White to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
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Simple pattern chess tactic
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White to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Rxa7 followed by knight fork on the two rooks.
Looses a piece after 2…b5!
1.Nc8 and 2.Nb6
Simple enough but I still would’ve missed it if we weren’t told it was there. After looking at Knight forks that don’t work such as [A] 1) Rxa7 Rxa7, 2) Nc8 (because of …b6 or …b5 connecting the Rooks and thus recapturing) or [B] 1) Rxf5?? gxf5, 2) Nxf5 (sacrificed more than White gets in return from the Knight fork), I finally saw how the pin on the a-file, combined with the undeveloped position of Black’s pieces can be exploited.
1. Nc8 Re8 or …Rc7. Doesn’t matter all that much where the Rook moves to
2. Nb6 …. The pin wins the Rook on a8. I only saw it after looking again. In a real over-the-board game, I wouldn’t have seen this in time, say a couple moves before, in order to play for this position. Simple… And depressing 🙁
– Craigaroo
The comment from Jean-Claude Schmidig doesn’t seem 100% correct.
My very first idea in this position was the bad one to play 1. Nc8? Rc7! 2. Nxa7? b5! and white looses a piece.
My next idea was to try and avoid this by starting with Rxa7:
1. Rxa7? Rxa7 (enforced)
2. Nc8 Rc7!
3. Nxa7 b5!
4. Ra1
Well, white keeps his pieces but they are very tied up and can’t move so I don’t at all like this. Black looks better.
1.Nc8!.
>A-1…Rf7.2.Nb6!.axb.3.Rxa8. winning the exchange.Na6.4.Ra1.and white should win easily with his protected passed e pawn and attack along a file.He could even afford to return the exchange for the ab pawns.
>B-1…Re8.2.Nb6!.axb.3.Rxa8.winning the exchange and black’s knight is pinned against his e8R and cannot play Nc6 3…Kf2.4.Ra3! and should win with a more active rook and exchange up!
Harry
1. Nc8! R moves
2. Nb6 winning rook for knight due to pin.
I find
1. Nc8 Re8 followed by
2. Nb6 more convincing. White wins the exchange, has a strong attack on the queenside and a passed pawn.
I can just agree with Craigaroo here, it’s depressing to not have seen this motive right away. Of course:
2. Nb6!
is so simple, a-pawn is pinned and Ra8 rook immobile, and gaining a quality is exactly what white needs here, having the strong passed e-pawn, and it opens a-file and rook gets access to 8th rank, and this is clearly winning for white.
In a practical game I had probably pushed 1. e4 and sacked pawn to get activity in f-file and get rid of the double pawn. But this is much less clear and probably drawish.
This position could theoretically have an even better move for white.
If last black move was f7-f5?? but that is highly unlikely of course….
Yep, I missed that black can win the knight for a pawn overall with b6/b5 following the knight fork.
Also totally overlooked the maneuver Nc8-Nb6. Very pretty.