Table Of ContentForcing Chess Moves
WINNER of the ChessCafe 2008 Book of the Year Award SHORTLISTED for The
Guardian 2008 Chess Book of the Year Award
Praise for ‘Forcing Chess Moves’:
“By organizing and explaining the nature of great chess moves Hertan has
brought us all closer to being able to �nd them” Former US Champion Joel
Benjamin
“This weighty tome is all about improving your tactical play” British Chess
Magazine
“Hertan develops the reader’s skills methodically, thus enabling each tactical
lesson to be learned and absorbed properly” Marsh Towers Chess Reviews
“Entertaining and instructive (..) you simply cannot stop looking” Erik
Bouwmans, Schaaknieuws
“I love this book” Elisabeth Vicary, US Chess Federation Online
“An intensive training course for advanced players to improve their tactical
vision and calculation (..) You will increase your tactical striking powers a lot”
Erik Bausch, Rochade Europa
“When I remind my students to look for forcing moves, I often say: ‘look at all
checks and captures’. Forcing Chess Moves explains eloquently that this advice
is along the right lines but distorted because �nding the most forcing move is
not always as simple as checking out Qxh7+. Sometimes the most forcing move
is not a capture or a check, but a surprising way to make a threat – even a quiet
move.” Former US Women’s Champion Jennifer Shahade
“We’re big fans of this book” Danny King & Ronan Bennet, The Guardian
“Thrilling, instructive and witty. Right on target” Cor Jansen, Provinciaalse
Zeeuwse Courant
“A super book” Carl Portman, FOCUS Magazine
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“Develops creative, little explored ideas about how to improve your tactical
vision (..) with outstanding positions from master practice” Mark Weeks,
About.com
“The price is low for a volume with so many pages and so much content”
Stephen Dann, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
“A superior combination book” John Donaldson, Jeremy Silman.com
“This book deserves the highest of recommendations” Chess Horizons
“Complete and enjoyable” Torre & Cavallo Magazine
“A book that can improve your tactical skills in no time” Elburg Chess Reviews
“One thing I’ve found in analyzing my own games is that Fritz will �nd moves
that are clearly strong, but I would never have considered the �rst move of a
sequence. Some times the tactic will defy categorization as a fork, skewer,
de�ection, removal of guard, etc, but simply be a move that works. My
impression is that Hertan’s book may help open the reader’s eyes to these
opportunities.” Secrets of Grandpatzers Chess
“The categories in this book are quite unusual (..) This work is an ample and
accurate collection of startling problems bulging with combinative surprises.”
Harold Dondis, The Boston Globe
“When the clock is ticking away, and you have too many viable candidate
moves to choose from, remember Hertan’s advice!” Steve Goldberg, ChessCafe
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Charles Hertan
Forcing Chess Moves
The Key to Better Calculation
Third Edition New In Chess 2008
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Q New In Chess
This eBook edition was �rst published in 2013
First edition February 2008
Second edition November 2008
Third edition June 2010
Published by New In Chess, Alkmaar, The Netherlands
www.newinchess.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission
from the publisher.
Cover design: Steven Boland
Supervisor: Peter Boel
Proofreading: René Olthof
Production: Anton Schermer
ISBN-13: 978-90-5691-466-0
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Preface to the Third Edition
I’m delighted with the extremely positive response of both reviewers and club
players to Forcing Chess Moves. The book was shortlisted for the Chess Book of
the Year Award by The Guardian, and even elected Book of the Year by Chess
Cafe, both in 2008. Apparently many chess lovers were hungry for a new
approach to �nding winning tactics!
Some players seemed confused by my use of the metaphor ‘computer eyes’
as a learning tool. No, I don’t mean that you should play like a computer, or
even try to! Instead, the key concept is to work on overcoming your own human
bias, by learning from one of the key strongpoints of computer play: the ability
to look objectively at ideas which seem ‘crazy’ to human sensibilities.
My thanks to New In Chess editor Peter Boel, for helping me iron out a few
errors and glitches from the �rst printing. In the second edition we rearranged
the exercises for Chapter 1 and 2 and added eight new exercises. In the third
edition we have only made a few minor corrections.
Are you ready to �ex your tactical muscle?
Charles Hertan, May 2010
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Foreword
Foreword
by three-time US Champion Joel Benjamin
The study of tactics holds a necessary place in the regimen of players of all
levels. One can �nd explanation of fundamental tactical elements – pins,
skewers, forks, etc. - in a host of books, but the process of �nding the killer
moves is still rather mysterious.
Hertan’s work calls to mind the underdog success story of Van Perlo’s
Endgame Tactics. The little-known Dutch correspondence grandmaster
compiled positions for thirty years until he produced a masterpiece which took
the English Chess Federation’s Book of the Year honors in 2006.
Hertan, a FIDE Master living near Boston, has spent a comparatively small
but still impressive fourteen years researching, organizing, and codifying 650
tactical positions of all varieties. Like Van Perlo, Hertan has unearthed a
multitude of positions appearing in print for the �rst time. I have a feeling that
Hertan’s opus, like Van Perlo’s, will be warmly received.
In my lectures I have occasionally explored the demands of solving complex
problems at the chessboard. Hertan has done so here on a grander scale with
the aid of the useful concept of ‘computer eyes’. From my experience working at
IBM on the Deep Blue team, I know that computers can �nd strong moves that
humans overlook because they appear too outrageous to consider. It is a sign of
the growth of computers that the term ‘computer move’, which once was
assigned to an ugly and pitiful move, is now used to connote a strong but
surprising move computers are better equipped to identify
But my own human travails su�ce to bring Hertan’s idea close to heart. In
many of my games I have discovered astonishing moves and combinations that
seemed (to me, if not the spectators) to fall out of the sky.
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Yet there is a thought process behind every great chess move, and by organizing
and explaining the nature of these magic moves, Hertan has brought us all
closer to being able to �nd them.
Benjamin-Silman
Lone Pine 1979
My opponent, one of the great American chess teachers and writers, no doubt
looked forward to enjoying the bishop pair against his �fteen-year-old
adversary. The tactical idea, utilizing a discovered attack and a zwischenzug, is
fairly routine compared to the execution. I wanted to play 24.Nf5, but the
bishop would simply capture my knight and defend the rook on d7. The idea
only works with the stunning 24.Nc8!! After 24…Rxd1 25.Nxe7+ Kf7 26.Rxd1
Kxe7 27.g4! White went on to win an instructive (but beyond the scope of this
book) ending. Silman had not registered that the knight could dare to enter a
square so apparently o� limits.
The surprise square �gured in another shocking move for me in the 1992 U.S.
Championship. I have all my pieces converging on the e4 pawn, but with my
knight in the way White seems safe to continue his maneuvers:
Alexander Ivanov-Benjamin
Durango 1992
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Foreword
The startling 17…Nf3!! provided a big advantage. The main line runs 18.Qxf3
Bxe4 19.Qg3 Bd6 20.Rxd6 Qxd6 21.f4 (21.Qxd6 cxd6 22.Rg1 Bxg2 23.Rxg2
Re1+ 24.Kd2 Rxb1) and now I intended 21…Bxg2 22.Qxg2 Qxf4+ 23.Nd2 Re3
with a big initiative for Black, but the computer suggestion 21…Bxc2!? 22.Kxc2
Re2+ 23.Kc1 Qd5 is also strong. 18.Rxd8+ Rxd8 19.Qxf3 Bxe4 20.Qg3 Bd6 21.f4
Bxg2 22.Qxg2 Bxf4+ is even worse, so Ivanov tried 18.a3 Bd6 19.Nc3 Bxe4
20.Nxe4 Qxe4 21.Qxe4 Rxe4 22.Rd3 Ng5 and Black won on move 33.
The defender can hardly be expected to catch a move like 17…Nf3 in time. The
attacker, with a vested interest in discovering such magic, may look deeper. Any
‘safe’ move by the knight allows the consolidating move 18.f3. I only noticed
the move because I had been calculating sacri�ces on f3 if White played f2-f3 at
some point. Notice that with the pawn on f3, the knight sacri�ce appears more
plausible because it captures something, reducing the ‘quietness’ of the move.
Benjamin-Friedman
St. Martin 1993
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It seems that White can hardly win with the black d-pawn poised to queen.
48.Rxh7! is a good start because 48…d1Q+? 49.Ke7! forces mate. After 48…
Rh5?? (48…Rf7+ was necessary for the draw) 49.R3xh5 gxh5 50.Rh6!! is a
killer quiet move. Black can queen with check, normally a real combination
spoiler, but here that only encourages 51.Ke7, tightening the net on Black’s
king.
The game concluded 50…Kf7 51.Rf6+ Kg8 52.Ke7 Kh7 53.Rf7+ Kg6 54.f5+
exf5 55.Rf6+ Kg5 56.Rd6 1-0.
The �nal position I would like to share comes from the last round of the 1984
New York Open, a game I needed to win to obtain a good prize.
Abramovic-Benjamin
New York 1984
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