![\"kamsky](\"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/kamsky-akobian.jpg\")
<\/a>Position after 37.Qxf5. Black to move.<\/p><\/div>\n
FEN: 2r2k2\/q4p2\/8\/p4Q2\/8\/4P1P1\/P4PP1\/3R2K1 w – – 0 37<\/p>\n
In this position Akobian played 37. … Qc5? Of course Black is dead lost anyway. With three extra pawns, White could even trade queens if he wants. But there is a much more stylish way to win. If you need a hint, look at the title of this post.<\/p>\n
The answer, of course, is 38. Rd8+, which I named “the hook and ladder trick” in a Chess Life article several years ago. You could say it’s just a deflection, but there is an extra twist to it — if Black refuses to let the rook be deflected and plays 38. … Ke7 or 38. … Kg7, he loses a rook to 39. Rxc8. This is quite common in the hook and ladder trick.<\/p>\n
Instead Akobian resigned. Immediate resignations are also quite common for the hook and ladder trick. When it works, it generally collects either a rook or a queen-for-a-rook. It’s quite a shock for the opponent when he goes from expecting a queen trade to losing a queen in the space of one move.<\/p>\n
I hope I haven’t disappointed anyone with my lack of commentary on the U.S. Championship. My excuse is that my wife and I have been relaxing in Hawaii for the last six days, celebrating our 25th anniversary, and so my mind has been pretty far from the chess board. Actually, as far as I can tell, the world has kept on going pretty well in our absence. Maybe we should stay away longer next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thanks to Mike Splane for pointing this one out! On Tuesday Gata Kamsky won the United States Championship, in a pair of 25-minute playoff games. Here is the position in the decisive game, Kamsky playing White against Varuzhan Akobian: FEN: 2r2k2\/q4p2\/8\/p4Q2\/8\/4P1P1\/P4PP1\/3R2K1 w – – 0 37 In this position Akobian played 37. … Qc5? Of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1363,16],"tags":[684,907,173,1020,1205],"class_list":["post-2933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-news","category-positions","tag-gata-kamsky","tag-hawaii","tag-tactics","tag-vacation","tag-varuzhan-akobian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2935,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933\/revisions\/2935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}