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Dacha Tactics #107 - Queen goes back to acting school.
A fairly straightforward position with some color pizazz! White is looking to weave a mating net around the hapless king. He sits on light – how to complete the light dacha?
Dacha Tactics #106 - The light dance!- squeezing that tempo.
A cute puzzle shown to me by a student. The first thing we like to look for is material/color imbalance. All equal! However, there is a facet of white's king being loose and the light squares being sensitive. How to parlay this to the win? Any other
Dacha Tactics #105 - Knight is the light undertaker...bishop pair mocked!
An interesting endgame from a blitz game of mine. It's an endgame where we battle the feared bishop pair. We have some things going for us, though! Our mini dark bishops do a nice job of replenishing the lack of a dark bishop. And we are +500 light!
Dacha Tactics #104 - Knight got dark bling bling
Here's a cool position I saw from a blitz game with the legendary Hikaru Nakamura manning the white pieces. At first glance, we notice the d5 pawn is loose, but the knight on c5 is somewhat loose, and the b3 pawn is not fully secure either. What'
Dacha Tactics #103 - Cashing in all that dark money
A short but sweet tactic I recently had. As always, we begin with color money. The imbalance is our dark bishop vs his light, which gives us +1000 dark edge (albeit -1000 light). White's pawns appear healthy, but with a huge dark edge; looks can be deceiving. Find
Dacha Tactics #102 - Hips don't lie...same for color money.
This was from the 2013 world championship Carlsen vs Anand , Anand is black. A complex position has arisen where white has the bishop pair, but we have extra light money with our knight vs dark bishop. How useful or relevant is this? Are there any stray pieces, pawns on light?
Dacha Tactics #101 - The overly eager king.
Here we are up a pawn vs a strong GM. Color money is equal, but both sides are missing their dark bishop, so naturally, dark will be a focal point. Black's king on e5 seemingly acts as a dark bishop – how to overtake the dark and prove that
