Tactics Puzzle #6: Yermolinsky vs. Beliavsky, 1993

For another tactics puzzle, let's look at the game between Alexey Yermolinsky and Alexander Beliavsky in the 1993 PCA Qualifiers. It's Black to move in this position and seeing that White is threatening to mate him in the next move, Black found an ingenious way to get out of the situation and come out on top.

The obvious move in this position is Qxe1+ which looks like a desperate move but it's quite clever really. The tactic is called "removing the defender" and it takes advantage of the fact that White has a weak back rank. After the king takes the queen, Black's rook on c8 will swoop in and give a check. This prompted White to resign on the spot because as you will see, White will get mated if he doesn't give up his queen.

If White gives up his queen, he will be in a losing position anyway. So White resigned right there and then. It's a neat tactic but the story behind this beautiful tactic actually began long before we arrived at this position. Several sacrifices happened along the way and for the most part, we would think White was a hair's width from sweeping the game right from under Black's nose. But with a stroke of luck and ingenuity, Black managed to turn the tables on White right as they were nearing the finish line.