No. 1  Colding-Ashley (1992 African-American Unity Tournament, Harlem, NY)

Two members of the "Black Bear School of Chess" battle it out. In this tournament all games started with  the razor-sharp Meran Variation of the QGD with the opening moves…

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.e4 b4 10.Na4 c5 11.e5 Nd5

This game was full-speed throughout, but Ashley appeared to equalize without much difficulty. Colding aimed his pieces toward the black king and sacrificed a piece for a mating attack. However, his attack was rudely rebuffed and in the diagrammed position, Ashley ended all arguments with 27…Qe2! with a choice between several mates. (See game)

No. 2 Simpson-Mitchell (1992 African-American Unity Tournament, Harlem, NY)
In the same Meran QGD, Mitchell played a less active line than Ashley and immediately fell under pressure to Simpson's hard-pressing attacking style. With the black king stuck in the center by move 14, white's pieces  began battering black's defenses and in a critical moment, Simpson reeled off the deadly finesse… 29.Qf4! All of a sudden, all of black's pieces are overloaded as the white queen is eyeing the rook on b8, the c7- and d6-squares and the pawn on f7. Mitchell played 29…Ke8 and went down quickly after 30.Rxc6 Bxc6 31.Qd6! mating. On 29…f6 white wins with 30.Rxc6 Kxc6 31.Qd6+ Kb7 32.Rd2! (See game)

No. 3  Simpson-Colding (1992 African-American Unity Tournament, Harlem, NY)
Simpson faces Colding in the same opening theme and the only difference in this game from the one with Mitchell was that it was four moves longer. Simpson used the same attacking motif and perhaps Colding did not see the round one Simpson-Mitchell game which was almost identical from beginning to end. Simpson dominated the dark squares and performed a nice geometric maneuver with 31.Bf8+! Ke8 32. Bg7 Rg8 33.Bf6 threatening 34.Qd6. After 33…Bd5, the finish was 34.Qa4+ (34.Qc5! also devastates) 34… Kf8 35.Qd7 with mate coming. (See game)

No. 4 Paige-Simpson (1992 African-American Unity Tournament, Harlem, NY)
Another Simpson game, but this time he is the player to get skewered like a shish kebab. He plays Wilbert Paige, the late Philadelphia master, who was memorialized in a historic tournament in 2001  also in Harlem, New York.

This was the last of the four theme tournaments. In this one, each game started with the following position on the board.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4 h6 7.h4 Nc6 8.Rg1 h5

Another ultra-sharp line… the Keres Attack. Again the black king decided to huddle in the center of the board too long. With white missiles blazing,  Paige sacrifices a rook to come to the diagrammed position.  There is only one clear path to win as checking on the f-file with the queen or rook lose. Only 25.Qh6+! wins.  At first glance, Paige at least gets his rook back after 25…Kf7 26.Qh7+ Kf8 27.Qh8+ Kf7 28.Qf6+ Ke8 29.Qxg6+ Kd8 30.Qxe4. In addition, massive material loss for black is unavoidable.  Having lost everything but the queen, Simpson entered the time scramble, but his king took a final "death march" to the queenside and was mated on the a4-square. (See game)