Jayden's Chess Journal Edition #12

Thanksgiving Section🍂

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, let's talk about the Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims were strongly against the play of chess and prohibited it, so it seems they were not thankful for chess.

💡Puzzle #12

White has a mate in one, can you find the tricky move?

✅Solution

The solution is the move Qh4#. This is checkmate due to the constriction from the Rook on g8 and the Queen is the final piece of the checkmate puzzle.

♟️Tip of the Week

Try to set up Rook and Queen pairs as they can create mating webs and more chances for checkmate.

🪶Chess History

Today we’re taking a little step backward in time, and looking at the fascinating career of Aron Nimzowitsch. He is known for creating many opening variations and is considered to be one of the most influential hyper-modern chess players. He never became World Champion, but is considered one of the foremost and most influential Grandmasters of his time. Let’s take a look at one of his positions.

This position is known as the Immortal Zugzwang position. Nimzowitsch is playing Black and he just played the absolutely brilliant h6. He has created a zugzwang (where the opponent is essentially forced to play a bad move) in the middle of the game! His opponent resigned a few moves later. Grandmaster Raymond Keene described this game as “This is the so-called 'Immortal Zugzwang Game'. I prefer to see it as an example of total paralysis of the opposition; the ultimate express of prophylaxis, where the opponent's possibilities are reduced to that degree above zero required to avoid stalemate." This shows the brilliance of Grandmasters in this wonderful game of chess.

 That wraps up this edition of Jayden’s Chess Journal

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and if you know anyone looking for more chess knowledge, send them this link so they can access this awesome newsletter.

Thank you so much for reading this edition, until next time!