Wednesday Workout: NATO Checkmates!

The U.S. team had an excellent result at the 30th NATO Championships, held last month in Berlin. LT Eigen Wang took the individual Silver, a first for the U.S., and the team finished in seventh place out of sixteen teams.

In this week's Workout, we present ten checkmate problems from games played at the tournament. Some are easy, while others will require a bit of work. But that's the point of a workout, isn't it? Without further ado: Mate in 1s:

Show Solution

[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.17"] [Round "2.15"] [White "Tucker, D."] [Black "Watters, C."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B10"] [WhiteElo "1997"] [BlackElo "2179"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "7R/p4pkr/2pBn1p1/2PpP1b1/P2P1pP1/2Q2P2/5KB1/3q4 b - - 0 39"] [PlyCount "1"] 39... Bh4# 0-1 [/pgn]

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[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.18"] [Round "4.41"] [White "Rosseel, Kimball"] [Black "Graham, Frazer"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A46"] [WhiteElo "1759"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "7k/5Qp1/p4p1p/1p6/1P3KP1/P1r4P/5B2/7q b - - 0 53"] [PlyCount "1"] 53... Qf3# 0-1[/pgn]

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[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.20"] [Round "7.39"] [White "Kruit, Erik"] [Black "Abbate, Giovanni"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B12"] [WhiteElo "1941"] [BlackElo "1600"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3r2r1/1p1nqbk1/p1pp1np1/4pP2/3PP1P1/2N1QN2/PPP1B3/2K4R w - - 0 22"] [PlyCount "1"] 22. Qh6# 1-0[/pgn]

Mate in 2s:

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[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.17"] [Round "2.27"] [White "Tikerpuu, Mati"] [Black "Nikomanis, A."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "1717"] [BlackElo "2053"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "5rk1/1R3p1p/2p1N1p1/2PpQ3/8/4P2P/3n1qPK/8 b - - 0 34"] [PlyCount "3"] 34... Nf3+ 35. Kh1 Qg1# 0-1[/pgn]

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[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.17"] [Round "2.12"] [White "Wang, E."] [Black "Michalski, D."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C41"] [WhiteElo "2193"] [BlackElo "2024"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r3q2k/1b1n3p/p3B1p1/2p1p1B1/1n1p3Q/1P4N1/5PPP/2R3K1 w - - 0 34"] [PlyCount "3"] 34. Bf6+ Nxf6 35. Qxf6# 1-0[/pgn]

Mate in 3s:

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[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.19"] [Round "5.44"] [White "Allmann, Lauri"] [Black "Gaiducis, Sergejus"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "1827"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3qr1k1/pp3rb1/3p2Q1/3N1p1R/2P2P2/P2PP3/1P1n3P/6RK w - - 0 31"] [PlyCount "5"] 31. Qh7+ Kf8 32. Qh8+ Bxh8 33. Rxh8# 1-0[/pgn]

Show Solution

[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.19"] [Round "6.29"] [White "Stankowski, A."] [Black "Allmann, Lauri"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A07"] [WhiteElo "2022"] [BlackElo "1827"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/5p1p/R7/p1r1n3/5k2/3B1NN1/5PK1/8 w - - 0 44"] [PlyCount "5"] 44. Rf6+ Kg4 45. Bf5+ Kf4 46. Bc8# (46. Bh3#) (46. Ne2#) (46. Bd7#) (46. Be6#) (46. Nh5#) 1-0[/pgn]

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[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.17"] [Round "3.48"] [White "Graham, Frazer"] [Black "Langer, Herb"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C10"] [BlackElo "1751"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "4r1k1/p1p1Bp1p/1p4p1/3pQ3/8/8/PPPq1PPP/4R1K1 w - - 0 21"] [PlyCount "5"] 21. Qh8+ Kxh8 22. Bf6+ Kg8 23. Rxe8# 1-0[/pgn]

Show Solution

[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.18"] [Round "4.28"] [White "Slaidins, Janis"] [Black "Oblak, Nicholas"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B27"] [WhiteElo "1834"] [BlackElo "2048"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "5rk1/pp2pp1p/6p1/4Pq2/3n4/BP4Kb/P2Q3P/2R3R1 b - - 0 27"] [PlyCount "5"] 27... Qf3+ 28. Kh4 Nf5+ 29. Kg5 h6# 0-1[/pgn]

Mate in 4:

Show Solution

[pgn] [Event "30th NATO Chess 2019"] [Site "?"] [Date "2019.09.20"] [Round "7.44"] [White "Windey, Luc"] [Black "Slaidins, Janis"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D02"] [WhiteElo "1628"] [BlackElo "1834"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "4Q3/p1q4k/1p6/3p1bPP/2r5/2P5/PP6/2K1R3 b - - 0 34"] [PlyCount "7"] 34... Rxc3+ 35. Kd1 (35. bxc3 Qxc3+ 36. Kd1 Qc2# {was the game continuation.}) (35. Kd2 Rd3+ 36. Ke2 Qh2+ 37. Kf1 Bh3# (37... Rf3#)) 35... Rd3+ 36. Ke2 Qh2+ 37. Kf1 Bh3# (37... Rf3#) 0-1[/pgn]

Come back next week for more tactics from the NATO Championship!