{"id":16394,"date":"2025-09-26T17:17:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T23:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-kind-of-symphony\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:57:20","slug":"a-kind-of-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-kind-of-symphony\/","title":{"rendered":"A kind of symphony"},"content":{"rendered":"
Black to move and mate<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The Grand Swiss tournament, held in September, was one of the most important events of the year. Three of the world\u2019s youngest grandmasters showcased their potential. Texas\u2019 15-year-old Andy Woodward and New Jersey\u2019s 16-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra tied for third place alongside several of the world\u2019s top-rated players.<\/p>\n

The rising tide of young prodigies was further evidenced when the youngest player in the tournament, 14-year-old Yagiz Erdogmus of Turkey, uncorked a checkmate for the ages. In this week\u2019s position, Erdogmus is Black. Despite allowing White two queens threatening mate, Erdogmus countered with a bold queen sacrifice. With this hint in mind, try to find Black\u2019s mating attack.<\/p>\n

First, Erdogmus checked White from f2 with his queen. The White king dare not retreat to h1, as Black\u2019s rook-queen battery on the second rank mates with queen to h2. Thus, White\u2019s rook on f1 captured the Black queen.<\/p>\n

Erdogmus\u2019 rook on e5 then checked White from e1. White\u2019s rook on f2 couldn\u2019t block the check, as Black\u2019s e1 rook would capture with support from its bishop, mating White\u2019s king. Instead, White\u2019s king retreated to h2 (see next diagram).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Black\u2019s other rook on d2 captured White\u2019s rook with check. White\u2019s king was forced to take Black\u2019s bishop, and Black\u2019s rook on e1 checked White from h1, forcing the king to g4 (see next diagram).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Black\u2019s rooks had done their job. Now it was up to the pawns, beginning with f6-f5, checking White and forcing the exhausted king into the corner on h5. The fatal blow was g6 (see next diagram).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

This masterpiece was painted with rooks, pawns and a queen. It was a kind of silent symphony.<\/p>\n

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

to move and mate The Grand Swiss tournament, held in September, was one of the most important events of the year. Three of the world\u2019s youngest grandmasters showcased their potential. Texas\u2019 15-year-old Andy Woodward and New Jersey\u2019s 16-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra tied for third place alongside several of the world\u2019s top-rated players. The rising tide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1091,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-columns","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16394","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=16394"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20177,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16394\/revisions\/20177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16394"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}