White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
U.S. Junior Chess Tactic
About Author
White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Not so easy to see this one, at least for me. I wanted to play Nf6, but couldn’t make it work in over 30 minutes of analysis. I had the right idea, but was jumping on it too early (I was trying to avoid Re4 removing the knight). I completely missed the fact that the threat of the move is more powerful if the g6 pawn is not there (my idea was for a later Bh5). Of course, the answer is to interpolate the two moves, though I did have to give up on the idea of ever getting to play Nf6, but the resulting position when black removes the knight is still dominating for white:
1. Bh5 gh5
2. Nf6 gf6 (Kh8?? 3. Qh7#)
3. gf6 Kh8
4. Rg5 Rd5 (what else?)
5. Rdg1 Rg5 (Bd6 see below)
6. Rg5 Qb5 (only move now)
7. Rb5 cb5
8. Qf5 a6
9. Qh5 and white should win this fairly easily. At move 5 above, black does no better with
5. …..Bd6
6. Rd7 and there is no way I see to prevent Qh7# other than to delay it with pointless sacrifices.
At his first move, I think black puts up the most resistance by eliminating the e4 knight and making white come up with a plan to continue the attack, or to consolidate into a material advantage, but have to play carefully to bring the win home:
1. Bh5 Re4
2. Qe4 gh5
And white has the exchange and still some initiative with moves like g6 or f4. I have no real idea what is best here since there are more possibilities than I have the imagination to deal with, but I would favor preventing black from playing g6 and firming up his king’s fortress, so
3. g6 f6 (fg6 4.Qe6 Kh8 5.Qg6)
4. Qe6 Kh8
5. Qe2 Qb5 (Rd5? 6.Bg5 wins easily)
And I had to play with various approaches, but this looks best for white:
6. Rd3 Rd4 (Kg8 only alternative)
7. Rg5! and I see nothing but mating nets here. At move six in this line, Kg8 doesn’t help much, and only by buying a tempo for Nc4 and Be7 later to let the king escape the invading queen:
6. …..Kg8
7. Bg5 Nc4 (nothing is better)
8. Rb3 Qd5
9. Qh5 Be7
10.Qh7 Kf8
11.Re1 and I don’t want to go further, but black is going to keep losing material no matter what defense he comes up with here. Black may have better lines starting at move 3 above, but I don’t see any point on analyzing them.
1. Bxh5 gxh5
2. Nf6+ gxf6
3. gxf6+ Kh8
4. Rg5 Rd5
5. Rdg1 Rxg5
6. Rxg5 Qb5
7. Rxb5 cxb5
8. Qf5
1-0
Sure wish I frequently had positions
like this (in real life). This one is
just begging me to take the Black knight
on h5, so that the diagonal b1-h7 is opened
up for my queen after Nf6+. If Black
doesn’t take back with the g-pawn, then
she gets mated by my queen. If Black does
play gxf6, then the discovered check with
gxf6 is a killer. Took exactly 1/2 second
to spot 1. Bxh5 gxh5 2. Nf6+.
1. Bxh5 gxh5
2. Nf6+ gxf6
3. gxf6+ Kh8
4. Rg5 Rd5
5. Rdg1 Rxg5
6. Rxg5
and it’s just about over.
The funny thing is that after I figure
out a puzzle, I usually go check
myself by looking to see how Rybka 2.2 would
play it. And this time I did better
than the computer! The older version
of Rybka didn’t see 1. Bxh5.
But this doesn’t really
make me think I’m a chess genius or
anything. This is representative
of the sort of positions I saw as
as kid studying Reinfeld’s “1001
Brilliant Chess Sacrifices and
Combinations”. And, yes, I still
have my hard-back copy.
Key is to open up the g-file.
I would go
1. Bxh6 (minimum wins knight) if gxh6
2. Nf6+ gxf6
3. gxf6+ Kh8
4. Rg5 – threatens Rxh5+ then Qh7++
if 4. … Rd5
5. Rg1 Rxg5
6. Rxg5 – again threatening Rxh5+ then Qh7++. Black has to sacrifice Queen for rook to prevent mate … Qb5
Fron spain…
1)Bh5,gh5
2)Nf6+,gf6
3)gf6+,Kh8
4)Rg5,Rd5
5)Rdg1,Bd6
6)Qe2 +-
Greetings from Spain
I saw this game so it’s a little too easy 🙂
1.Bxh6 gxh6
2.Nf6+ gxf6
(if 2…Kh8 3.Qh7#)
3.gxf6+ (discovered)
3…Kh8
4.Qf5
threatening Qxh5#
and black doesn’t have any answers to this.
Hi Susan Polgar,
Well,as usual brainy minds of this blog has already given the combination,kudos to “Chris Kim” but his moves here has typo error,may be due to hurry.
Initial move is “B*nh5” not “B*h6”
Let me give an example set of moves,just for clarity.
1.B*nh5 g*Bh5
2.Nf6+ g*Nf6
3.g*f6+ kh8
4.Rg5 rd5
5.Rg1 r*Rg5
6.R*rg5 q*d4
7.R*h5+ kg8
8.Qh7++ Mate
White wins the game : 1 – 0
By
Venky [Chennai – India]
There is another possibility which i had the idea of, and i checked it with fritz because i was just unable to calculate everything, i just conceived the ideas:
1.Bxh5 gxh5 2.Nf6+ gxf6 3.g6!? and here it threatens 4.gxf7+ or 4.g7 and there are many available resources for the attack, it seems to work.