Swindle

A swindle is a ruse by which a player in a losing position tricks his opponent, and thereby achieves a win or draw instead of the expected loss.

Frank Marshall, a gifted tactician who was one of the world's strongest players in the early 20th century, has been called "the most renowned of swindlers".

Perhaps the most celebrated of his many "Marshall swindles", a term coined because Marshall was famed for extricating himself from hopeless positions by such means, is Marshall–Marco, Monte Carlo 1904. 

Marshall wrote of the above position, "White's position has become desperate, as the hostile b-pawn must queen." White could play 45.Rxc7+, but Black would simply respond 45...Kb8, winning. Many players would resign here, but Marshall saw an opportunity for "a last swindle". He continued 45.c6! Now Black could have played 45...bxc6!, but disdained it because White could then play 46.Rxc7+ Kb8 47.Rb7+! Kxb7 48.Nc5+, winning Black's rook and stopping Black's pawn from advancing. Black should have played this line, however, because he still wins after 48...Ka7 49.Nxa4 Bd4! (trapping the knight) 50.Kf3 Ka6 51.Ke4 Ka5 52.Kxd4 Kxa4 53.Kc3 Ka3 and Black's pawn queens after all. Instead, Marco played 45...Be5?, mistakenly thinking that this would put an end to Marshall's tricks.

Decoying

Decoying is a tactic of ensnaring a piece, usually the king or queen, by forcing it to move to a poisoned square with a sacrifice on that square.

Decoying is also a sacrificial chess tactic to force a valuable piece, most often the queen or the king to capture on a poisoned square, so that it becomes co-target of a double attack, often a knight fork, which finally results in a tangible gain of the whole combination.

In the following puzzle, White plays 1. Qd8+ decoying the king to d8.

In the following endgame puzzle, Black plays 1...Rh1+ decoying the king to h1.

Undermining

Undermining, also known as removal of the guard or removing the defender, is a chess tactic in which a guard or defender of a piece OR a defensive piece is captured, leaving one of the opponent's pieces undefended or underdefended. The opponent has the unpalatable choice between recapturing or saving the undefended piece. A possible response is to sacrifice the piece whose defence is being undermined before capturing the piece which just took the defender.

In the following example, it is White to play. White may take the guard, defender or defensive piece (the Black knight on c7) by playing  1. Rxc7, leaving the undermined piece (Black bishop on e6) undefended.

Kramnik–Topalov in the seventh round of the 2004 Linares chess tournament reached the following position with White to play. The Black knight on a4 is defended only by the Black pawn on b5. White undermined the knight with 1. Bxb5. The game continued 1... Rxb5 2. Rxa4, with a net material gain of a pawn for White. The obvious continuation is 1... Nxb2 disposing of the unguarded knight. If 2.Kxb2 Rxb5+. This regains the pawn for Black. However, Black avoided 1... Nxb2?? because of the strong rejoinder: 2.Rb3 when White is winning a piece.

Queenside Majority

Queenside majority positions generally work in favor of the side that has the pawn majority on the queen side rather than the king side, since it is much easier to push your extra pawn in the queenside rather than the kingside. There are two main factors that are going to influence positions with pawn majorities on opposite sides. The first one would be the control of the central file (most commonly the 'd' file). The second factor is using your minor piece, in particular your bishops. The long diagonals and the general open nature of the position gives a lot of scope for your bishops.

The following queenside majority puzzle comes from the game Bobby Fischer - Tigran Petrosian. It is White to play. How does White increase the torture? White's pieces are better placed, he has a strong knight on c5, the better bishop because Black bishop's activity is limited by his own pawns and black has two weaknesses to defend (the pawn on a6 and the pawn on d5). Usually one weakness can be defended, but two weaknesses can be fatal. Moreover White has a queenside majority so he can create a passer on the queenside. Here White has a variety of moves to improve his position. But don't rush! Never rush in endgames. If you have a static advantage such as in this queenside majority puzzle then just slowly step by step improve your position and prevent all counterplay.

Breakthrough

A breakthrough is a destruction of a seemingly strong defense, often by means of a sacrifice.

In the above Nakamura's breakthrough puzzle, it is White to play. Stockfish, one of the strongest free engines and at a depth of 34 suggested the natural looking 47. Bd5 with a slight advantage for White (+0.6). However, the brilliant and totally unexpected move is 47.g5!! Stockfish, which could not find this move on its own, gave White a score of +1.69 after playing 47.g5. There is always room for human creativity.




The following is a puzzle of breakthrough motifs and promotion combinations with the solution. It is Black to play and win.

In the above breakthrough combination puzzle, White should play
1. Rh5! and win.

In the above puzzle, it is Black to move and make a breakthrough. The following is the solution in PGN format.


[Event "Rosenwald Memorial"]
[Site "Game of the Century"]
[Date "1956.10.17"]
[Round "8"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Donald Byrne"]
[Black "Robert James Fischer"]
[ECO "D92"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "82"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. d4 O-O 5. Bf4 d5 6. Qb3 dxc4 7. Qxc4 c6 8. e4 Nbd7 9. Rd1 Nb6 10. Qc5 Bg4 11. Bg5 Na4 12. Qa3 Nxc3 13. bxc3 Nxe4 14. Bxe7 Qb6 15. Bc4 Nxc3 16. Bc5 Rfe8+ 17. Kf1 Be6 18. Bxb6 Bxc4+ 19. Kg1 Ne2+ 20. Kf1 Nxd4+ 21. Kg1 Ne2+ 22. Kf1 Nc3+ 23. Kg1 axb6 24. Qb4 Ra4 25. Qxb6 Nxd1 26. h3 Rxa2 27. Kh2 Nxf2 28. Re1 Rxe1 29. Qd8+ Bf8 30. Nxe1 Bd5 31. Nf3 Ne4 32. Qb8 b533. h4 h5 34. Ne5 Kg7 35. Kg1 Bc5+ 36. Kf1 Ng3 37. Ke1 Bb4+ 38. Kd1 Bb3+ 39. Kc1 Ne2+ 40. Kb1 Nc3+ 41. Kc1 Rc2# 0-1





The following is another practical endgame breakthrough example.

A pawn breakthrough involves a sacrifice of one or several pawns in order to create a passed pawn. This device often occurs in practice, and so in the course of play it is very important to foresee the possibility of a breakthrough.