pawn majority. If 40...c6, White exchanges
twice on c6, then plays e4 when he wins
the king and pawn ending as Black’s king
must move over to the kingside and leave
his queenside pawns to the white king.
41 Rg1 c6 42 g4! fxg4+
42...cxd5 43 gxf5 Re7 44 h6! gxh6 45 Rh1
and White is effectively a pawn ahead due
to Black’s doubled d-pawn.
43 Rxg4 Re7 44 dxc6+ Kxc6 45 e4
d5
Black is gradually over-stretching.
46 e5 b5 47 Rg2 Kc5 48 Ke3 Rf7 49
a3 b4 50 Rc2+ Kb6 51 axb4 axb4 52
Rc8
Neither of Black’s pieces can play an
effective part in the game. Now it only
needs White’s king to join in and the game
is effectively over.
52...Rf5 53 Kd4! Rxh5 54 e6 1–0
Clarke was known as a quiet positional
player, but a man of his class could produce
a big attack when the opportunity arose, as
our final game shows.
White: Peter Clarke
Black: George Wheeler
WECU Championship, Winchester,
K
K
1981
1 d4 f5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 g3 e6 4 Bg2 Be7 5
0–0 0–0 6 b3 d6 7 c4 Qe8 8 Nc3 Nbd7
9 Bb2 c6 10 b4 d5 11 c5 Ne4 12 Ne5
Nxc3 13 Bxc3 Nxe5 14 dxe5 b6!? 15
cxb6 axb6 16 b5 cxb5 17 Bxd5
Exploiting the weakening of the long
diagonal caused by Black’s 14th move.
But Wheeler coiuld have ignored this and
played 17...Ra3 18 Bb3 Bc5, with a slight
edge as White’s kingside is weakened.
Wheeler decides to capture the bishop - a
deliberate exchange sacrifice - knowing
that he gets good chances against White’s
king with the disappearance of the lightsquared bishop.
17...exd5!? 18 Qxd5+ Qf7 19 Qxa8
Bc5 20 Rfd1!
Black was threatening 20...Bb7 21 Qa7
Ra8 winning the queen. This move is
directed against that possibility. Now
Black could play to exploit the weakness
of the f2 square by ...f4!, which gives him
good counterplay.
20...Bb7? 21 e6! Qe7 22 Qxb7! Qxb7
23 Rd7 Qxd7 24 exd7 g6?
Both 24...Rb8 and 24...Rd8 would lengthen
resistance.
25 Bf6! 1–0
K
K
K
How to win lots of attractive short games
Dave LM
A few years ago, I discovered that I had
played an unusually large number of
attractive miniature chess games (usually
defined as being of 25 moves or less) and
decided that I would work out the common
factors that may have led to their short
length. In CHESS magazine I published a
count-down of the top ten factors, in terms
of those which appeared most in my list
of attractive short games, each with an
illustrative game of my own. That countdown went as follows:
10 Play on the opponent’s greed – setting
traps to exploit it
9 Remember the standard sacrifices
– an advertisement for Essential Chess
Sacrifices!
9