Saturday, October 15, 2005

Bartell-Kernighan, Westfield 2005

diagram White to play after 33...Qe4??

In two weeks, FM Steve Stoyko will be continuing his series of lectures on the Lasker Defense to the Queen's Gambit with a focus on the Exchange Variation, which is one way White has of side-stepping Black's prepared defense. Recently, our own NM Mark Kernighan faced the Exchange Variation against current New Jersey champion Tom Bartell (which you can view online) in a game that illustrates some of the obstacles Black faces in that line.

Black held his own fairly well until the next-to-last move of the game (see diagram above), which was a time-pressure blunder. Can you find White's deadly retort? You can play the game over online or download the PGN for the answer.

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