Thanks for that. Some helpful reinforcement of key ideas. Homework. We need to watch out for black e5 as that will attack the dark square bishop AND the unprotected light square bishop.
Regarding Rf1 in position 4: I like that it also gives the opportunity for the opponent to make a wrongly executed combination with...Rxc2+ overlooking the fact that the e3-square is defended by our knight. I find that is the most difficult of all and something I would like to get better at: Looking at seemingly great resources for my opponent that don't actually work and invite my opponent to play one of them. I think this is especially applicable in positions where you are completely lost.
There is a counter swindle in position 1: Re4. If they do not think too much and think that they can still make the trick then after Nf3 and xf3 the rook is protected by the pawn. Even if black notices the trick and does not fall to it, he still has to protect somehow the f4 pawn.
Very interesting lesson, I see quite a few attempts from my opponents trying to use this type of tactic against me, normally it's seems to involve the knight or bishop but usually I can spot them but interestingly I don't tend to play them against my opponents unless I can get a clear advantage by doing so. I think this is down to the fact that I can see my threat to them, so I assume they can see it too! Homework, if we don't react to blacks last move we are facing e5, which in itself doesn't look to bad as we can exchange bishops on c8 but black has the sneaky inbetween move exf4+, meaning our bishop is left hanging on c8 which black can then capture with Rxc8
In the homework the threat is e5. However, our f4 Bishop has no good squares, so I would play Ke2 to defend while also mobilizing our Bishop. I don't like that f6 e5 would trap our B anyway, and with a piece up just play safe. No good checks for the N either
Looks like e5 would create a double attack and I can't take black's light bishop because the e-pawn would take my dark bishop with check and then black would take my light bishop with the a-rook. Had two ideas: blockade the e-pawn by occupying e5 myself with my dark bishop, or move the g-pawn to g4, creating a place for the dark bishop to go if black moves to e5 and on g4, the pawn would stop black's light bishop from taking mine. I could reroute my light bishop so he's not boxed in. If black's knight on e4 took my dark bishop after e5 (dark bishop would move to g3 after e5), I could take back with the h-pawn. How did I do?
The threat is e5 and Bxc8 exf4 is a check and we lose a piece. Bg2 will avoid it and the knight has to go back to avoid trades. Bg2 f6 Bxe4 e5 looks scary but Bxd5 exf4 Kxf4 and it is safe. I noticed that Be5 f6 Bc3?? leads to b5 and the knight is trapped. (Be5 f6 Bc7 is ok but why not just go Bc7 immediately?)
