Chess Tactics—Tunnel Vision

by Tuirgin on Apr.10, 2009, under Chess

I came across this problem tonight in Paul Littlewood’s Chess Tactics:

Black to Pin White's Rook

Black has two possible ways to pin White’s rook—what are they?
Which one would you choose and why? (Hint—one of them is an outright blunder.)

I stared at this one for a while. Obviously the only two moves that are going to create a pin against the rook are 1…Qe4 or 1…Qe5. But which one is a blunder? I started trying to work it out in my head and I was flummoxed. I saw the same problems with either option: 2. Be2. But where was the blunder???

Bf3 Pins Black's Queen!

Disgust! I suffer from tunnel vision—thinking that I had taken in the entire problem I had in actuality completely excluded that distant 8th row corner where the Black king sat. Somehow I must beat it into my head not to let my assumptions or preoccupations dominate my observation of the board. I’ve been seeing quite a bit of this kind of thing in my recent games, too. I’ll come up with my plan, check for obvious counter-attacks, and finding all clear, I’ll make my move. And then I’ll scream for having lost my queen to some sneaky rat-bastard knight that was hiding behind some corner or other.

Well, I failed to see a fairly obvious vulnerability of the Black king. I should know better—in Winning Chess Chernev & Reinfeld drive home through sheer repetition the importance of looking out for positions which would put one’s king and queen on the same line or diagonal. Instead of noticing the pin, I became muddled in the various threat’s to Black after both Qe4 and Qe5—this little pin problem doesn’t seem quite so straight forward to me. There isn’t a clean solution within one or two moves. In fact after Qf5 I come up with 4 moves before Black’s queen is in the clear: 2. Be2 d5 3. f3 Nf4 4. Bf1 Nxd3 5. Bxd3 Qxd3+

1...Qf5 2. Be2 d5 3. f3 Nf4 4. Bf1 Nxd3 5. Bxd3 Qxd3+

[Update: For what it's worth, a quick computer analysis gives 1...Qf5 2. Be2 Ne5 3. g4 Qe4 4. f3 Qxe2]

:chess books, chess tactics

7 Comments for this entry

Chris L
April 10th, 2009 on 1:10 am
Well, Qf5 Be2 ne5 looks pretty bad to me…

Reply
- Tuirgin
  April 10th, 2009 on 1:51 am
  Why am I not in bed??? That does seem to deal with the Bf3 problem, and also avoids Bxf4 which I missed in my answer.
  
  Reply
Hank
April 10th, 2009 on 1:26 am
I must be missing something – isn’t the simplest solution just this? –> 1…Qf5 Be2 2.c4

– Hank

Reply
Hank
April 10th, 2009 on 1:27 am
Sorry – I meant: 1…Qf5 2.Be2 c4

– Hank

Reply
- Tuirgin
  April 10th, 2009 on 1:51 am
  Hrm… After 2…c4 3. Bf3+ and Black has to move his king or open up a big can of worms.
  
  Reply
Polly
April 10th, 2009 on 4:35 pm
I didn’t even consider Qe4 and it wasn’t because of the counter pin. I was looking at the fork of the bishop and rook. Be2 solves the problem briefly. I think intuitively I recognized the potential problems on the h1-a8 diagonal. I won a game last knight because my opponent missed a long distance check on a diagonal.

Reply
- Tuirgin
  April 10th, 2009 on 4:42 pm
  When I act on intuition it’s labeled with blunder! One day, though, I hope.
  
  Reply