White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
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Real game chess tactic
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White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
This is a really difficult one. Unless white protects h4, black’s queen will take and threaten mate in one. So 1. d5 seems to be required, then:
1…exd5
2. Rfe1 Qxh4
3. Qxh4 Rxh4
4. Re5 Rh5
and from there it’s a R vs. N endgame eventually. No easy win that I can see.
1.d5 is an only move 1…exd5 probably 2.Qf4 etc…
I think White will have a very good position after 2…Qxh4 3.Qxh4 because Black pawns are very weak
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1 d5 cd 2 Qf4
This is a really difficult one. I can’t seem to find any sacrifice that wins for White. If I had this in a real game I would probably play
1. d5 to protect the h4 pawn and go into an even(?) endgame.
Susan, can you please post the solution?
the only move that doesn´t seem to lose rightaway would be 1. d5, to which black will react with 1. … exd5. Then maybe 2. Qf4 to attack the dangerous pawn on g3. Black will defend it with Rg8 or maybe Qg6. White might then continue 3. Rd1 or Re1. I doubt, that this is the correct solution though, as it is not at all spectacular or special. greets, jan
Black is threating Qxh4 so White must play 1 d5 if black play Qe7 then 2 Qf4
Well, after staring at this for about 30 minutes, I see nothing better than 1.d5. The threat starting with 1. ….Qh4 must be dealt with by either protecting h4 or giving the king an escape hatch at f1. The escape plan seems to lose to me:
1. Rfe1 Qh4
2. Kf1 Qh1
3. Ke2 Qg2
4. Kd1 Qf3
5. Kc1 b6 (required defense, IMO)
6. cb6 ab6
And black’s king seems secure and the passed and the advanced g-pawn should provide a decisive edge.
So,
1. d5
And I see three playable moves for black, Qh6 to threaten f4 and Qh4, ed5, and e5 (to threaten f4 and Qh4. Taking them in order:
1. …..Qh6
2. Rfe1 f4
3. Kf1 Qh4
4. Ke2 Qh2
5. Rg1 and white’s position is secured by the extra tempo from the previous line. Black might do a bit better in this line if, at move 2, he gives up on the idea of winning g2:
2. …..ed5
3. Re2
Here, with the e-file open for the black rook to check from e8, I would not want to allow Qh4 by taking the knight at a5, and I would want to give the king a path behind the rook on the e-file. Cont.
3. …..b6 (protect the N directly)
4. cb6 ab6
5. Rbe1 and, to be honest, I can’t tell who is better here. Black’s knight can come into play at c4 and white can put a rook on e7 which black can oppose by putting the king at b7 and the rook at h7.
At move 1, black could play
1. …..e5
2. d6
And, now, I think black is forced to trade queens as playing f4 allows white to take at a5, and
2. ….cd6 allows cd6 opening the c-file giving white a tempo to move the f-file rook with check. Continuing with a plausible line:
2. …..Qh4
3. Qh4 Rh4
4. Rb4 Rb4
5. ab4 Nc6
6. b5 Nd4
7. dc7 Nb5
8. Re1 e4
9. fe4 fe4
10.Re4 Kc7
11.Re6 Nd4
12.Rg6 a5
And, again, I have a hard time telling just how big white’s advantage actually is. He can win the g-pawn, but doing so takes either time to bring the king into action, or requires him to give up the c-pawn.
I don’t really see any point in looking at black’s other 1st move alternatives since I doubt they could actually be better than the two I have discussed. I must be missing something really obvious for white’s first move, but I just don’t see it.
I agree on d5 as the only move for white, but why not e5 as the black response? This threats f4 and renews the mate threat.
maybe the idea behind this problem is something like this:
1 d5, e5
2 d6, f4
3 QxNa5
/ hac
r f2