The Kung Fu Queen

My childhood happened at the time when kung fu was all the rage. All the kids were discussing the latest martial arts movies and the "Kung Fu Fighting" song was at the top of the charts.

The legends about the Shaolin monks were fascinating. Some of them were just ridiculous. For example, I could never believe that they could levitate. Rephrasing the famous Tal quote (which we discussed here), I could say that Shaolin monks are Shaolin monks of course, but gravity is gravity.

From the other side, there was another legend that I believed was true. Allegedly, Shaolin monks could touch a secret spot on a human body, which would immediately paralyze their enemy!

Today I am not so sure that the legend about the secret spot on a human body had something to do with reality. However, I know that there is such a secret spot on a chessboard that could completely paralyze your opponent. Without further ado, let me show you how it's done.

In his annotations, Kasparov calls 12.c3? horrendous and asks who would let his opponent's queen to d3? Indeed, the Qd3 completely paralyzed White's position and the game was quickly decided with a direct attack against White's king.

Yes, Kasparov is right of course; these days no one in his right mind would allow your queen to land on d3. But if you are a creative chess player who loves to sacrifice then...try to conduct the attack like GM Ljubomir Ljuboevic!

So, you see how it is done, right? Put your queen on d3, make sure your opponent cannot move his pieces, and start a winning attack against his king.

Sometimes a bishop can successfully substitute for a queen, like in the following game:

In the next bizarre game that was played very recently, first it was black bishop that touched the secret d3 spot and at the end it was his knight that landed there. You cannot find a better illustration of the complete paralysis of the opponent than the final position of this game!

Everybody was kung fu fighting
Your mind becomes fast as lightning...