Daily Dacha Tactics
Each day we add a Dacha color-themed tactic for interactive play. Test your color theory and enjoy!
Dacha Tactics #14 - tactical dark rebuild.
An interesting endgame has arisen. Black has the bishop pair plus the more active king. We are ahead on dark, behind on light. As a bonus -- our dark bishop is a Golden Bishop. As we look further, it dominates the hapless white Knight on h3. If the Knight ever
Dacha Tactics #13 - cashing in the light money.
Clearly White has a nice attack. The open h file and the pieces peering onto Black's kingside gives us high hope. And what about the color money? The imbalance is Knight for us, Dark bishop for Black. Meaning we are behind on dark but ahead on light. How
Dacha Tactics #12 - light with DARK intentions!
A complex position. We could start calculating and crunching variations. Well bravo for that! But -- even better, let's have colors be our guide. To start -- what is the color $$? The imbalance is our knight for blacks light bishop. This means he is ahead on light, we
Dacha Tactics #11 - pawn sacrifice enabling the knight to crush on its color!
Famous position from Lasker vs Capa! To start, what is the color $$? The imbalance is knight vs light bishop, so that will mean we are behind on light but ahead on dark (+500). We also have more space. And the Ne6 "Sleeping Knight" is already tickling dark. The
Dacha Tactics #10 - golden bishop oozing dark energies.
Interesting position we have here. Black has a nice golden dark bishop and with the white king on dark, there promises to be juicy ideas. Also note how white has little to no pawns on dark -- i.e. no dark rebuild. Find the knockout blow! Interact with the puzzle
Dacha Tactics #9 - yearning for dark rebuild!
White has lots of passed pawns -- it should be simple to win! Except that Black has a strong blockade on the dark-squares, preventing us from advancing to promote. If we can break this blockade, then we win with our passed pawns! Therefore, it's time to march in
Dacha Tactics #8
Although the material is equal, it is clear that white has a nice bind and much more space and activity. Is there a knockout blow? First we look at the color money... White has a knight vs light bishop which means we have more dark $$ -- 500 to be exact.
Dacha Tactics #7
Here white has a roaming pair of bishops. But the first thing to look at is which one is the REAL dangerous of the 2, notably the Golden bishop. Since black does not have a dark bishop , our dark bishop is unopposed and Golden. We must believe in it and
Dacha Tactics #6
This is a beautiful tactic by the great Adolf Anderssen from the 1800s. Clearly we are doing very well and have an attack brewing vs the white king, but how to proceed? As always -- we begin by assessing the Facts -- color facts! The imbalance is light (Golden) bishop
Dacha Tactics #5
This was one of my favorites vs Magnus Carlsen. Through out the game I was proudly showing off my golden dark bishop lurking on b2. After many escapades, it netted me an extra piece. The finish is pretty, and will naturally relate to dark -- note our pressure on the
Dacha Tactics #4
Here white is in a commanding position. A better pawn structure with a kingside attack well underway. One could calculate some possible breakthrough lines but why not get some color background first to give us insight! So the imbalance here is our knight vs his light bishop. Meaning -- we
Dacha Tactics #3
Here we begin by looking at the color imbalance. Well it's a light (golden!) bishop for us, vs a knight for him. This means we are ahead on light (albeit behind on dark). The juicy part is that to top it off, white has no mini light bishops
Dacha Tactics #2
Black has an open h file which could be promising for a kingside attack. In addition , the color money is interesting -- we have a knight vs his light bishop, which means we are behind on light and ahead on dark. All this means that dark squares are especially vulnerable
Dacha Tactics #1
There is a color imbalance here: Black has a light-squared bishop against White's knight, so Black is up on light money, and his light-squared bishop is his golden bishop. Therefore, if there are tactics here -- it would make sense for them to be on light squares, as
