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...Black is lost however he replies. If Ba8/b7 2 Bh5! gxh5 3 g6 hxg6 4 h7 queens. If Be8 or Kd7 2 Bxd5 and more black pawns will fall. If Ke6 2 Kc5 and Black loses his Q-side pawns....
...Crucially, he won both as White and Black against the tail-ender Abasov, whereas Nepomniachtchi dropped half points in both games against the outclassed GM from Azerbaijan....
...Black to move and win. Click here for solution...
...All three have won games with the unfavourable black pieces. However, it was Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, playing under a neutral Fide flag, who shared the lead....
Puzzle: find the way to the caged black king
..., which would be the dubious Grob in normal chess, but is good here because White’s h1 queen immediately threatens to capture Black’s b7 pawn....
...However, that left Spassky still effectively two up, as he retained the title in the event of a tied series, and game four was a clear success for him, as his well prepared formation as Black drew the fangs...
...Just a single line of play with every black reply forced, but you’ll do well to solve it in half an hour. Click here for solution...
...final round game was a classic demonstration of how White should utilise an isolated central d4 pawn to shield the marshalling of an attacking army and then switch his forces to a direct attack on the black...
...Black to move and win. Black accurately calculated a forced winning line several moves deep to emerge a knight ahead. With this clue, can you work out the finish? Click here for solution...
...Just a single line of play with Black’s replies forced, but you’ll do well to find the answer in a quarter of an hour. Click here for solution...
...It came after D’Costa, Black in a French Defence 1 e4 e6, flagged in a winning position with knight and two pawns against a bishop....
...attacking the g4 pawn from an unexpected direction, soon led to Black’s collapse....
...The timeline starts ticking on the bright, black-and-white morning in 1940s Manhattan, when another conductor’s flu gives their understudy his debut at Carnegie Hall....
...There is just a single white sequence, while Black is down to pawns and a lone boxed-in king, but you will do well to find the hidden solution in 10 minutes. Click here for solution...
...Puzzle 2543 White mates in two moves, against any black defence (by Sergei Pugachev, 1947). Harder than it looks. Click here for solution...
...Black to move. White has two queens and threatens Qh8 mate. What happened? Click here for solution...
...Black has only a king and a pawn on the board, and only one legal move in the diagram, but you will do well to crack this tricky puzzle in a quarter of an hour. Click here for solution...
...The Caruana v Mishra pairing in Monday’s penultimate round produced a classic Caruana victory, where his d5 knight dominated the black defences, and immaculate technique produced a winning endgame....
...Black to move. What would you play against the world No 1? Click here for solution...
...Black to move. The world No1 chose Nf5-e3 here. Can you do better? Click here for solution...
...White combines an advance of the g pawn to weaken Black’s king with central pressure up the d file, plus tactical tricks at b5. Lan Yao’s instructive win combines all three themes....
...First stop is the 1940s, these early scenes bursting with vim as Bernstein and other bright young things exchange witty repartee in high-contrast black and white....
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