Grandmaster Chess Tactics #1: Can you spot the line?
This video series is going to focus on Grandmaster level chess tactics. This particular video features a tactical line used by William Steinitz against Johannes Hermann Zukertort in the first World Chess Championship played in 1866.
Bishop can’t move cuz it’s blocking check.
Comment by beansmaister — March 18, 2010 @ 4:20 pm
super trick …
Comment by Gamerzhut — March 18, 2010 @ 4:30 pm
The white knight comes to the square f6 with check to the black king and also attacking the black queen. This is a fork. Now the knight is on a square where it could be captured by the black bishop, but if the bishop moved then the black king would be in check from the white queen. So the bishop is said to be PINNED to the black king. A PIN is where a piece can’t move off its square as it will either put its own king in to check or lead to the loss of material or to a positional weakness.
Comment by westcliff148 — March 18, 2010 @ 5:25 pm
white queen on e1 is pinning the black bishop on e7 to the black king on e8.
Comment by MrFedel — March 18, 2010 @ 6:15 pm
can anyone explain the pin for me in 3:08
Comment by 606revo — March 18, 2010 @ 6:20 pm
i just have trouble remembering all the moves.
Comment by ricohorton — March 18, 2010 @ 7:05 pm
Zukertort was a brilliant player. Silly mistakes happen to even the best players. That was almost elementary. Still, nice combination.
Comment by mskw2 — March 18, 2010 @ 7:15 pm
Good move
Comment by VitalSigns1 — March 18, 2010 @ 7:25 pm
because when the white knight moved and created the check fork the white queen pinned the black bishop to the king
Comment by sh4dowsl4y5r — March 18, 2010 @ 8:05 pm
Nh6 is an obvious blunder i saw it after 2 minutes before watching it….
Comment by dw1176 — March 18, 2010 @ 8:43 pm
why not white to d4? it can either take bishop or pawn of blacks or make black defend and eventually make the king vulnerable to a queen or just be a free pawn on b2. Another thing is that blacks b3 pawn is weak and free to kill from the whites bishop
Comment by mitsushiro7 — March 18, 2010 @ 9:14 pm
i thought they looked weak for GM too !!!!
Comment by dobsondale — March 18, 2010 @ 9:48 pm
The bishop is pinned to the king it can’t take the knght.
Comment by BOYWONDER20090 — March 18, 2010 @ 10:47 pm
Whites queen on e1 had blacks e7 bishop in a pin… It is impossible for the move Bxf6 to take place because you can’t move into check
Comment by xxxXM3talXxx — March 18, 2010 @ 11:23 pm
white’s queen would have had the king in check
Comment by Sp0rtsFan2008 — March 18, 2010 @ 11:27 pm
why couldnt the bishop take the knight???
Comment by shift123 — March 19, 2010 @ 12:09 am
perhaps because he hadnt the time to do so??!!
Comment by stuffyfreerunner — March 19, 2010 @ 12:25 am
Wow, I already watched this.
I thought it was weird I saw it so quickly.
Comment by Freshman000000 — March 19, 2010 @ 12:47 am
I saw it.
Took me like 10minutes though.
Comment by Freshman000000 — March 19, 2010 @ 1:02 am
This is not what I would call “grandmaster tactics”. Zukertort simply made an enormous blunder.
You can see real “grandmaster’s tactics” in Tal’s games for instance, or for a recent game, look for Morozevich – Vachier-Lagraeve, pretty impressive.
Comment by Idneed30charforanick — March 19, 2010 @ 1:24 am
yes but you forgot to mention that this 1800 niveau today
Comment by IHATENEDAH — March 19, 2010 @ 1:31 am
could you please change the format the board and the pieces are too wide its pretty annoying
Comment by IHATENEDAH — March 19, 2010 @ 2:08 am
maybe he just didn’t want to play with a piece down
Comment by jmkba — March 19, 2010 @ 2:28 am
This is not true at all. There were many good players before Steinitz, such as Le Bourdonnais, Adolf Anderssen and Paul Morphy. You can sit comfortably behind rybka and think people used to play cafeteria chess, but there were many chess geniuses in the 1800’s.
Comment by AugustKamppur — March 19, 2010 @ 2:52 am
To further your point, Luke should take a look at the games of Paul Morphy (played decades earlier).
Comment by AugustKamppur — March 19, 2010 @ 3:05 am