White to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Karpov chess tactic
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White to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
straightforward: first further reduce the mobility of the king, then force away the defender of g4
Qh8+ Bh6
Qe5+ Qxe5
g4 mate
Black merely threatens 1. .. Qh1#.
Now if only I could play g4#, but that nasty Black queen is stopping me from that.
NO! WAIT! I can do that anyway, just not right away.
1. Qh8+ Bh6 2. Qe5+ g5
(2. .. Qxe5 3. g4#)
(2. .. Bg5 3. Qxg5#)
3. Bf7+ Qg6 4. g4#
Pieces packed tight like sardines in the can.
Now I have to find the game score to see if this happened only in the notes, or whether Karpov actually had the pleasure of playing these moves on the board.
Qh8+ Bh6 (forced)
Qe5+ & black cannot capture the Q
because of g4 mate.
Primitive. 1. Qh8 Bh6 2. Qe5 Qf5 (2… Qe5 3. g4) 3. Qf5 and 4.Bf7
1.Qh8+ Bh6 2.Bd5! Qe2 3.Bf3+! Qxf3 4.Qe5+ g5 5.Qe8+ Qf7 6.Qxf7 mate.
Kamalakanta
After 1. Qh8+, Bh6 is forced. This leaves 2. Qe5+! which wins. If black takes the Queen, then g4 will be mate.
1.Qh8+ Bh6 2.Qe5+ Qxe5 3.g4#
Qh8+ Bh6
Qe5+ Qxe5
g4++
these kind of problems excite me.. anytime a world champion like karpov is one of the players in the problem its cool to try and solve.. i knew it involved trapping the king by forcing the bishop to get in the way of the kings escape route..
Much easier stuff than the last puzzle. That black queen is working much too hard, but it is the hubby that will pay the price:
1. Be2! Qe2
2. g4#
1. Qh8+ Bh6
2. Qe5+ Qxe5
3. g4 mate
1. Be2?? Qh1#
1. Bd5!
That is what happens when you move without really thinking about-you throw a piece away. Yikes!!!
@ Yancey
I’m sure you’re a far better player than I am, and I often appreciate your (typically) very detailed analyzes. This last post of yours, however, leads me to believe you might sometimes squander winning positions, OTB, because you just get too relaxed when the going seems easy.
Sorry for the amateur “profiling” if it’s unwelcome, I mean no disrespect.
S. P.
1.Be2+! Qxe2
2.g4#
1.Be2+ does not throw a piece away.
Black must deal with the bishop giving check on e2 so after …Qxe2
2.g4#
Dear Anonymice,
Unless the rules of chess have changed, after1. Be2+ it is illegal to play 1. .. Qh1#, since the Black king is still in check. [grin]
And 1. Be2+??? Qxe2 (Qh1# is against the rules, sorry, the White king still being in check) 2. g4+, Black is allowed to play 2. .. Qxg4+ [big grin]
BTW, Dear Kamalakanta, after 1. Qh8+ Bh6 2. Bd5??, Black simply plays 2. .. Qf5+, and White loses his bishop next move, and the loses the game eventually.
And, congratulations, Yancey. But I have to point out that even though the word “Karpov” means “fish”, that doesn’t mean that you were compelled to give a fishy answer. [huge grin]
I just looked up the actual game continuation, and it went:
1. Qh8+ Bh6 2. Qe5+ Resigns
So Karpov at least got the pleasure of playing it out that far, but didn’t get the additional pleasure of watching the spectators stare with wonder at the position resulting after 2. .. g5 3. Bf7+ Qg6 4. g4#
Have you ever been on a subway car or a bus where the passengers were packed in that tight?
S.P,
No insult taken. You are right- when it seems easy, I turn my brain off and don’t consider things very deeply. As a player, this kills me repeatedly- I am just a slow thinker and rush myself, even when I don’t have to. Fortunately, I don’t usually have time constraints in problem solving, but some problems just seem so easy, I go quickly, and that leads to embarrassing errors like the one I made here.
To the anonymous commenter who made the same mistake I made- black plays 2. …Qg4+, so 2.g4 isn’t mate afterall. Like Lucymarie above, I had eyes for diverting the queen from covering g4, but for the life of me, I can’t now explain just why I though 1.Be2 accomplished this. When I saw my comment had posted early, I looked at it for another 5 minutes before I even noticed that the black queen could even capture at g4.