White to Play and Win

Pete Tamburro on Sep 1, 2008

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Again we go to the real world of tournament chess. In this position, Mikenas-Schmitt, Brunn 1931, Black has just moved his knight to h5 to attack the queen on g3. Mikenas thought for a while and not only came up with a square for his queen that would be best, but he came up with a specific plan that led to a mating attack. This is very challenging. See how you do. After you see the solution, go through the moves in your mind's eye and see if you can see the logic of why he did everything. It will help you come up with similar plans in your own chess.

Solution:

The game started out:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.Nf3 c6 6.e3 Be7 7.Rc1 0–0 8.Bd3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Nd5 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.0–0 N5b6 12.Bb3 e5 13.d5 cxd5 14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.Qxd5 e4 16.Nd4 Nf6 17.Qg5 h6 18.Qg3 Nh5

And now Mikenas played, from the diagram above,

19.Qg6 Nf6 20.Rxc8 Rfxc8 21.Nf5 Qf8 22.Nxh6+ Kh8 23.Nxf7+ Kg8 24.Ne5+ Kh8 25.Qg5 Qc5 26.Qh4+ Black Resigned because, not matter what, it's mate next move.

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.