Mating your opponent is always satisfying, but some mates are super fun to give. Can you find Black's forced mate?

Be brave! What's Black's best move here?

So, you played up an exchange for most of the game and now Black is getting play with his knight on f4. What do we play as White?
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36. Rxf4! Don't be afraid to give the exchange back to liquidate into a winning endgame. White won easily after exf4+ 37. Kxf4 Rf7 38. Kg5. 

I played my weekly league4545 game tonight and my opponent castled short 9. ... 0-0. Can he really do that? 

White to play!

 
It didn't take me long to find 10.Ng5! +- which threatens mate on h7 and Bxb7 winning the exchange. 
Watch for simple tactics, it will save you from losing games. 10. ...Bxg5 11.Bxb7 Bxc1 12.Raxc1 Nc6 13. Bxa8 Qxa8 14.e4 +-

Once in a while, I manage to play a decent Black game, instead of begging my opponents for draws. Enjoy the game!

[Event "ICC 45 45"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2022.01.28"]
[Round "?"]
[White "BRJAK0530"]
[Black "NCM Vas Sladek"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D20"]
[WhiteElo "1841"]
[BlackElo "1929"]
[PlyCount "56"]
[EventDate "2022.??.??"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 e5 4. Bxc4 exd4 5. exd4 Bd6 6. h3 h6 7. Nf3 Nf6 8.
O-O O-O 9. Qd3 Nc6 10. a3 Be6 11. Bxe6 fxe6 12. Nc3 Qd7 13. Nb5 Rad8 14. Re1
Qf7 15. Nxd6 cxd6 16. Bd2 e5 17. dxe5 dxe5 18. Qc2 e4 19. Nh2 Nd4 20. Qa4 b5
21. Qa6 Nd5 22. Bxh6 Qxf2+ 23. Kh1 Rf6 24. Qxa7 Rxh6 25. Ng4 Rxh3+ 26. gxh3
Qf3+ 27. Kh2 Nf4 28. Nf6+ Kh8 0-1

The tricitychess.com shop is now live with some great deals on older ChessBase DVDs but, fear not, chess doesn't really age. I will review many of the DVDs and show you why you need this training. 

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This is hard to explain for a proud NCM Vas. Long time control and I fail to see the only potential threat. After 37. Rc7?? Black plays Rb2 and there is no defence against mate on h2. That's a basic mating pattern. My only excuse is having to rush out to do some work right after the game but still, this hurt.

Lesson: always scan the  board for your opponent's threats.

Update: I did get my revenge by beating the same opponent with black in 27 moves a week later. I will now play him twice in the playoffs of the league4545 played on ICC.

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Having celebrated the New Year at home, I was still up in the first few hours of 2022 when I got the news I was waiting for. My ICCF (correspondence chess) opponent agreed to a draw, which gave me the required 4.5 points for my very first norm. Now I need one more to qualify for the Correspondence Chess Expert title. Let's do this!

NCM Sladek,Vaclav (2091) - IM Mende,Ingus (2444) [E32]
DE15A pr 52 ICCF, 05.04.20211.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Bd2 b6 7.e4 c5 8.a3 Bxc3 9.Bxc3 cxd4 10.Nxd4 e5 11.Ne2 Be6 12.Ng3 Nc6 13.a4 Rc8 14.Be2 a6 15.0-0 b5 16.axb5 axb5 17.b3 Nd7 18.Qd2 Nc5 19.Rab1 bxc4 20.Bxc4 Bxc4 21.bxc4 Rb8 22.Rb5 Nb3 23.Rxb8 Qxb8 24.Qd5 Nbd4 25.Bxd4 Nxd4 26.Nf5 Nxf5 27.exf5 Rc8 28.g3 Qb4 1/2-1/2 Once the center pawns are exchanged, it's a dead draw. See final position below.

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