White to move. Black has a checkmate threat. Can White get out of it?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Houdini chess?
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White to move. Black has a checkmate threat. Can White get out of it?
Perpetual on f7.
1.Qe6ch Kh8 (…Kf8 2.Qf7mate) 2.Nf7ch and now if Kh7 3.Ng4ch. Since 3…Kh6 allows Qh3 mate, Black must move his King back to h8, when White can repeat with Nf7ch. Draw by repetition!
I think 1.qe6 kh8 2. Qh3 kg8. 3 qh7 kf8. 4 ne6 kf7 5 Qg7 ke6. 6 qg6 mate! If my calculations arent wrong.
Robert Beatty said…
“I think 1.qe6 kh8 2. Qh3 kg8. 3 qh7 kf8. 4 ne6 kf7 5 Qg7 ke6. 6 qg6 mate! If my calculations aren’t wrong.”
No, you got it. I saw the perpetual instantly, and then stupidly didn’t keep looking and jumped to the comments, and saw that you found a win.
I missed the 2 Qh3+!! Boy, those retreating moves that attack really evade me — I sure do have a blind spot for moves like that. Well done!
I always show up late at these puzzles. I look at the problem, work out a solution, then check the posts hoping no one has beat me to it. robert beatty got this one. Nice work. Guess I should sit here and wait for Susan’s next puzzle to pop up.
jcheyne
Having watched the (easy) problem afterwards (that one with black to win in a smiliar position) this one is easy.
I found the mating line almost at once.
By the way: I can’t understand how black gets such a big pressure when white has sacrifized the material (white is down rook and a light figure!).
I would more like it if black had sacrifized material for an “almost unstoppable” mating attack which could be stopped by white mating himself! That would be more real game like…
Greetings
Jochen
TVTom, I understand your feelings too well, because I did even worse…
I realized immediatelly the perpetual 1.Qe6+, 2.Qh3+, 3.Qe6+?? and didn’t look for more.
And was thinking why Susan posted it so simple!