White to move. How should White proceed?
Level of difficulty: 3 out of 4
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Attacking tactic
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White to move. How should White proceed?
Level of difficulty: 3 out of 4
It looks like 1. Bc5 Rd8 (or somewhere else, it does not matter that much) 2. e4 Nb6 (or Ne7 if first move was Re8) 3. Rg4 Qh6 (3. … Qh5 4. Rxg7+ Kxg7 5. Qxh5) 4. Be3 wins easilly at least an exchange.
Pavel
Black has two weaknesses.
First, the knight has no squares to go to, so e4 at some point might win the knight, but presently the e-pawn is protecting the bishop.
Secondly, black’s queen is in an awkward position, and has few squares to retreat to after Rg4. One of those squares, d3 would be taken away after an e4 push. The other, h3, could be taken away by Be3 after the e4 push. The h4 square isn’t an option because of RxP+ with a discovered attack on the queen.
So I’d go for:
1 Bc5 attacking the rook with tempo and preparing 2 e4 next, which would threaten to trap the knight as well as prepare Rg4 to trap the queen. Can black stop all those threats (winning the exchange, winning the knight, and trapping the queen)? I don’t think so.
Pavel, you beat me to the punch by 6 minutes I see! In your line:
1 Bc5 Rd8 (probably best)
2 e4 Qg5 seems to be the best defense for black and black gets two pawns for the knight instead of losing an exchange, which is the best black can do I think:
3 Rg4 Qxe5
4 exd5 R8xd5 (or R2xd5)
With a bish versus 2 pawns, white has the advantage and excellent winning chances.
In that last, 3. Rh5 Qf4 4. exd5 Qxf3 5 gxf3 and black wins only one pawn for the queen, albeit disrupting the white pawns.
1. e4?? was my move. I missed
1..Rxd4
This is far from easy, as the scale says. I need a chessboard to move the pieces. Is it probable to have a chessboard here, where we can just move the pieces from the puzzle around? That would be great!!!
What about 1.Rg4 Qh6(if 1…Qh5, then 2.Rxg7+ Kxg7 3.Qxh5 and Black Queen is lost)
Then 2.d4 Ne7 3.Be3 forking the Black Queen and Rook winning the exchange.
Am I missing something?
For the last anonymous here, there are a couple of site where you can use a board online (more than a couple probably!). Chesslive.de is one (part of Chessbase), and chesslab.com is another one I use. Another option is to install something like Winboard on your PC (if you are allowed to…).
Nice one today. Saw e4 was helpful for a couple of reasons, and once I worked out that the bishop was then vulnerable (which took for too long!), then the sequence became apparent.
If this is North America, You should probably move to North Pole:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCBcOQkUNjI&NR=1
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE
I’m looking at this line
1. Bc5 Re8
2. e4 Ne7
3. BxNe7 RxBe7
4. Qa8 mate
So, what is Black to do? One defensive idea is to reposition the queen by attacking the loose rook…
1. Bc5 Qg5
2. Rg4 Qd8
brings the queen into a defensive role, but Black loses the exchange.
It looks like the idea of attacking the queen first doesn’t work, because
1. Rg4 Qd3
brings the Black queen into the thick of the action, and also pins the e-pawn.
I’m probably missing something here, but I’d start with
1. Bc5
@ 9:01 anonymous
I initally looked at your line too but realized that e4 blocks the long white diagonal and keeps the queen from mating 🙂
@ 7:39 anonymous
1. Rg4 Qh6 2. e4? Bxe3 and black is saved.
oops… now you know why I no longer have dreams of winning the world championship.
Even worse, 1. Bc5 Nc3 is just a little embarassing for White!
The position seems even at best. Hmmm… maybe I’ll give it to Fritz to digest…
1. Bc5 R move and 2.e4 Rd4… and
Egaion said…
“1. e4?? was my move. I missed 1..Rxd4”
Well, seeing that e4 wins is the key here; I started with that move as well. Then you just have to see that moving the bish to gain a tempo is the way to enable the e4 push — you had the right idea.
Anon_7:39 said…
“What about 1.Rg4 Qh6(if 1…Qh5, then 2.Rxg7+ Kxg7 3.Qxh5 and Black Queen is lost) Then 2.d4 Ne7 3.Be3 forking the Black Queen and Rook winning the exchange.
Am I missing something?”
Yes.
1 Rg4 Qd3! as the queen slips out that way instead. Even …Rc2!? might work, and looks fun, threatening to trade the queen for two rooks; but in any case, …Qd3 looks like a safer, solid reply to me.
Anon_9:01 said…
“I’m looking at this line
1 Bc5 Re8
2 e4 Ne7
3 BxNe7 RxBe7
4 Qa8 mate”
Except, as someone else pointed out, the queen would have to leap-frog over the e4 pawn to make such an illegal move for mate. But after:
1 Bc5 Re8
2 e4 Ne7
3 Rg4!! (not BxN?) and the queen is trapped (…Qh3 4 Be3! or …Qh4 RxP+!!)
“So, what is Black to do? One defensive idea is to reposition the queen by attacking the loose rook…
1 Bc5 Qg5
2 Rg4 Qd8
brings the queen into a defensive role, but Black loses the exchange.”
After 1…Qg5, 2 Rg4 allows …Qxe5, but 2 Rh5 here and then Qd8 and black loses the exchange.
Anon_3:20 said…
“In that last,”
I assume you mean
1 Bc5 Rd8
2 e4 Qg5
“3. Rh5 Qf4 4. exd5 Qxf3 5 gxf3 and black wins only one pawn for the queen, albeit disrupting the white pawns.”
3 Rh5?! QxR!
4 QxQ Ne2+ and NxR and black wins two rooks for the queen, actually.
3 Rg4 avoids that messy line. But it allows Qxe5, so after:
3 Rg4 Qxe5
4 PxN RxN (either rook), white has to ‘settle’ for a bish for two pawns, and I still think that is the best white can do.
“1 Bc5 Rd8
2 e4 Qg5
[…]
3 Rh5?! QxR!
4 QxQ Ne2+ and NxR and black wins two rooks for the queen, actually.”
Tom, how does the knight go from d5 to e2? Does it have the same super powers as the queen jumping over e4?
And why does Rg4 prevent this “move” while Rh5 won’t do?
I think giving the exchange with 1. -, Rc2 would be best here….
Greetings
Jochen
Jochen said…
“‘1 Bc5 Rd8
2 e4 Qg5
3 Rh5?! QxR!
4 QxQ Ne2+ and NxR and black wins two rooks for the queen, actually.’
Tom, how does the knight go from d5 to e2? Does it have the same super powers as the queen jumping over e4?”
Yes, it’s a super-knight, of course. Actually, I skipped a move. The knight moves to f4, attacking the queen with tempo, and then to e2 with a king & rook fork. So the corrected move order would be:
4 (QxQ) Nf4!
5 Q-any Ne2+
6 K-h2 NxR
My reasoning was that in the Rh5 situation, black gets 2 rooks for the Queen, and has the 3-2 queenside pawn majority. However, setting up this line again, I see that white has a really clever tactical trick that I missed before:
5 (QxQ) Nf4!
6 Qg4! Ne2+
7 K-h2 NxR
8 Be3!! with dual threats of BxR and Bh6. If black saves the rook with
8 … Rd1 then white wins with
9 Bh6 g6 creating two black holes
10 Qg5 followed by Qf6 and Qg7++.
In light of 8 Be3! after black takes the second rook, white wins in the Rh5 line after all.
“And why does Rg4 prevent this
‘move’ while Rh5 won’t do?”
My idea was that with Rg4, black couldn’t sac the queen with QxR, then move Nf4, chase the queen, and then take the other rook as above, and instead had to play …Qxe5.
But now that you made me look at the queen-sack line again because I carelessly skipped over a move, I see that at the end of the captures Be3! wins for white, so I revise my opinion in light of 8 Be3! and now claim that the Rh5 line is the strongest for white.
“I think giving the exchange with 1. -, Rc2 would be best here…”
Now that 3 Rh5 wins for white in the 1…Rd8 line, you may well be right. 1…Qd3 and 1…Ra2 are also possibilities for black. In your line:
1 Bc5 Rc2
2 RxR QxR
3 BxB KxB
4 e4 Nc3 and white is up the exchange but black has chances.
Ok, perhaps you are right, that …Rc2 is black’s best way to respond to 1 Bc5. This looks better than the 1…Rd8 line.
Torre sem defesa.