Ok, so my previous post has been up for a while, I hope you all took the time to try and calculate like you would in a real game!  I suspect if that was the case, you would just recapture on c3 and allow the arrow of time to take it’s course……. (This is what happened in the game, so don’t feel too disappointed if that was your choice, you just drew with a GM).

However, this is an excellent example of why we should always be alert and not just assume we should recapture.  We all need to be concrete in our analysis and not be afraid of ghosts.

See the solution here and see how much looks familiar.  Perhaps you had other ideas not mentioned in the solution (there are many lines further in that all win)?

In a new series of posts I will present a position for the more ambitious player to solve.

As usual, my advice is to set up the position on a board and try to calculate without moving the pieces.  However this time give yourselves 40 minutes on the clock…

Below we have the game Gagunashvili – Zhang Zhong, Jakarta 2011.  Black has just played 19…Nxc3 – How do you proceed as White?