Black moves and wins.

The 16-player Immopar Cup was played as a knockout event instead of the usual round robin. Each pair of players played two games at a 25-minute game limit. Loser of the match was knocked out of the tournament. The $200,000 prize fund attracted a strong group of grandmasters and 10,000 spectators with continual action.

Former world champion Anatoly Karpov was knocked out by grandmaster Evgeni Bareev. The young English chess star, Nigel Short, was eliminated by grandmaster Lev Polugaevsky. Grandmaster Jan Timman was blotted out by Judit Polgar.

Grandmaster Gata Kamsky, 1991 U.S. champion, knocked out Joel Lautier, French grandmaster, then Polgar, but was eliminated, himself, by world champion Gerry Kasparov, who took first place after a final match with grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.

In regular tournament or match games, the USCF requires time limits no faster than two minutes a move and no game limit faster than one hour per player. For years, the typical tournament time controls were 50 moves during the first two hours, followed by an additional period of 25 moves per hour, as needed. The Maine Chess Association set 45 moves in two hours for the state championship, which remains in effect.

The international events were generally even slower. Now, we have rapid chess with limits of 30 minutes for all moves and quick chess requiring 10-15 minutes and blitz, with five minutes for each player.

Solution: Black’s rook on e5 prevents a check on white’s king. White’s queen on d2 also prevents a checkmate at c3, so: 1…Rxe2, 2.Qxe2 Qc3+ 3.Qc2 Qxc2 checkmate. The theme for this 1947 Moscow game between Trifonich and Ragozin is “space clearance.” We must get our own men out of the way by any means. Mastering this, the learner will start upsetting his stronger opponents and become stronger, himself. When Checkmate is in sight, the loss of a rook or queen is a small price for victory. Here, Ragozin cleared the space of the a1-h8 diagonal. Ranks and files, as well as diagonals, may require forcible “space clearance.”