Knight Forks

When I get a new copy of Chess Informant, I play through all of the games published therein that are classified C00-C19. These are the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO) classifications for the French Defense.* New on my computer are the download versions of CI 119, CI 120, and CI 121. These electronic publications are in ChessBase format.

This morning I glanced through an excellent instructive article on pawn endings in Informant 120, "Precision" by Eduardas Rozentalis. Then I started working through the French Defense games. Naturally, the tactics in these games are instructive.

The position below appears in the notes to CI 120/100 Solak -- Bartel, Yerevan 2014.

White to move

The correct move in this position is the final one in Solak's annotations. He leaves the reader to work out why it is a winning move.

I may use this position with some of my students next week. After White's move and an obvious looking subpar response by Black, a position is reached that may be useful with some of my beginning students.


*ECO Code is a trademark of Chess Informant.