White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Monday night chess tactic
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White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
1. Rxc5 bxc5
2. Bh6 g6
3. Ng5
creates a strong attack
Pawn to b4 is a fork on two pieces.
I want to thank Chess Today, the magazine. IT is an act of promotion but as well it shows that they care for the whole chess community and not only for their actual subscribers. Bravo Alex Baburin and its team for this spirit.
this puzzle today is difficult. I only found the idea but am not sure if I found a right way to execute.
My idea is to sac the exchange on c5, and than play for the mate threat on g7. Of course its not that easy since Black has defensive resources especially the Knight on d7. Therefore I will have to eliminate this knight even at the price of another exchange sac. Now let’s see the manifestation of this idea into actual moves.
1. Rxc5 Rxc5 ( A point to remember for further investigation later: Black has other choices too)
2. Bh6 g6 ( May be not the only move but the most reasonable move)
Now the queen must penetrate to f6 and at the same time must defend e5
3. Qg5
The Knight on d7 is the only piece preventing the penetration of the Queen to f6. So White has to eliminate the d7 Knight. But
3..f6 holds White short.
Sometimes when this happens, it can help to change the move order.
So let’s try first:
3. Rd1
Ah. I give up. I see that Black has too many defensive resources. i.e. f6. And it seems like White misses just one tempo.
I am going to Peking soon (Virtually ofcourse) to watch Carlsen’s deeds on the Chess board. After I watched how he crushed Leko yesterday, he became for me the most interesting player on the arena to watch
Best wishes
and good luck with the solving.
I hope you will be more successful than me.
A. Weiler
‘I hope you will be more successful than me.’
Don’t post so long if youre rated below 2100, nobody wil read it, you know.
Anonymous,b4 is a fork wich does not win anything since BxB with check.Did you really think it could be that simple and be called a puzzle?
‘Did you really think it could be that simple and be called a puzzle?’
yes, why not?
After 1.b4, Black needs to be a good player to react appropriately. It is whites best chance.
cheated and looked at the game. Without giving the answer away, many of the responses have a decent grasp of the strategy (I got the first 2 moves right) but the correct 3rd move, and the many variations, would be very difficult for a class player to calculate in less than about 30 minutes, and probably impossible for class C player or below in less than 30-50 minutes. I don’t see how it would be possible under game conditions unless one was familiar with the position or at expert level or above.
I gave in and cheated too… I calculated for quite some time with a chess board, but gave up after half an hour or so. I couldn’t find anything significant for white after 1.Rxc5 bxc5 2.Bh6 g6, for example 3.Ng5 Nxe5
Then I let Crafty work on it for over an hour, but it only wants to play 1.Rc3. I know Crafty is not the strongest engine out there, but still 2400+ at least, so I don’t feel bad, being a mere mortal, for not finding anything better than a positional move.
Kind regards,
PdV