White to move. How should White proceed?
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Sunday morning tactic
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White to move. How should White proceed?
1. g6
1. g6
Then if 1… hg,
2. Rh8 mate
If 1… Nxd4,
2. gh Kxg7
3. h8=Q+ Kg6
4. Rg1+ Kf5
hmm, anyway it looks like black is getting mated.
Thank you Susan for a good educational blog! Always pick up something new when I pop by here. Though I wonder, if not a Sunday morning tactic is to be considered cruelty against humans. 😉
-Chris
yes, g6 is the only way to go. 1 Rxh7 looks good, except that after NxQ the pawn on g8 isn’t defended. So 1 g6 is the move, as both pawns are pinned: the f-pawn by the bishop; the h-pawn by the Rh8++ threat. Not being able to capture the g-pawn, black can’t stop both threats of g6xf7 and g6xh7. Black has no moves.
Anon_1:51 said…
“1. g6 Then if 1… hg, 2. Rh8 mate
If 1… Nxd4,
2. gh Kxg7
3. h8=Q+ Kg6
4. Rg1+ Kf5
hmm, anyway it looks like black is getting mated.”
Yes, with
4 Rh6+ Kf5
5 Qh7+ Ke5 (or Kg4)
6 Qxe4++.
Or
1 g6 Nxh7
2 Rxh7 Kf8 (anything else and QxN++)
3 Rh8+ Ke2
4 Bg5+ f6
5 Qxf6++
TvTom
Your analysis is great except for some typos here and there.
I just love to follow your detailed analysis, every logical variation possible covered.
Much appreciated
With thanks
AB
egaion said…
“TvTom Your analysis is great except for some typos here and there. I just love to follow your detailed analysis, every logical variation possible covered.
Much appreciated
With thanks
AB”
Hopefully, I’m back on track, after botching several problems. I decided to get the board out and really analyze some of them, not only to help my chess skills, so that I’ll see them more often without moving the pieces in games, but to contribute to the blog as well.
And remember to keep thanking Susan for gathering these problems — they form a nice diverse collection. Another motivation is the complaints by folks asking Susan to post the answers. Why waste her time for that when we can all pitch in and figure out the details and post them? Several of us are analyzing the positions, and we seem to collectively give a good analysis of just about every problem.
Sorry, I don’t see this as necessarily a mating net.
1 g6 Bh4 leads to a feeding frenzy, e.g.,
2 RxB NxR
3 gxf7+ Qxf7
4 Rf1 Bxc4
5 RxQ KxR
and both sides have threats. Am
I missing something? Shroder
I think that 1…,Bh4 doesn’t help black.
1.g6,Bh4; 2.gxh7+,Kxh7; 3.g8=Q+,Kxg8; 4.Rg1+,Kf8; 5.Rxh4,Nxh4; 6.Qg7+,Ke8; 7.Bh6+ and Qf7++.
And if 5…,Nxd4; I think 6.Rh8+, Ke7; 7.Bg5+,f6;8.Rg7++.
No, the rook can’t skip the bishop…I’m tired, it’s past midnight here, but I’m sure that’s a mate inthis line too.
Shroder said…
“Sorry, I don’t see this as necessarily a mating net.
1 g6 Bh4 leads to a feeding frenzy, e.g.,
2 RxB NxR”
Whoa. RxB? is worthless. White has to take a pawn with check and threaten to queen here. No reason to waste time capturing a useless piece when you can checkmate.
“Am I missing something?”
Yes! The goal is to checkmate the king here, not randomly snatch material. Either gxh7+! or gxf7+! crush black. No other moves need to be even considered here.
Rail said…
“I think that 1…,Bh4 doesn’t help black.
1.g6,Bh4;
2.gxh7+,Kxh7;
3.g8=Q+,Kxg8;
4.Rg1+,Kf8;
5.Rxh4,Nxh4;”
No, that’s crazy: why not take the queen with Nxd4, instead of the rook? Ok, you mention that in your next post:
“And if 5…,Nxd4; I think 6.Rh8+, Ke7; 7.Bg5+,f6;8.Rg7++” which, as you then correct, is impossible:
“No, the rook can’t skip the bishop…I’m tired, it’s past midnight here, but I’m sure that’s a mate in this line too.”
Sounds like one of my late-night errors.
Ok, let’s fix this line. Here black is equal or better, and you went astray for white with 3 g8=Q?, I think. For the passed pawn not only threatens to queen, but locks in the king as well. So instead, what makes sense is moving the attacked queen out of danger yet closer into the mating net, still protecting the pawn; there’s only one square that does this:
1 (g6) (Bh4)
2 (gxh7+) Kxh7
3 Qf6!! and now black is toast.
If, for example
3 … Nxg7, RxB+ and mate in a couple of moves (…Kg8, Rg1 and QxN++ next). Or:
3 … Kg7
4 RxB NxR (…Nxg7, Rg1! and Qxg7++)
5 QxN Kxh7 (or else Qh8++)
6 Rg1+ Kf8
7 Bh6+ Ke8
8 Rg8++ and there’s your mate.
I also think 2 gxf7+ works just as well here:
1 (g6) (Bh4)
2 gxf7+ Qxf7 (only move!)
3 BxQ+ KxB
4 Qxe4 Kxg7
5 QxN and the black king will be mated after Rg1 and RxB, e.g.
5 … Rc7
6 Rg1+ Kh1
7 RxB Rg8
8 Qf6+ Rcg8
9 Rxh7+! KxR
10 Qh6++
Capturing either pawn destroys black’s position after 1 g6 Bh4; therefore Rail is correct that Bh4 does not help black.