Geometric nightmares

by Jonathan Speelman
8/6/2023 – IM Brandon Clarke found a remarkable winning blow in one of his games from the Major Open in Leicester. The blow was a cross pin, a geometric nightmare for the victim — and surely a worthy topic for a Sunday column! | Photo: John Upham
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Cross pins

[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]

This week’s column comes courtesy of a game in the Major Open (the open tournament for players not in the championship itself) at this year’s British Championships in Leicester. The top seed, IM Brandon Clarke, took half-point byes in his first two games but nevertheless ended up in a four-way tie for first. On the way, he played a game in which he lost his queen for just two pieces in the opening but kept on fighting and eventually reached this diagram.

Mikalajunas vs. Clarke

45.Qe4 would still be fine here, but White played 45.h4??. Can you see the pretty tactical blow that then won for Black?

Clarke’s winning blow was a cross pin, a geometric nightmare for the victim, and I started looking for more examples. There were some articles on the net but I chose to search for myself, though in contrast to an exact pattern I wasn’t quite sure how to do so.

I ended up by choosing a few of the more common exact configurations, such as White Bc4-Qe4; Black Bd5-Kg8 (I also tried Bb3 instead), and putting these into the position finder in the search mask. This produced many false positives (with the pieces on those squares but no pin(s)), but there were a significant number of hits too, some of them in genuinely interesting games, and I’ve put a number in the database.

Cross pins often occur in studies, and I had a go myself at creating one. I liked the aesthetics of the white queen's peregrinations, but the initial position wasn’t up to much, Then after sleeping on it, I found an intro which I think definitely improves it, though I did have to add an extra rook and pawn.

If anybody can do better, then please do contact me, either via the ChessBase editors or direct to jonathan@jspeelman.co.uk. I'll be back for my 200th(!) column in a fortnight.

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MoveNResultEloPlayers
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1.e4 c5 2.c3 d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Bd3 g6 5.Ne2 Bg7 6.0-0 0-0 7.f3 Nc6 8.Be3 d5 9.e5 Nd7 10.f4 Qb6 11.Nd2 Bh6?! 12.dxc5 Qxb2 13.Nb3 Ndxe5
14.Bc1 Nxd3 15.Bxb2 15.Qxd3 Bf5 15...Nxb2 16.Qxd5 Be6 17.Qf3 Rad8 18.Ned4 Bd5 19.Qe2 Na4 20.Qc2 Bg7 21.Rad1 Nxc3 22.Qxc3 Bxb3 23.Qxb3 Bxd4+ 24.Kh1 Bxc5 25.Qxb7
25...Nd4 26.Rc1 Bb6 27.Qxe7 Rd5 28.Rcd1 Ra5 29.Rd2 Nf5 30.Qf6 30.Qb4?? Ng3+ 31.hxg3 Rh5# 30...Ne3 31.Rf3?! 31.Re1 31...Rb5 32.h3 32.Qa1 32...Rb1+ 33.Kh2 Nf1+ 34.Rxf1 Rxf1 35.Re2 Bc7 36.g3 Bd8 37.Qe5 Bb6 38.Kg2 Rg1+ 39.Kh2 Rc1 40.Qf6 Rfc8 41.f5 R8c2 42.Qe5 42.Rxc2 Rxc2+ 43.Kh1 Rc1+ 44.Kg2 Rc2+ 45.Kh1 Rf2 46.g4 42...Bd4 43.Qe8+ Kg7 44.fxg6 hxg6
45.h4?? 45.Qe4 Rxe2+ 45...Rc4 is presumably what he'd have played. 46.Qxe2 Bf6 45...Re1! The cross pin. 46.Qxf7+ Kxf7 47.Rxc2 Re3 48.Rf2+ Ke6 49.Rf4 Be5 50.Rg4 Kf5 51.Rg5+ Kf6 52.a4 Re4 53.a5 Rxh4+ 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Mikalajunas,K1881Clarke,B24860–12023B07British Chess Championships 2023: Major4.6
Bryzgalin,K2424Meleshko,V22681–02018A4629th Czech Rapid G1 20182.14
Gusain,H2400Vatsal,S21831–02019A0512th KIIT Cat A Open 20198.17
Maghsoodloo,P2676Ter Sahakyan,S26401–02020C78PNWCC Bullet (1+1) 2020
Coppola,C2233Dominguez,F21601–02021A0191st ch-URU 20218.3
Botsari,A2315Kadimova,I22701–01992D27EU-chT (Women)4
Bukavshin,I2517Ipatov,A2586½–½2012D35Moscow Aeroflot op-A 11th5
Maier,C-Haeusler,H-1–01981B40Bundesliga 8081
Tkachiev,V2535Portisch,L26100–11994B21Tilburg rapid202
Motylev,A2683Geller,J25441–02012B4819th TCh-RUS 20121
Makoto,R2378Grover,S24731–02017A04PSS IM Norm 20175.5
Pasquier,T2220Martin,L22051–02021A11Titled Tuesday 9th Nov6
Romsdal,T2207Thestrup,S-1–02003A8725th Politiken Cup1
Speelman,J--1968Cross Pin14
Speelman,J--2023

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Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.
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