White to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Tata chess tactic
About Author
White to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Rook takes c7, thats what my engine suggested during the game:)
Is it:
1. Nxg7 …
2. Bc6, blocking the rook from retaking on h6 in the near future?
Looked at Rxc7, but the rook still can get back to the kingside.
Fun puzzle.
– A Knight Raider
1.Rc7!! Qxc7
2 Qg5 Rg6
3 Qxg6 and next move is Qxg7
Nh6 seems vulnerable.
I think g4 is an interesting move.
Nh6 has nowhere to go.
1. g4 g5
2. Rxc7! Qd8 (Qxc7 Qxg5+ Kh7 Nf6+ mating)
3. Rxc8! game over.
Alternatives to 1. … g5 look also ugly.
1. … Kh8/Kh7?
2. g5 Ng8
3. Nf4#
Other moves loose the knight to g5 and gxh6.
After looking at Ng7 for awhile, I think the first anonymous commenter had the right idea with Rc7 all along- helps break black’s coverage of g5. That pin on f7 is deadly for black:
1. Rc7 Qc7 (alternatives below)
2. Qg5! Rg6 (alternatives below)
3. Qg6 Qc1
4. Kf2 Ng4 (Qd2 5.Kg3+-)
5. Kg3! Qh6 (what else, now?)
6. Nf6! Nf6 (Or get mated)
7. Rh6 wins easily.
So, let’s return to moves 1 and 2 for black to see if he had better alternatives. At move 2, he could have reasonably tried g6 to block the mate threat, but this is going to be worse than the line above:
2. …..g6
3. Qh6 gh5 (what else?)
4. Qg5! with mate to follow in no more than two more moves.
More testing is a particular reply at move 1:
1. …..Qd6
The idea with this move to play Qg6 in reply to 2.Qg5 since the black queen is protected by the rook at b6:
2. Qg5 Qg6
3. Qe5 Qg2 (anything better?)
4. Rh2! Qg6 (anything better?)
5. Rcc2 with the threat of putting a rook on g2. Now, in this line, can white improve on 2.Qg5? I don’t know. Either g4 or Qc2 might be playable, but they seem far more complicated to me than 2.Qg5.
1 Rxc7 (decoy from g5) Qxc7
2 Qg5 (now g7 must be protected, giving up h6 loses too much material with h file mate threats) Rg6
3 Qxg6 (now g7 is unprotectable with the pawn on f7 pinned)
N X g7 seems a winning move for white.
My self, I looked at
1. Rxc7
but thought:
“Black is not so stupid that he takes on c7, so this only wins a pawn, should be something more in this situation”.
The reply from black that I foresaw, was:
1. … Qd6
with the idea to meet Qg5 with Qg6, after which I found the situation too complicated:-)
But, critical seems to be:
1. Rxc7 Qd6
2. g4! (attacking the knight)
and here is no good defence against g5 and gxh6
Gashimov played
1. g4
simply one move too early!
1. … Rg6!
and now 2. g5? is answered with Qxg5.
If the only point with 1. Rc7 was that Qxc7 looses, it wouldn’t be a good move at all, since sacks are not allways accepted (they are really very often declined, if they are good sacks).
The point was actually to deflect queen from the defence against 2. g4 and 3. g5 eating a knight,
in addition to deflect it from defence against 2. Qg5.
There are two ways of winning in this position!
The flashy one is of course 1.Rxc7! Cute, impressive and decisive.
But if White can’t see the pin on the pawn f7 and the deflection of the Queen from the vital square g5, there is another way to win, more technical.
It is 1.Rc6 threatening 2.Nxg7. This move can only coped with 1…Rxc6. And afterwards, 2.Bxc6 threatens again 3.Nxg7, so strong a threat than Black is forced to see his b-pawn die.
OK, White must have a Grandmaster-like technique to bring surely a full point at home but wait, he IS a GM!
Very interesting puzzle, even if I was helped but since correct answers were posted, I permitted myself this little twist of this forum’s rule…
As a study composer and player wrote in a book: “Beauty, truth, and the computer”…