{"id":126146,"date":"2026-04-24T10:55:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wild-hunting-dogs\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:55:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:55:03","slug":"wild-hunting-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wild-hunting-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild hunting dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

African wild hunting dogs are one of the most successful predators in the animal kingdom. Cooperation and coordination are the keys to their success. Because of their small stature, injuries often occur, but the pack protects the injured and gives them time to heal.<\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s position, White\u2019s pieces are like a pack of wild dogs. Here, one dog strategically offers to sacrifice itself so the pack can capture the prey. From there, the dogs are not all bark. With this hint, please try to find White\u2019s winning move and attack.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s position arose in Uzbekistan\u2019s Javokhir Sindarov\u2019s game against Russia\u2019s Andrey Esipenko in the recent Candidates Tournament. Sindarov was White; Esipenko, Black. Like a wild dog, Sindarov bit Esipenko in the neck with rook to e6. This immediately threatens rook to e8, forcing Black to give up its queen to stop mate.<\/p>\n

Esipenko thus accepted White\u2019s offer of an exchange sacrifice with knight takes rook. Sindarov\u2019s bishop took the Black knight, checking Black. The Black king was forced to h8 or otherwise get promptly mated on f7 with White\u2019s queen. White\u2019s queen next checks from e8 (see next diagram).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

From here, there are multiple checkmating lines. One line is king to h7, followed by White\u2019s bishop taking the Black f5 pawn with check. Black blocks the check with pawn to g6. White\u2019s queen captures the g6 pawn and, on the next move, mates with queen to h7 (see next diagram).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

We can learn a lot from dogs: Loyalty, courage and the importance of circling around three times like a helicopter before resting.<\/p>\n

Reach Eric Morrow at ericmorrowlaw@gmail.com<\/a> or (505) 327-7121.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

move and win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6416,5758],"tags":[1091,29,1829],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-126146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists-chess-corner","category-columnists","tag-columns","tag-newsletter","tag-tcr-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126146"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=126146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}