Tactics from the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Series in Georgia

There are chess tournaments happening all the time all over the world! This is Mrs. Jessica E. Prescott (aka BoundingOwl) here with some puzzles from Lopota, Georgia (that's the one south of Russia).

Many of these games lasted fewer than 30 moves. There were lots of crushing tactics and strong moves; see if you can find them! I've included the entire game before each puzzle so you can play through each move and learn some new tricks. 

1. Here is a game between Ju Wenjun (rated 2532) and Antoaneta Stefanova (2488). Click through all the moves. Now can you find a move that threatens mate and the queen? Black will resign after your next move!

2. Anna Muzychuk (2561) also lost in 28 moves. Hou Yifan (rated 2629) is Women's World Champion for a reason! Make a big threat here. There's an old chess adage: Push passed pawns!

3. Nafisa Muminova (2332) resigned on move 29 here against Dronavalli Harika (2503). What would happen if they had played a few more moves? Can you find Black's win here?

4. Bela Khotenashvili (2518) lost to Nana Dzagnidze (2541) after this crushing move. Can you create a mating net?

If White tries to stop the queen from getting in on g2 by playing Qh3, this just prolongs the agony! Two threats are too strong!

The players in this tournament often created two threats in order to make their opponents resign. Even if one threat can be stopped, the other cannot. And losing material — even a bishop — is enough to mean the whole game will be lost at this level of play. At your level I recommend playing through to checkmate, because you never know what will happen!

Keep asking questions here. I can't believe there are almost 5,000 kids in the club! Woot!

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