White to move. How should white proceed?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Tricky tactic
About Author
White to move. How should white proceed?
Threaten mate, sacrifice the exchange, execute an elephantine skewer, and pocket a passer before it promotes. What more could one ask for?
1. Rc7 Qe8 (or Qf5) 2. Rxd7+ Qxd7 3. Qf6+ Kc7 4. Qxa6 and takes a2-pawn next move.
Lucymarie Ruth
1. Rc6+ Rxc6
2. dxc6
if 2…a8-Q then
3. Qxd7+ Kc5
4. c7
(black cannot prevent queening of the pawn without giving up one of its queens)
if 2…Qe7 then
3. c7! (and both black and white queen their pawns)
1.Rc7 Qf5
(1…a1=Q 2.Qxd7#)
(1…Qe7 2.Rxd7+ Qxd7
(2…Kc5 3.Qxe7+)
3.Qf6+)
2.Rxd7+ Qxd7 3.Qf6+ Qe6
(3…Kc5 4.Qxa6)
4.dxe6 a1=Q 5.Qxf7 Qa2 6.Qd7+ Ke5 7.e7 Re6 8.e8=Q Rxe8 9.Qxe8+ Qe6 10.Qb8+ Kf6 11.Qxa7 Qe5 12.Qe3 Qxe3 1
Rc6 – R x Rc6
d5 x Rc6 and black can’t do much to save the game.
Kf1, black moves and Qc7, Ke7, Re1 wins the queen..
1. Rc6+, RxC6
2. dxc6
now black has several choices
2. .., Qe6
3. cxd7, qxd7
4. qh8
or
2. .., a1(Queen)
3. Qxd7+, Kc5
4. c7, Qe1
5. c8(Queen)+
I thought Rc6 after spending time studying the position. I see some saying Rc7. Does this problem have a definitive answer.
I like Rc6+ Rxc6 dxc6 and Black loses the knight and the game. The prolem with Rc7 is Qd7 looks to hold on longer than the previous variation.
I checked the Rc7 variation myself, but ended up exchanging queens too early. Didn’t see the possibilities of 11. Qf6+ which Fritz 13 found using infinite analysis. Qf6+ gives white a huge advantage.
1. Rc7 Qf5
2. Rxd7+ Qxd7
3. Qf6+! Kc7
4. Qxa6
White now has a decisive advantage.
4. … Kd8
5. Qxa2 Qd6?
Black could have played g6-g5, but white easily can capture the g and h file pawns using his queen.
6. Qxa7 Ke8
7. Kh3 Kf8
8. Qa8+ Ke7
9. Qb7+ Qd7+
10. Qxd7+ Kxd7
11. Kh4 Kd6
Black should resign here. Doom is apparent. But, just for fun, we see how it plays out.
12. Be4 Ke5
13. Kg5 Kd6
14. f4 Ke7
15. Bxg6 fxg6
16. Kxg6 Kd6
17. f5 Kxd5
18. f6 Ke6
19. f7 Ke7
20. Kg7 Kd6
21. f8=Q+
Black now is convinced of doom and resigns.
1-0
Correction (typo): “Didn’t see the possibilities of 11. Qf6+” should have been “Didn’t see the possibilities of 3. Qf6+”.