White to move. Can White hold this position?
Hint: This is a difficult puzzle – No computer analysis please
rnq1rk2/4bbp1/1np5/1p1pNP2/pP1P1BP1/P1N5/B6Q/6K1 w – – 0 1
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Very difficult chess tactic
NxF7 followed by perpetual check with Queen?
NxF7 followed by perpetual check with Queen
Bg3 Nbd7 (or any move, most probably move to remove the Knight on e5).
Ng6+ Bxg6
fxg6 Qxg4 (Now first Bg3 was played to avoid the check .. here)
Qh8+#
Bg3 Nbd7 (or any move, most probably move to remove the Knight on e5).
Ng6+ Bxg6
fxg6 Qxg4 (Now first Bg3 was played to avoid the check .. here)
Qh8+#
O, brother! or o, bother! Well,
Qh8+ Bg8 2.Bh6 would be nice if Black played 2. .. gxh6?? rather than 2. .. Bf6, but White won’t be so lucky.
White is not going to be able to keep the Black bishop out of the f6-square, but can White take advantage of that?
The only way I see is after 1. Qh8+ Bg8 2. Ne4. Now Black can’t play 2. .. Bf6 because of the new weakness on the d6-square:
3. Ng6+ Kf7 4. Nd6#. Also, Black can’t take the knight because of the pin on a2-g8 diagonal: 2. .. dxe4 3. Qxg8#
If Black plays a non-descript defensive move like 2. .. Ra7 then he gets mated fairly quickly starting with that move that I’ve been wanting to play:
3. Bh6 Rd8 (3. .. Bf6 4. Ng6+ Kf7 5. Nd6#) 4. Qxg7+ Ke8 5. Qxg8+ Bf8 6. Qxf8#
So Black must find something better on his 2nd move. 2. .. Rd8 looks promising, covering the d6-square, and hopefully providing the Black king some air.
2. .. Rd8 3. Ng6+ Kf7 4. Be5 but if after this 4. .. Bf6 and Black gets mated:
4. .. Bf6 5. Ng5+ Bxg5 6. Qxg7+ Ke8 7. Qxg8+ Kd7 8. Qe6#
So, Black has to try 4. .. Bf8:
4. .. Bf8 5. Ng5+ Ke8 6. Qxg8 and Black now has 6. .. Qb7
It is hard to see how White can effectively proceed here. I don’t see any quick mate from this point.
7. Qxf8+ looks promising, but I don’t see a mate.
Maybe White has time for 7. Bb1 with the idea of getting the bishop into play after pushing f6 next move. But I’m getting far out on a limb now, and the position is still beastly difficult. Enough already!
1.Ne4 kg8
2.Nxf7
1.Ne4 Kg8
2.Nxf7
Revising my previous answer, I think that after:
1. Qh8+ Bg8 2. Ne4 Rd8 3. Ng6+ Kf7 4. Be5 Bf8
5. Nxf8 is stronger than the 5. Ng5+ I gave previously:
5. Nxf8 Rxf8 6. Qxg7+ Ke8 7. Nd6+ Kd8 8.
Qxf8+ Kc7 (8. .. Kd7 9. Qg7+ Bf7 (9. .. Kd8 10. Bf6#) 10. Qxf7+ Kd8 11.
Bf6#) 9. Nxc8+ is definitely winning.
To keep a draw looks easy:
1. Qh8+ Bg8
2. Ng6+ Kf7
3. Ne5+ Kf8
4. Ng6+ Kf7
Draws by repetition, because
3. … Kf6??
4. Qh4+! mates.
1. Qh8+ Bg8
2. Ng6+ Kf7
3. Ne5+ Kf8
4. Ng6+ and draw by repitition
If,
3. … Kf6
4. Qh4 and checkmate shortly
Since Susan claims this to be difficult, I have to wonder if white can actually win here? If so, that really looks difficult…
1. Qh8+ Bg8
Now Ng6+ Kf7 Ne5+ Kf8 (Kf6 is out of escape fields, Qh4+ and Qxg5) must be a draw.
Bh6? was a good bishop sack if black takes, but instead he plays Bf6! and K easily escapes.
2. Qh5 Bf6
3. Ng6+ Kf7
4. Nh8++ Kf8
looks drawish but the situation has “mate-like” patterns so it may be too hasty to take a quick draw here….
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Qh8+ forces Bg8. Then a draw results after Ng6+ and Ne5+ as black must allow the draw by perpetualcheck/repetition. If he tries to escape with Kf6 he is mated after Qh5.
Taking the question literally, there’s a draw for white by
1.Qh8+ Bg8 2.Ng6+ Kf7 3.Ne5+ Kf8
if 3…Kf6 4.Qh4#
The ‘very difficult’ bit may mean there’s a win for white somehow but if over the board I’d just go pragmatic esp. because I’d probably be short of time!
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If the question is just whether or not white can hold the position, the answer is yes as there is an easy perpetual with Qh8+ Bg8 Ng6+ Kf7 Ne5+
If the king goes to f6, white has Qh5+ f5 Qxg5#
So black must go back to f8, where Ng6+ can be played again.
So just: Qh8+ Bg8 Ng6+ Kf7 Ne5+ Kf8 Ng6+ Kf7 Ne5+ Kf8 Ng6+ =
After this I cheated and looked at the computer analysis.
Is white to play and win instead of “can white hold” revealing too much?
I mean I’m asked if white can hold, I find a forced drawing line, and I’m down two rooks so I just went for that and stopped there.
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1 Qh8, Bg8
2 Bh6, Rd8
3 Qxg7+, Ke8
4 Qxg8+, Bf8
5 Qxf8# .
Now i think it’s correct.
pht makes the right observation about the problem’s premise, I think. It really isn’t difficult to find the forced draw after 1.Qh8 Bg8 2.Ng6 Kf7 3.Ne5 Kf8 (or get mated), so there must be a win in here for white. I don’t have time to look through this at the moment in detail, but one idea jumps out at me as being very promising:
1. Qh8 Bg8
2. Ne4
Takes advantage of the pin on the d5 pawn in this position to bring another piece to bear on black’s king.
1. Ne5-g6+ Bf7xg6
2. f5xg6 threatening Qh8#
2. …. Be7-f6
3. Bf4-d6+ and Qh8 wins for white
1.Qh8+ Kg8
2.Ne4 Threatens 3.Ng6+ Kf7 4.Ng5+ Kf6 5.Be5+ Kxg5 6.Qh5#
2…. Bc5 to clear d7 for king.If
2… Bd6 3.Ng6+ Kf7 4.Nxd6+ Kf6 5.Qh4#
3.Ng6+ Kf7
4.Ng5+ Kf6
5.bxc5Threatens
6.Be5+ Rxe5 7.dxe5+ Kxg5 8.Qh5#
5…. Nc4 or 5….N8d7
6.Be5+ Nxe5
or 6….Rxe5 7.dxe5+ Nxe5 8.Ne4+ Kf7 9.Ne6+ Kf6 10.Qh4#
6…. Nxe5
7.Ne4+ Kf7
8.Nd6+ Kf6
9.Qh4#
When I started analysing the problem there were11 comments.I had two attractive moves for white on move2.
I had dismissed
1.Qh8+ Bg8
2.Bh6 on account of 2… Bf6.
This clears d7 for black king and supports g7.
3.Ne4 Bxe5 I could not find a convincing continuation for white as …. Ra7 later will give additional support to g7.
I posted last night but this does not appear. So I repost what appears to be a correct solution.
Initially when I looked at this I thought this is an obvious draw by repetition. There are many different variants the major one being 1. Qh8+ Bg8 2. Ng6+. White is very down in material and a draw seemed resaonable. It took me some minutes to find the winning combination:
I realized the enormous potential of opening the diagonal a2 to g7 and the key here has to be a N*d5 double check.
Is that available? Yes it is, in a special way and makes a mate inevitable. White has to have forcing mate moves because he is so far down in material
This is as I see it. There are minor variations but they all end up mating:
1. Qh8+ Bg8
2. Ne4! The key move here utilizing the pin and preparing later for this N to take at d5, if needed.
2. … Rd8. The point now the R is on the d file not the e file. (Variant A is 2. …Bd8 below). The rest is straightfoward.
3. Ng6+ much more powerful now.
3. … Kf7
4. N*e7 + (and now the R cannot take) K*e7 ( variation B is Qd7 below)
5. Q* g7+ Bf7
6. Bg5+ Ke8
7. Nf6 + Ke7
8. N* d5 dbl check achieving the objective of opening the diagonal.
8. … Ke8
9. N f6+ Ke7
10 Q f7 + Kd6
11. B f4# Beautiful combination of pieces. One does not need to see everything immediately, just conceptualize how to clear the a2-g1 diagonal.
Variation A : 2. … not Rd1; but Bd1
3.Ng6+ Kf2 4. Nd6+ Kf3 ( of course 5. N*e8 Kf2 6. N d6+ and then N*c8 and that is pretty, but who worries about the BR and BQ in either variation?) Qh4 #
Variation B: 4.… Qd7; 5 Ng5 (now that the Bishop is gone this is logical) Ke8 6. Q*g8+ Ke7 8. Qf7#
Psyche.
Actualy after 2 Bh6, Bf6 I don’t know how to keep the attack. Maybe it’s better drawing with 1 Qh8, Bg8 and 2 Ng6 .
Would Nxb5 be a bad move? If black takes, you can free up that diagonal the light bishop and play the Q+ and whatnot. If he doesn’t take, there’s a potential queen fork if the dark square bishop is gone. at a minimum, you can exchange the dark bishop for your knight.
1. Qh8, Bg8 2. Ne4 wins, the threat is Ng6+ w/quick mate, as any move of bishop and rook loses, i.e., if bishop moves along diagonal f8 – b4 2…Bd6 3. Ng6+,Kf7 4.Ng5+, Kf6 5. Be4+, Ng5 6. Qh4#. If B moves the othe diagonal, let say 2…Bd8 3.Ng6+, Kf7 4. Nd6+, Kf6 5. Qh4#.
If R moves, say, 2…Re8, then 3. Ng6+, Ke8 (if Kf7, 4. Ng5) 4. Qg8, Bf8 5. Qf8#
1. Qh8+! Bg8 2.Ng6+! Kf7 3. Ne4!
{ 3… N8d7 4. Be5 Nxe5 ( 4… Nf6 Ng5#) 5. dxe5 Rf8 6. e6+ Ke8 7. Qxg7 Qd8 8. Nf6+ Rxf6 9. Qxg8+ Rf8 10. Nxf8 Bxf8 11. Qf7# }
{ 3… Qd8?
{ 4. Be5! Bf6 5. Ng5+ Bxg5 6. Qxg7#}
{ 4. Bh6? gf -+ } }
{ 3… Rd8? 4. Be5!
{ 4… Bf6? 5. Ng5+
( 5… Bxg5 6. Qxg7+ Ke8 7. Qxg8+ Kd7 8. Qe6# )
( 5… Ke8 6. Qxg8+ Kd7 7. Qe6#) }
{ 4… Bf8? 5. Ng5+ Ke8 6. Qxg8
( 6… Ra7 7. Qxf8+ Kd7 8. Qe7# )
( 6… N8d7 7. Qf7#) } }
Marcelo
w b
Ng6+ Bxg6
Be5 Bf7
Qh8+ Bg8
Qg7++