White to move. What is the best continuation? This was an actual game between Eve Zhurbinskiy and Andrew Shvartsman(2074).
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1] NxH7 NxH7
2] Bishop to G5…
fxg6 and Nxh7
thats just a mass of white pieces attacking an undefended king!!
Vinay said… “thats just a mass of white pieces attacking an undefended king!!”
Yeah, it looks like any attacking move might win here, though the knight sac looks the most interesting.
1st anonymous said
“1] NxH7 NxH7
2] Bishop to G5…”
I like the first move:
1 Nxh7! As there are so many threats and that disrupts black’s castle, with the queen and rook on that file. But the second move is weak:
1 Nxh7! Nxh7 but now:
2 Be3! threatening QxN but also BxB, eliminating the defender of the long diagonal. If instead 2 Bg5? then 2…Nxg5! and black escapes. But 2 Be3! and the king is trapped.
For instance: 2 Be3! Nf8 or Ng5 3 Bxd4! threatening Qh8 mate, and black is lost and mated in a couple of moves. Or 2…e6 (making an escape hatch for the king) 3 Qxh7 Kf8 4 Bxd4 and the king is dead meat again (…c5xd4 5 f6!! suffocating the king and Qh8 mate is unstoppable).
Another try is:
1 Nxh7! Nh5 (blocking the queen)
2 f5xg6 followed by Qxh5, or if …f7xg6 3 Qg5 Kxh7 4 Rf7+ and Qxg6 next and black is lost.
So the best defense is:
1 Nxh7 Kxh7
2 Be3+ (again the best discovered check because then white can eliminate the defender that protects the long diagonal — without the bishop black is helpless)
2…Nh5 (the only move to avoid mate)
3 Qg5! and black can’t stop all of white’s threats.
For instance, the obvious 3…BxB fails , as once the defending bish is off the long diagonal, white mates with 4 f5xg6+ followed by a capture with check (either QxN, RxP, or g6xf7, depending on where the king moves) and mate comes in another couple of moves either way, without ever even recapturing the bish!
3…Bf6 attacking the queen looks like the best defense, but now white has 4 RxN+!
If black recaptures with 4…g6xh5 5 Qxh5+ Kg7 6 Qg4+ Kh7 7 Rf3! and after this rook lift the rook slides to the h-file for mate. So black’s best defense is not to recapture but to play Kg8.
Now finally, saving the best for last, the prettiest line, as well as black’s best defense as far as I can tell, is a cool queen sacrifice here (everyone loves a queen sack, right?) which goes as follows:
1 Nxh7 Kxh7
2 Be3+! Nh5
3 Qg5! Bf6
4 Rxh5 Kg8 (…Kg7 5 Qh6+)
5 fxg6!! BxQ (the cool sack)
6 g6xf7+ Kg7 (…Kf8 PxR=Q KxQ Rh8++)
7 RxB+ Kh7 (or Kh8)
8 Rf4 (if 7 Kh6 then Rg3+ Kh7 and now 8 Rf4 is almost the same)
8 …Qe6 (only move to stop mate)
9 Rh4+ Qh6
10 RxQ+ KxR (white gets the queen back)
11 fxe8=Q Rxe8 (with interest)
12 Rxc5+ with discovered check winning the bish and white is up two pieces in a won endgame.
I was expecting to find a mate in the queen sack line, which would make a glorious ending to the analysis, but no such luck — let me know if anyone else sees a mate in all that — but it is perhaps the line that holds out the longest, though there may be other tries that I missed. In this case, white ends up with an extra bish, knight, and two connected passed pawns, so black can simply resign at this point.
I like
1 Nxh7 Nxh7
2 Bg7
Banjanx
Tvtom, great analysis!
Only one remark. You wrote: “Yeah, it looks like any attacking move might win here…” but it’s not true.
Eve decided to open a file for her rook first, but in fact she opened 7th rank for Black Queen.
1.fxg6? fxg6
2.Nxh7 Nxh7
3.Bg7?? Qxh3! and Black won.
3.Be3?? does not work here because 3… e5.
The best White could do is:
3.Rg3 Bf6 4.Rxg6 Kh8 5.Bg7! Bxg7 6.Rxg7! Kxg7 7.Rf7! Kxf7 8.Qxh7 Kf6 9.Qh6 Kf7 (not 9… Ke5?? because 10.Qg5 and Ne2#) 10.Qh7 with a perpetual check.
I suppose the real point is that this is a real game that should have been won easily but was lost, the sort of game highlighted by blundercheck in FRITZ.
It’s certainly not a Problem or Study as White has many ways to win.
White has bet the house K-side, while managing to block Black’s ambitions, Q-side.
So what _is_ the ‘best’ way to win – the quickest, safest or most glitzy? This is not defined.
1.Nxh7 looks favorite, and Black cannot play Nxh7 despite the fact that the wB is in the way.
Black’s pieces are so absent K-side that White seems to be in charge of the f-h files: not a ‘good look’ from Black’s point of view.
Banjanx says, “I like
1 Nxh7 Nxh7
2 Bg7″
Nah, 2…BxB! 3 QxN+ Kf8 4 f5xg6 f6!! and white’s attack runs out of steam; whereas 2 Be3!! leads to mate in all the variations.
Amazing how in the related case, which Ilya Zhurbinskiy points out in the real game, this loses:
“Eve decided to open a file for her rook first, but in fact she opened 7th rank for Black Queen.
1.fxg6? fxg6
2.Nxh7 Nxh7
3.Bg7?? Qxh3! and Black won.
3.Be3?? does not work here because 3…e5.”
Wow. That pawn exchange, while opening the file for white’s rook, would otherwise be similar, except it also opens the rank for black’s queen with the amazing defending 3…e5. Such a subtle difference loses the game completely and ruins my favorite Be3 line — you’re right!
“Tvtom, great analysis!
Only one remark. You wrote: ‘Yeah, it looks like any attacking move might win here…’ but it’s not true.”
Thanks! Well it’s true that it ‘looks like’ they all win, but you’re right that looks can be deceiving! That’s what makes this a wonderful, educational puzzle.
Anonymous said…
“It’s certainly not a Problem or Study as White has many ways to win.”
I disagree, as the salient point here, which Ilya demonstrated, is not that there are many ways to win, but so many ways to lose, such as that subtle pawn exchange first.
“Black’s pieces are so absent K-side that White seems to be in charge of the f-h files: not a ‘good look’ from Black’s point of view.”
Yet white threw the game away by making what superficially looked lite a harmless pawn trade that opened white’s rook up for the attack, yet lost! And hence, even when you have so much going for you and your pieces are swarming against a poorly defended king, striking precisely and starting the attack in the right way is a crucial skill, one that could have won this game.
I was too caught up in the position to realize until now that the author of that above comment, Ilya, is Eve Zhurbinskiy’s (white’s) dad. Cool. Good luck to (hopefully future world champ or at least super-GM) Eve!
nice, nice, nice and of course all well done, but the “quiet” 1.Ne2! would have been an “economic” choice to win this for white (motif: “remove or deflect the defender”) – no risk, but much fun and nothing to calculate…
e.g.
1…be5
2.c3 and white is winning
greetings from your *twinkling Vohaul
1.Bg7! Kxg7
2.Qh6+ Kg8
3.Nxh7! Nxh7
4.Qxh7+ Kf8
5.fxg6! and White has a bunch of pieces hitting f7. Black cannot stop mate.
1.Bg7 is not so good because h5!
To tvtom (10.59)…
Notice that I said this was “not a Problem or Study”, capitalising to indicate that I was using these words in their chesss-composition-specific sense:
Problem = Mate in N, and
Study = Win (or draw),
in both cases, White having essentially a single path to tread.
Yes, the position is a problem (in that it is problematical) and it deserves study, but it’s not a Problem or Study in the specific sense above.
but if:
1. Nxh7! Nxh7
2. Be3 Nf8!
3. Bxd4 f6
4. Qh8+ Kf7
5. fxg6+ Nxg6
6. Rh7+ Ke6
7. Qxf6+! exf6
8. Rxf6++
In this game, eve was low on time, so I played more for that and a mass of variations. Fritz said that white had no clear way to win, but maybe I didn’t give it enough time. I have more tactical games like this, email me at andrewshvartsman@msn.com to ask for some.
Also, even though I was having a horrible tournament and lost 50 points, I don’t remember any win due to king marches and bishop moves. I was willing to sacrifice, and keep in mind the low time.