White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
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Bavaria chess tactic
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White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
White is clearly better: the pawn on e7 is backward, maintained in its bad position by the strong Re1 and the d5-pawn, which also grants the White knight a strong attacking square. This weak e7-point holds the position, especially f6 weakened by the fianchetto. Thus the black rook is in a bad position and the pawn is therefore pinned.
On the contrary, Black also has weak and soon to be fixed pawns on a5 and c5, his attack on the queenside will soon come to an end after b3, and his active bishop is running into nowhere, thus only the weaknesses remain…
Finally, the white pieces perfectly coordinate, note the active positions of the c3-knight, the g5-bishop, the f3-queen and the d1-rook and compare them to the black pieces…
so the main candidates are 1.d6 and 1.Bxf6, and then something like 1.b3 or 1.Na4
1.d6 exd6 (what is there 1…e6 fails on the intermezzo 2.Ne7+ like 1…Ne6 or 1…h6 where after 2.Ne7+ then White simply plays 3.Bxf6, all of that is rubbish and irrelevant) 2.Bxf6! Rxe1+ 3.Rxe1 Bxf6 4.Nd5! and the knight is taboo
i think, d6 is necessary, and black can not prevent Nxe7+. greets, jan
There may be something better here, but d6 looks good to me on a cursory examination:
1. d6
And with e7 triply attacked, I am not sure there are any really good moves here for black, just a selection of less worse ones. Let’s look at one of the more worse ones to see the problems black faces:
1. …..Qb2
2. de7
I toyed with 2.Rb1 here, but then black then plays ed6 and complicates things in a somewhat less pleasing fashion for white. Here, 2.Ne7 might be as good or better, but I don’t have my normal amount of time to look at this problem this afternoon. Continuing:
2. …..N8d7 (no good moves here)
3. Rb1 and black is going to lose the queen for a rook since that is better than losing the full rook at b7.
Probably, at move 1, black does about as good as he can with a move like
1. …..Ne6
2. Bf6 Bf6 (ef6 3.d7 looks good)
3. Nd5 Qb2 (Rb1 no threat now)
4. d7 Rd7 (what else?)
5. Nf6 ef6 (Qf6 better?)
6. Rd7 and white should win this easily being up a rook for a pawn or two, depending on how things play out from this point.
Whatever it is it must be really good, I’ve sat here staring at it for minutes and still have no idea. I feel sorry for Mr. Berndt!!!
I1m thinking of 1. d6, with the idea of blocking the black queen and threating Bxf6, but there are so many possibilities that I can’t figure more without a chessboard.
Clearly, the secret to this solution relates to weakening the Black f6 square. But how? We note a BP pinned potentially at e7 if the BN at f6 is eliminated. And we know that the WN at c6 is protected on the WQ diagonal and blocking the BQ. These considerations lead to the difficult over the board move (but easy here because of the awareness that something must happen!) 1. d6. This wins significant material with the following somewhat forced line:
1. d6! e*d6 2. B*f6 R*e1+ 3.R*e1 B*f6 4. Nd5! (the position is already won but this is pretty and substantial) Q*b2 (one option; of course the N at c6 is poisoned because of Nf6+ and Q*c6) The calculations are clear enough to see the main line showing 5. N*f6+ e.g. Kh8 (5…N*f6+, 6. Ne8+ and N*d6) 6. Ne8 e.g. Rd7 7. Ne5! f5 (otherwise Qf6 and mate) 8. N*d7, N*d7 9. N*d6 and even …Q*a2 is not possible as 10. Qa8+ Kg7 11. Re7+ e.g. Kf6 12. Qd8! is fun because Qb1+ 13. Re1 discovered check!
Anonymous (psyche)
1.d6 Rd7 2.Ne7+ Rbxe7 3.dxe7 Nd7 4.Bxf6 Nxf6 5.Nd5 Nxd5 6.Qxd5 h6 7.Qd8 Rxd8 8.Rxd8 Qxd8 9.exd8=Q+ Kh7 10.Re8 g5 11.Qd3# – White WON “Fantastic Tactic” from MR KO (Malaysian)
The essence of this position is sufficient depth analysis. Continuing my comment of yesterday, this is a fascinating position though much of it can be mentally calculated very deeply.
It seems that one ostensibly legitimate defense is
1. d6! e6! 2. Ne7+? Rb*e7 3. d*e7 R8d7 and progress is not as good as it could be be.
Instead, there needs to be a different move W move #2.
1. d6! e6! 2. B*f6! (first) B*f6, 3. Nd5! (as the N on c6 is poisoned: Q*c6, N*f6) 4. R*e8 Q*c6 5. R*f8, and K*f8 gives white good play. E.g. 5. …K*f8, 5. Q*f6, Kg8, 6. Q*f6 Kg8, 7 Re1, with 8. Re7 and after 8.…R*e7, 9 Q*e7, and the Pawn marches in.
However, the best variation for black is 5.…Kg7! and white still must leave his rook en prise as 6. Ra8 R*b2 7. R*a5, Bd4! 8. R*d4 as otherwise throttled, …c*d4, 9. h3,Q*d6 is even.
So consequently, after 5.…Kg7! 6.b3! is complex: Then if 6. K*f8 Re1 with a similar position to the winning W variation above. And 6. …Bd4, 7 Rd8 and maybe 7.…R*d7, Q*d7 8. Q*d5 wins for white. Over the board, something better than 6.…Bd4 may exist however.
Psyche/ anonymous.