Tuesday Seven's

Game of the Day... RedNuttyCactus vs koliyflOw37

Question: Why Game of the Day?
Answer: Two brilliant moves - one by each player.
Link to the game: https://www.chesskid.com/fastchess/game/28089410

The game started with RedNuttyCactus playing the 'King's Pawn Opening: Wayward Queen Attack'.  This is adventurous and not for the faint hearted, but it seemed to work well enough.  As a guide - it is probably best to keep your Queen safely tucked away at the start of the game and develop your centre Pawn's, Kinghts and Bishop's.  After kolifl0w37 exchanged a Knight for a Bishop and doubled RedNuttyCactus's Pawns on the H file, which was a good plan, RedNuttyCactus found the first of the brilliant moves.

In the position below, it is White to play.  Question: What move did white play which won the Queen?

Answer:
9) Nxf6+, Kd8;
10) Nxd7, Kxd7

White used the Knight to take Black's Knight on f6 and put the King in Check.  The Black King had to move out of the way, and White then used the same Knight to take the Black's Queen, and then Black used the King to take White's Knight, so White finished the exchange up a Queen - a really excellent few moves.

​A number of moves later, it was Black's turn to find a great move.  In the position below, Black puts the Bishop on h4.  This threatens the Queen.  If the Queen takes the Bishop, Black will take the Queen with the Rook.  So, White needs to move the Queen to safety.  Somewhat to my surprise, the new analysis option on ChessKid suggests that, once the Black Bishop is on h4, White's best option is to take the Rook on f4, and then lose the Queen when the other Rook then takes the Queen.  While this is not what happened in the game, Black still ended up winning Whites Queen - so the Bishop move was a really excellent choice by Black.

Very well played to both players.  What I really like about both these moves is that they only work by thinking ahead.  The move which takes the piece is a few moves away, but the great move is the earlier one which sets this up.  Really, really well played to both.

In the end, kolifl0w37 won a very close game, but it could have gone either way.  One more time - Well Played.

And now... the Results from tonight's event...
Rowantree secured the win with 4/4.  It was an excellent evening for MadWiryTank, who secured second place with 3/4, and pipped ZanyHummingBook to second place on tiebreak score after ZanyHummingBook also scored 3/4.  Both players lost only to the eventual winner - so very well played to all plavers.

If you have a ChessKid login, you can see all the games and the full results at the following link: https://www.chesskid.com/tournament/tuesday-sevens-90218/results

If you do have a look, why not try out the new ChessKid analysis button - if you look at a game and click this button, it will show you what moves were great, and make some suggestions for better moves where you have gone wrong.  It is well worth a try, and I certainly use it when looking at some of the games.