White to move. What is the best continuation for White?
1r2nrk1/5p1p/p2p2pQ/2pNq3/1nP5/6PP/4PRB1/5RK1 w – – 0 1
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Attacking chess tactic
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Puro calculo:
1.Qxf8+ Kxf8
2. Rxf7+ Kg8
3. Ne7+ Kh8 (3… Qxe7 4. Rxe7 Ng7 (4… a4 5. Ra1+-) 5. g4 Re8 6. Rxe8+ Nxe8 7. Ra1+-)
4. Rf8+ Kg7
5. R1f7+ Kh6
6. Ng8+ Kg5
7. Kh2 Nf6
8. h4+ Kf5
9. Nh6+ Ke6
10. Bh3+ etc.
DBI
1. Qxf8+ Kxf8
2. Rxf7+ Kg8
3. Ne7+ Qxe7
4. Rxe7 looks reasonable with white up a rook and the attack far from finished.
(3…. Kh8 4. Rf8+ Kg7 5. R1f7+ Kh6 6. Ng8+ is mate with Kg5 meeting h4+ and Kh5 meeting Bf3+)
Oh, 6….Kg5 7. h4+ Kg4 8. Rf4+ is forcing and suficient.
Here’s my 2 cents worth before rushing off to work. I think the idea here is to sacrifice the queen on f8 first (please excuse my poor chess notation skills):
Qxf8+ Kxf8
Rxf7+ Kg8
Ne7+ Kh8
Nxg6+ hxg6
Rf8+ Kh7
Rf7+ (bringing the f1 rook up, don’t know chess notation well) Kh6
Rh8+ Kg5
h4+ Kg4
Bh3+ Kxg3
Rf3 should be mate
1. Qxf8+ Kxf8
2. Rxf7+ Kg8
3. Ne7+ Qxe7
4. Rxe7 looks reasonable with white up a rook and the attack far from finished.
He’s only up the exchange for a pawn, not a whole rook. But yes, White ought to win from there. So Black has to bank on 3…Kh8. But:
1.Qxf8+ Kxf8
2.Rxf7+ Kg8
3.Ne7+ Kh8
4.Nxg6+ hxg6
5.Rf8+ Kh7
6.R1f7+ Kh6
7.Rh8+
… loses quickly to 7…Qxh8. Even your continuation:
7…Kg5
8.h4+ Kg4
9.Bh3+
… loses to 9…Kxh3 (not, as you point out, 9…Kxg3?? 10.Rf3#).
DBI found the key: 7.Kh2! Just your ordinary everyday “pause in the attack while I move my king onto the enemy queen diagonal” crusher. Very pretty!
Oh, 6….Kg5 7. h4+ Kg4 8. Rf4+ is forcing and suficient.
Do you mean in the line that starts:
1.Qxf8+ Kxf8
2.Rxf7+ Kg8
3.Ne7+ Kh8
4.Rf8+ Kg7
5.R1f7+ Kh6
6.Ng8+ Kg5
?
Because 7.h4+? Kg4 8.Rf4+ Kxg3 looks pretty strong for Black. That’s why 7.Kh2! is so important — to protect the g3 pawn. Hard to believe that White can afford such an innocuous-looking move (which even seems to endanger his king) in the midst of a raging sacrificial attack. But AFAICS, it’s the only winning move!
how do you guys find moves like kh2 from such a distance? i never see the quite moves 🙁
there is a simpler solution though
7.rf4 black has no defence agains h4 e.g. qxe2 8.h4+ kh5 9.bf3 qf3 10.rxf3 +- because 11 nf6 wins another exchange: (nc6 11.re8 re8 12.nf6+)
7.Rf4
Nice catch! Seems to win just as well as 7.Kh2.
Funny how Fritz 10 is lame in this position.
Hello Montague,
I like your chess notation. It’s almost without failures so don’t be so modest!
Probably you could add move numbers to improve readability. 🙂
“Rf7+ (bringing the f1 rook up, don’t know chess notation well)”
Usually if two pieces of the same kind can move to the same square you just add the letter of the line on which the moving figure is.
E.g. knight on b1 and f3, b1 moves to d2, then you write “Nbd2” instead of the unclear “Nd2”.
If both figures are on the same line just use the number of the rank.
E.g. with these knights on b1 and b3 it would be “N1d2”.
It’s quite simple, so in this case you should write “R1f7+”.
If you are unsure use the long “Rf1-f7+” in these cases.
I hope I could help you, but like I wrote above: your notation is already good readable!
Greetings
Jochen
PS: to the problem
I “feeled” 1. Qxf8+ 2. Rxf7+ 3. Ne7+ to be “strong” but I was much too tired for deeper calculations.
Nice to read that my feelings seemed to be right. 🙂
Ah, sorry for my poor english skills.
It must be “felt” intead of “feeled”, of course. 🙂
Montague, Jochen — Please don’t feel you have to apologize for your English:
1) You both communicate just fine. I had no trouble working out what “feeled” was intended to express. This blog is not TOEFL! Besides, you might be surprised at how poorly some USAns, whose native language is supposed to be English, speak and write.
2) If we had to talk in Spanish or German (what I’m guessing your respective first languages are) I’d be pretty lost. Then again, I might learn something!
3) Our common language here is chess. Look at DBI’s post at the top of the thread. I don’t happen to know what “puro calculo” means (although I can guess, or look it up on Babelfish), but that didn’t stop me from appreciating his analysis.
4) Just so you know: I appreciate the gracious effort you guys make. You’re doing something that probably doesn’t feel entirely natural or comfortable, all for the benefit of us ugly American monolingual patzers. Thanks!
“USAns” ?
You prove your point too well.
Please drive through.
The pilotness is starting to get to me. You two should just get a room.