White to move. How should White proceed?
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White to move. How should White proceed?
1 Nf5+ looks like the obvious move, as it forces black’s reply with a check and opens the h6 square for white’s queen.
1 Nf5+ PxN
2 Qh6+ K-any
3 Qxh7+ Kf8 and it’s almost mate with
4 Qh8 Qg8 (Ke7 and Rh7+ wins the queen)
5 Qxf6+ Qf7
8 Rh8++
If black doesn’t take the knight and playes K-any, then 2 RxP+ looks pretty devastating.
tvtom,
I saw Nf5 too, but I don’t know if I’d have the courage to play it over the board. Would you?
tvtom’s line is good. I carried it out further to find out just how devastating his alternate line is:
1. … Kg8
2. Rxh7 Nc5
3. Nd4 Kxh7 (3. … Qe5 leads to mate after 4. Qh6)
4. Rh1+ Kg8
5. Qh6 Qxb3+ (desperation, clearing an escape route for the king)
6. Nxb3 Kf7
7. Qh7 Ke6
8. Qxg6
or
1. … Kg8
2. Rxh7 Rd7
3. Rdh1 Rxh7
4. Rxh7 Nc5
5. Rh8+ Kf7
6. Nxd6+ Qxd6
7. Qxd6 Rxh8
8. Qxc5
and once White escapes the rook checks, White is in great shape.
JCheyne
1. … Kg8
2. Rxh7 Nc5??
3. Rg8+ Kf8
4. Rh1 game over
1. … Kg8
2. Rxh7 Nc5??
3. Rg7+ Kf8
4. Rh1 game over
anon_1:48 said…
“tvtom,
I saw Nf5 too, but I don’t know if I’d have the courage to play it over the board. Would you?”
First, if I see that all the lines work, then no courage is needed, of course, any more than courage to take a free piece. The courage comes from sacks where I don’t see the lines all the way down, don’t have a board I can move the pieces around and analyze as I do with these puzzles, but have to guess that there is compensation for a sacked piece that must pay off and eventually that I’ll get my material back with interest.
In this case, I saw the lines even though I was doubly handicapped (it was morning and I only think clearly at night — heh — and I didn’t have a chess board set up this morning as I do with most of these puzzles, so it all came from staring at the pic on my monitor.) I could clearly see that either taking or not taking worked, so no courage was needed.
I do love to play sacs and often lose when they don’t work — they’re the most fun chess games. Doesn’t everyone feel that way? Hence, I’d rather push all my chips into the center of the table with a sack that is unclear but feels right than miss the opportunity for a flashy win and be stuck in yet another boring endgame that I’m not good at winning. Do you feel the same way or not?
JCheyne analyzes the position further and then anon_3:16 tries to improve with:
“1. … Kg8
2. Rxh7 Nc5??
3. Rg7+ Kf8
4. Rh1 game over
Ok, I’m set up and ready to analyze this one out, and I don’t think 2…Nc5 deserves two or even one of the question marks, and is actually a very clever try by JCheyne. Did you miss the point of 2…Nc5! — which I’m changing from ?? to ! because rather than “game over” JCheyne would play:
4 (Rh1) Qxb3+ and white is almost mated!
5 Ka1 Qxa3+
6 Kb1 Qb3+
7 Kc1 Qa3+
8 Kb1 with perpetual checks, unless white wants to run the king to d1 to escape the checks; but after the queen checks on a1 and scarfs the h1 rook, black looks better.
(Ok, it -does- take courage to play these lines, as I didn’t consider 2 …Nc5!)
So now that black has a counter-attacking response with 2…Nc5, I think JCheyne got it right with:
1 (Nf5+) Kg8
2 Rxh7 Nc5!
3 Nd4! both protecting b3 from perpetual checks and gaining a tempo attacking the queen — a very efficient counter-reply. Great analysis, JCheyne, as I didn’t see either black’s clever try or white’s clever response.
However, I now see that there is a crazy move white could try (but not as clear as the efficient 3 Nd4!) and that would be to block the queen with the other knight and offer it as well! As long as one knight is offered, offering the other one at the same time with a sneaky mating trap included earns aesthetic points:
1 (Nf5+) Kg8
2 Rxh7 Nc5!
3 Nd5!! c6xd5??
4 Qh6! followed by Qxg6+ and Rh8++ or Qxg7++
So black can’t even take that knight either.
Actually black can take with the knight:
3 (Nd5) NxN
4 Qh6?? Nc3+
5 Ka1 Nxb3+
6 Kb2 NxR+ gets nasty and black has at least perpetual checks.
So:
3 (Nd5) (NxN)
4 Rdh1 — just double the rooks with the checkmate threat of Rh8+ Kf2, R1h7++ and there is little black can do.
I’d likely never find that one in a real over the board game, as I didn’t even consider these variations by just looking at the pic. But as much as I like fireworks, I would definitely prefer 3 Nd4! over 3 Nd5!! in an over the board game, even if the second knight sack is indeed stronger, because Nd4 is easy to see and clearly wins; whereas I could easily miss a beautiful saving move in the flashier line that would turn the tables and rob me of the win. Oh hell, if I actually found Nd5 and wasn’t in time trouble, I’d play it and take the risk if I were in a good mood just so I could show it off later.
1. Nf5 PxN
2. gxf5 works too as
3. Queen moves and 3..Rd-g1+
wins the queen or the game.
Did I see right?
4 (Rh1) Qxb3+ and white is almost mated!
5 Ka1 Qxa3+
6 Kb1 Qb3+
7 Kc1 Qa3+
How about 7. Qb2 instead of Kc1?
1.Nf5+ Kg8
2.Rxh7 Nc5
3.Rg7+ Kf8
4.Rh1 Qxb3+
5.Ka1 Qxa3+
6.Kb1 Qb3+
7.Qb2 black cannot checkmate white or stop Rh8++
1.Nf5+ Kg8
2.Rxh7 Nc5
3.Rdh1 Qxb3+
4.Ka1 Qxa3+
5.Kb1 Qb3+
6.Qb2 black cannot checkmate white or stop Rh8++
Don’t know where else to put this Susan http://youtube.com/watch?v=2A2Jt4WOxN8
But it relates to the fantastic hand shadow link sang by Satchmo that you gave, sadly this link is no longer existant on youtube ‘coz some people think money is far more important than love.
Anon_5:08 said…
“1. Nf5 PxN
2. gxf5 works too as
3. Queen moves and 3..Rd-g1+ wins the queen or the game. Did I see right?”
So, can you demonstrate how exactly this wins the queen? For example:
1 (Nf5) (PxN)
2 (gxf5) Qf7 (or other queen move)
3 Rdg1+ Kh8 and now what? I see white is down the knight, but how does he win the queen?
Anon_5:24 said…
“1… (Kg8)
2 (Rxh7) (Nc5)
3 (Rg7+) (Kf8)
4 (Rh1) (Qxb3+) and white is almost mated!
5 (Ka1) (Qxa3+)
6 (Kb1) (Qb3+)
7 Kc1 Qa3+
How about 7. Qb2 instead of Kc1?”
Black merely simplifies and is up material:
7 Qb2 QxQ
8 KxQ PxN
9 Rh1h7 (What else? White’s now out of attacking pieces and doubling on the seventh is about the only thing left that white can do.)
9 … Rd7 and black gets to trade rooks either with RxR or Rh8+ KxR, RxR — either way, white is down a knight and a zillion past pawns in a lost endgame.
Similarly, Anon_5:42 makes almost the identical suggestion in a similar line:
“1.Nf5+ Kg8
2.Rxh7 Nc5
3.Rdh1 Qxb3+
4.Ka1 Qxa3+
5.Kb1 Qb3+
6.Qb2 black cannot checkmate white or stop Rh8++”
Again:
6 (Qb2) QxQ!
7 KxQ PxN (again!) and this is almost the same position as above, black being up a knight and a zillion pawns. Except the rooks are doubled the other way, but white is better off in this one with at least a mate threat:
8 g4xf5 Rf8 — but black simply makes an escape hatch for the king and with no mate in site, again, white has traded off the attacking pieces and is saddled with a hopelessly lost endgame.
Big lesson in both these queen trade variations: when you are sacrificing pieces for an attack, the last thing you want to do is simply trade off your attacking pieces for your opponent’s defending ones — that’s what the defender wants to do! D’oh!