but it also has some benefits for Black; f5 is strengthened and the g7 square can be a bolt-hole for the black Queen.

7.Qe2 Nf6 8.Bg5 fxe4 9.Bxe4 Bxe4 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.Qxe4 Nc6 12.Nf3 0-0 ½-½

1. A chess tactic is an unstoppable threat.  Often you can Avoid, Block, Capture or Defend your way out of a threat, but if you can't, you're probably on the receiving end of a tactic.

2. Tactical themes include:

• jumps, mates, forks, nets, pins & ties

A fuller list of tactical themes might be:

Contents

• Introduction
• Tactical errors
• Thinking errors
• Appendix: on working with a computer

Introduction

This long collection is the result of computer-searching a database of games from the East Devon Congress this year (1999). I had 222 games to analyse, courtesy of Ian George who had the thankless task of bashing them all in: 111 from the Major section (U155), and 111 from the Premier (U205).