Daily Tactic January 20, 2014

Morphy-Bornemann, Paris simul, 1858. The Black Queen is on the same diagonal as the Black King. Is there a way to exploit that? White to move.

Daily Tactic January 16, 2014

Morphy-Baucher, Paris simul, 1858. White to move and win at least a piece.

Daily Tactic January 12, 2014

Harrwitz, Daniel - Morphy, Paul, Paris, 1858.

Harrwitz lived in England from 1849, and founded the British Chess Review. In 1856 he moved to Paris, where he won a match against Jules Arnous de Rivière. In 1858 he played a match against Paul Morphy in Paris. Harrwitz won the first two games, but lost the match 5½-2½. Wikipedia

White is threatening to win black's c-pawn and to promote his own. Morphy makes a simple but instructive maneuver. Black to move.

Daily Tactic January 9, 2014

Medley - Morphy. London, 1858. Black (Morphy) to move and win a pawn.

Daily Tactic January 8, 2014

Owen, John - Morphy, Paul, London, 1858. Morphy played this game in London, 1858, against John Owen at "pawn and move" odds -- as Black and without his f-pawn. Owen just moved Re1-e3 to protect the vulnerable f2 and f3 squares. Can you see how Morphy finished him off?

Daily Tactic January 7, 2014

Barnes, Thomas Wilson - Morphy, Paul, London, 1858.

Barnes was one of the leading British chess masters at the time of Paul Morphy's visit to the UK in 1858. Barnes had the happy fortune of having the best record against Morphy during the latter's visit, winning eight games and losing nineteen. wikipedia

Black (Morphy) to move. Can you see his surprising move and why it is winning?

Daily Tactic January 6, 2014

Morphy, Paul - Paulsen, Louis, New York, 1857. First American Chess Congress (1857)

The first American Chess Congress, organized by Daniel Willard Fiske and held in New York, October 6 to November 10, 1857, was won by Paul Morphy. ... First prize was $300. Morphy refused any money, but accepted a silver service consisting of a pitcher, four goblets, and a tray. Morphy’s prize was given to him by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

White to move. How does Morphy finish the game quickly?

Daily Tactic January 5, 2014

Maurian - Morphy,1854 New Orleans. This is an odds game and Morphy is currently down a Rook. White was in check and played Kf3. How does Morphy gain material? Black to move:

Daily Tactic January 4, 2014

Morphy, Paul - NN, New Orleans, 1849. NN has just played ...Nxd4, capturing a pawn, with a double attack on Morphy's Queen from the N at d4 and the Bishop at g4. Pin and Skewer are tactical devices used in today's position. What does Morphy do about his attacked Queen? White to move.

In 1850, when Morphy was twelve, the strong professional Hungarian chess master Johann Löwenthal visited New Orleans. Löwenthal, who had often played and defeated talented youngsters, considered the informal match a waste of time but accepted the offer as a courtesy to the well-to-do judge.
By about the twelfth move in the first game, Löwenthal realized he was up against someone formidable. Each time Morphy made a good move, Löwenthal's eyebrows shot up in a manner described by Ernest Morphy as "comique". Löwenthal played three games with Paul Morphy during his New Orleans stay, scoring two losses and one draw (according to another source – losing all three). wikipedia

Daily Tactic January 3, 2014

MacConnel, James - Morphy, Paul New Orleans, 1849. Morphy's opponent does not put up the best defense but, I guess, the pain is over quicker that way and it makes for a prettier finish. Black (Morphy) to move.

Daily Tactic January 2, 2014

Thomason - Fischer, USA-ch U18, 1955. Today's tactic is from a game of Bobby Fischer's played in the 1955 USA Under 18 Championship. Black (Fischer) to move:

Daily Tactic January 1, 2014

Morphy-Rousseau, New Orleans 1849. In today's game Eugene Rosseau has just played 13. ...d5 attacking Morphy's queen. Twelve year old Morphy plays this brilliantly! White to Move:

Daily Tactic December 31, 2013

This is a famous position from Fischer-Mjagmasuren, Sousse 1967. White to move. Can you visualize white's moves through to the end?

Daily Tactic December 30, 2013

Morphy-Jefferson, New York simul, 1859. This game ends with the mating pattern know as Philidor's Legacy. Morphy sets it up with two Deflection moves. To help learn this pattern and solidify it, practice going over the final moves in your head from move 19. Qa3+ to the end. Once you learn the pattern or if you already know it, go over the game in your head from move 17. e5! onwards to practice your visualization skills.

Deflection is forcing an enemy piece away from some useful position. In this game Morphy deflects the black queen off of the d8-h4 diagonal.

Decoying is attracting an enemy piece to a square useful for you. In this game as part of the final mating pattern, a black rook is decoyed to the f8 square.

Daily Tactic December 29, 2013

Morphy-Julien, New York simul, 1859. This knight odds game features a double attack and multiple deflections. Morphy's 12. Bg5! and 19. Rd1+ are great examples of deflection and 13. Qxb7+ is a double attack threatening the rook on a8 and mate in three.

Daily Tactic December 28, 2013

A pretty little study by H. Rinck from 1907. To win, White needs to promote one of the pawns, but how? The first move may be obvious -- save the g-pawn.

No Way Out?

Yesterday I received an email from a friend that has the KnightVision mobile app. He asked:

My son likes playing KnightVision  and he found this. Does this count as a bug?

It would appear that the Bishop is trapped with "no way out" and with no way to complete the level. To see how the Bishop escapes and captures the pawns keep reading...

The short answer to this dilemma is to do a long press on the Bishop which will temporarily transform it into a Knight then make one or more moves and then change it back into a Bishop.



For every piece except the Knight there are times when it is necessary to transform into a Knight to complete the level. For most pieces this only happens at the highest levels. For the Bishop this issue crops up from the beginning because a Bishop can only travel on either the light squares or the dark squares. Even if all pawns were forced to be on the same color as the Bishop the issue would still occur at higher levels, like the one in this question, where the piece would be trapped without the Knight transformation.

Even the powerful Queen needs to transform into a Knight to complete some levels. This provides a useful demonstration and lesson of some of the unique properties of the different pieces.

• The Knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces or pawns.
• Each Bishop is limited to travel on only half of the chess board; either the dark or light colored squares.

KnightVision for Improving Chess Players

KnightVision can help beginning to intermediate players improve at the game of chess.  You improve by developing fluency with the pieces, especially the knight.  The knight can take a long time to master and KnightVision provides focused practice at this key skill.

KnightVision also demonstrates and helps the user internalize important chess principles such as attacking a pawn chain at its base, attacking pawns from the side or from behind, and the power of a rook on the seventh rank.  You develop skill at knight maneuvers which is another critical chess skill.

Using KnightVision to Learn Chess

KnightVision can be used by by someone just learning chess or their parent or coach as a tool to help learn how to play chess.

It can help you become familiar with and oriented to the chess board. It can be used to help learn the names of the pieces and how they move.  You can use it to practice moving the pieces and develop confidence and fluency at moving the pieces.  It is a great way to start learning the game while having fun at the same time.

Spectacular! Five Stars! A Must-Download!

KnightVision is a fantastic game, sure to capture the imagination of anyone who has ever obsessed over the game of kings.
KnightVision is simple. The game starts and you are given a board with one knight and one pawn. Your job is to move the Knight however many times are necessary to take the pawn. At first it seems needlessly simple, but as you progress, there will be more pawns on the board and more complicated procedures to capture them all. With time it becomes quite an engaging puzzler. You can customize your puzzles as well, swapping out your Knight for other pieces like the Queen or Bishop, turning on Zombie mode (new pawns appear on the board as you play) or turning off piece moves and warnings so you have to figure it out on your own.
The game's design is simple yet elegant... The graphics are slick and bright and the options are accessible and easy to change... If you enjoy chess and puzzle games or simply want to learn more about how each piece works, this is a must-download - especially at a price point of Free. More at CNet...

Five Stars! Spectacular! A Must-download! Cool. Yesterday when I checked, out of 1688 "chess" iOS apps listed at CNET.com, KnightVision was the only one with the highest editorial rating of five stars.