March Blitz & Memes
Hello, my fellow tactic solvers, and welcome to another edition of Blitz & Memes. If you're a fan of tactics taken from amateur online blitz tournaments, then you have come to the right place, because that is what I do.
As always the puzzles have been pulled from the National Chess Society of Japan's monthly blitz tournament: TGIF Blitz. The tourney takes place on the 3rd Friday of every month, 21:00 JST, right here on chess.com. It is composed of seven rounds of blitz, with a time control of 3+2; and is open to all NCS club members.
The memes, on the other hand, came from various recesses of the InterWebs...
Good luck trying to solve all five puzzles, the first is easy as it involves me...but the next four are pretty difficult.
So, without further ado, lets get to the Blitz & Memes.
One and Done
We start off with a first round clash between drsljones, playing White, and self-styled memelord SheldonOfOsaka. Black has played a fairly solid opening and should have continued by taking the free pawn on a2...instead he played ...f5. And that was that.
Go on, finish this...
Pinup Girl
In the forth round Out_of_the_Zoo, playing Black was able to make use of a pin to win material.
Play a forcing move to set things in motion.
Counter Measures
In the seventh round WFM 140mariam, playing White, found herself in a dangerous pin; she had to come up with some...Counter Measures...if you will...in order to turn the situation around.
Can you see your way through the complications to a winning position?
Rank and File
A second round encounter, again involving WFM 140mariam, playing White. Here she has a lot of pressure along the...Rank and File...O_o...anyways...
Can you see how she was able to undermine Black's position?
A Loose Cannon
Our final puzzle comes from the fifth round, eventual winner codechamp27, playing White, against eventual second place WFM 140mariam. White has the more active pieces and is able to exploit a slight weakness in Black's camp.
Can you find the winning continuation ?
And that was it, that was March Blitz & Memes. Congratulations to codechamp27 on winning TGIF Blitz March with a 6/7 score. And perhaps more importantly congrats to any of you Dear Readers who were able to complete all 5 puzzles on the first attempt.
Here's hoping that some of you will join us for the next tournament, which will be held Friday April 21st, 21:00 JST.
As always, thanks for reading and feel free to share these tactics with your friends down at the Bar or Bank.
Cheers, SheldonOfOsaka.
Bonus
Every time I put these tactics together I always get one masochist in the comments complaining that the puzzles aren't difficult enough...you know who you are...O_o...
Anyways, this bonus is for you. Good Luck.
