White to move. Can you find the best continuation for white?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Tricky tactic
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White to move. Can you find the best continuation for white?
1. Bc6!
The threat is 2. f4#.
If
1…Be3 or 1…g5, then 2. f$+, followed by gxf4#.
If
1…Nd5, then 2Rxd5#
If
1…Na3+ then
2. bxa3 and the threat of f4# is still present.
The White bishop moves to c6, covering the e4-square, which threatens f4#.
The bishop also covers the d5-square, so that a move by the Black knight to the d4-square, blocking the White rook’s access to d5, will be ineffective.
This is really quite a simple problem. Unfortunately, the
position looks highly artificial.
Black can delay checkmate by 2 moves, but cannot prevent getting mated by a White pawn on f4.
1. Bc6 Na3+ 2. bxa3 g5 3. f4+ gxf4 4. gxf4#
1 Bc6 and f4 will mate
1.Bc6 Na3+
(1…Bd4 2.f4#)
(1…Nd4 2.f4#)
(1…Rbd8 2.f4#)
(1…Nd5 2.Rxd5#)
2.bxa3 g5 3.hxg5
(3.f4+ gxf4 4.gxf4#)
3…Rbe8 4.Bd6#
Be6!
1.Bc6 and 2.f4
1. Bc6 threatens 2. f4 mate
1. Bc6 +- (threatening f4#)
1. Bc6 threatens mate with 2. f4.
Black has to give up significant material to stay alive.
1.Bc6 forces mate in a few moves:
1…Na3+ (spite)
2.gxa3 Be3 (to temporarily stave off mate.
3.f4+ Bxf4
4.gxf4++
Well, I would look at f4 first simply because it is a check, and it drives the king away from most of his defenders, and also puts him on a white square for a move:
1. f4 Ke4
2. Bc6 Ke3 (Nd5 3.Bd5 Ke3 4.Be2)
But now what for white? His how pawns are in the way, he is still down a piece. He can take at b3 on move 2 in this line, but after Ne3, the black king is well defended as far as I can tell. So, it makes sense to look at less visually obvious moves at move 1 for white.
However, this sideline into 1.f4 isn’t useless. If the black king had not been able to play to e4, f4 is mate. This suggests taking a look at Bc6 cutting off this retreat path for black:
1. Bc6 g5
If Be3, white still plays f4 and then gxf4 to mate. Also, 1. …Nd5 is mate after Rxd5. Other than those, all I see is a delay like Na3+. Of course, g5 is no better than Be3:
2. f4 gf4
3. gf4#
Bc6 wins. (I said this on Facebook)
Josh Weiner from NYC