Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Windmill

There is a tactic motif in chess called the “windmill”. In the windmill, a piece repeatedly wins some of the opponent’s pieces while simultaneously creating an unavoidable series of discovered attacks.

One of the most famous windmill combination occurred in the game Carlos Torre against Emmnauel Lasker (Moscow 1925). In that game, Torre surprised his renowned opponent with a devastating combination based on that motif.

Despite winning the game brilliantly, the humble Torre never considered it as one of his best games saying: “To tell the truth, I do not consider it a good game, because both of us committed various errors.”

Carlos Torre Repeto (1904-1978) was born in Mexico and has been the greatest chess player from that country. His highest achievement was in the international tournament of Moscow, 1925, where the young Torre finished 6th behind Bogoljubow, Lasker, Capablanca, Marshall and Tartakower while placing ahead of Reti, Spielmann, Yates, and others great players of that time. His chess carrer was short because after suffering a nervous breakdown in 1926, never again played a serious game.

The windmill is a powerfull resource that every chess player needs to know.

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