To go long or short?

The World Championship Rapid Chess Tournament ran Dec. 26-28 in New York and was literally played on Wall Street. The top three winners were all Russian. The historic surprise of the tournament was that the 59th-ranked player, Volodar Murzin, who is 18 years old, defeated many of the world’s elite players to win.

Rapid time controls consist of each player being allotted a total of 15 minutes. After a player makes a move, 10 seconds is added to that player’s clock. Frequently, games at this level will come down to the final seconds, with players making many moves with less than 30 seconds on their clocks, as the additional 10 seconds provides some cushion.

This week’s position is from Murzin’s win against R. Praggnanandhaa (“Pragg”), who himself is 19 years old and is the 17th-ranked player in the world. Muzin has the black pieces; Pragg, the white. On Wall Street, investors sometimes go long rather than short. With this hint in mind please try to find black’s winning play.

White’s king threatens black’s rook, as black’s pawn threatens white’s bishop. As a general rule, a rook is much stronger than a bishop. However, Murzin saw that taking the bishop with his h6 pawn was a better long-term investment.

Pragg next captured black’s rook and Murzin’s pawn advanced to g7 – one square from promotion (see next diagram).

At this point, Pragg reached across the table and shook Murzin’s hand and resigned.

This is because the white rook must retreat to b1 to thwart the black pawn. Black nonetheless promotes the pawn. White’s rook takes the new black queen only for white’s king and rook to be skewered by the black’s rook check from g7 (see next diagram).

Black rook takes white’s rook free and clear, and the investment in the pawn has paid off.

New York continues to host world speed championships with the Blitz Championship ending on Dec. 31. In Blitz, each player is allotted a total time control of 3 minutes. After each player moves, two seconds are added to that player’s clock.

Reach Eric Morrow at ericmorrowlaw@gmail.com or (505) 327-7121.