In chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

, a windmill is a tactic in which a combination of discovered checks

Discovered attack

In chess, a discovered attack is an attack revealed when one piece moves out of the way of another. Discovered attacks can be extremely powerful, as the piece moved can make a threat independently of the piece it reveals. Like many chess tactics, they succeed because the opponent is unable to meet...

 and regular checks, usually by a rook

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

 and a bishop

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

, can win massive amounts of material. This tactic is also sometimes referred to as a see-saw. In the game pictured at right, Carlos Torre-Repetto

Carlos Torre Repetto

Carlos Torre Repetto was a chess grandmaster from Mexico.Torre won the Louisiana championship at New Orleans 1923. He was first at Detroit 1924, followed by Samuel Factor, Herman H. Hahlbohm, Norman Whitaker, Samuel Reshevsky, etc., and at Rochester 1924...

 makes use of the windmill tactic against Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...

 to win two pawns

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

 and a bishop and enter into a winning endgame (although the bishop had to be given back). The move 25. Bf6!, hanging the queen

Queen (chess)

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...

, sets up the windmill. Black must accept the sacrifice

Sacrifice (chess)

In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....

, as his own queen is unprotected, and any attempt to stop the windmill would simply give White the queen. Then 25. ...Qxh5 26. Rxg7+ Kh8 27. Rxf7+ Discovered check, by the bishop. White simply repeats the regular check/discovered check pattern, taking as many pieces as he can with his rook. 27. ...Kg8 28. Rg7+ Kh8 29. Rxb7+ Kg8 30. Rg7+ Kh8 31. Rg5+ Kh7 32. Rxh5 White concludes the windmill by taking the black queen.

Another example is in Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...

's Game of the Century

The Game of the Century (chess)

The Game of the Century usually refers to a chess game played between Donald Byrne and 13-year-old Bobby Fischer in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament in New York City on October 17, 1956. It was nicknamed "The Game of the Century" by Hans Kmoch in Chess Review...

.

An illustrative position depicting the windmill is depicted to the right.

There could follow: 1. ... Kh8 2. Rxf7+ Kg8 3. Rg7+ Kh8 4. Rxe7+ Kg8 5. Rg7+ Kh8 6. Rxd7+ Khg8 7. Rg7+ Kh8 8. Rxc7+ Kg8 9. Rg7+ Kh8 10. Rxa7+ Kg8 11. Rg7+ Kh8 12. Rxg6+ Kh7 13. Rg7+ Kh8 14. Rxg5+ Kh7 15. Rg7+ Kh8 16. Rxg4+ Kh7 17. Rg7+ Kh8 18. Rxg3+ Kh7 19. Rg7+ Kh8 20. Rxg2+ Kh7 21. Rg7+ Kh8 22. Kxa1 and now Black must lose one of his knights.

External links

• Edward Winter
  Edward Winter (chess historian)
  Edward Winter is an English journalist, archivist, historian, collector and author about the game of chess. He writes a regular column on that subject, Chess Notes, and is also a regular columnist for ChessBase.-Chess Notes:...
  
  , The Chess Seesaw