Unity Chess Club
Anatoly Karpov 2740 Veselin Topalov 2640 Dos Hermanas 1994 White to move
When the queen is on e4 and the rook on e8, one naturally wants to be able to fork them. The f6-square is guarded only by the king, and is under an x-ray from the white queen. Thus, we get the following tactical motif:
As a result of a forcing combination, two black bishops are under attack.
Unity Chess Club
Sopio Gvetadze 2377 Salome Melia 2422 Tbilisi ch-GEO W 2009 Black to move
The correct decision is not to drive the white king further towards the corner, but to draw him out into the centre:
In the game, Black missed the win and chose the quiet developing move 16...Rad8?. White was not up to the task, and after 17.Re5? (she could have avoided loss of a piece with the only move 17.Kg1! Qg5 18.c4 Bxd5 19.cxd5 Rxd5 20.Qxa7 Rd2 21.Qe3 Qd5 22.Qe4=) 17...Rxd5 18.Qxd5 Bxd5 19.Rxe7 Bxh1 20.c4 Bc6, lost anyway.
Unity Chess Club
Training position Konstantin Landa White to move
White can mate with a series of fireworks:
4...Qf3+ 5.Bxf3+ Nxf3 6.Rh1+ Nh4 7.Nf6+ Kh6 8.Rxh4+ Kg7 9.Ne8+ Rxe8 10.Rxh7+ Kf6 11.Rxf7#.
Unity Chess Club
Michal Krasenkow 2668 Hikaru Nakamura 2648 Barcelona 2007 Black to move
White had been counting on exploiting the tactical motif of the X-ray of the Rb1 on the black queen. However, he failed to appreciate the vulnerability of the f2-square, a pawn defended only by the king.