Today’s puzzle worthy position comes from the 1985 Baden-Baden Chess Tournament. 1985 was a strong edition of this historic tournament featuring many prominent chess players including Susan Polgar, Efim Geller and Ludek Pachman. However, our puzzle worthy tactic comes from a winning combination played by Robb Witt.
FM Robb Witt of the Netherlands sadly passed away on September 22, 2022. The position below comes from his twelfth round victory in the 1985 Baden-Baden chess tournament. FM Robb Witt had the black pieces against the strong Austrian chess master (and soon to be Grandmaster) Stefan Kindermann. Kindermann (white) has just played 34. f6 which threatens mate in 1 with Qxg7. However, before his opponent has time to execute his mate, Witt steals the initiative and delivers a stunningly beautiful mating combination of his own.
Black to move and win by force (Stefan Kindermann vs. Rob Witt, 1985 Baden-Baden Chess Tournament, Round 12).
Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Chris Torres served as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy from 2005-2020 and currently is recognized as a correspondence chess master with the United States Chess Federation. Since 1998 Chris Torres has taught 6 individual national champions as well as led multiple school teams to win national championship titles. In addition, Chris Torres has directed and taught at 10 different schools which have been California State Champions at chess. In 2011 and 2012, several former and current students of Chris Torres have been selected to represent the United States at the World Youth Chess Championships. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists.
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