The king hunt in chess is one of the most satisfying achievements for players of every stripe. The basic idea is to lure the enemy king into the open, attack him with ceaseless checks (and look at all of them!) geared toward moving the reluctant monarch up the board where the final coup de grace is administered. Sacrificing your pieces to achieve that end is expected! Keep this in your thoughts: you must force him up the board toward your own king. Don't let him go backwards!

This position is taken from a game played in 1946 between two amateurs, I. Lowens and P.T. Andina, with the former coming up with a king hunt to be proud of at any level. Just follow the advice above and see if you can come up with the solution Mr. Lowens found.

Solution:

1.Qxh6+ Kxh6 [1...Kh8 2.Qxh7#] 2.Ne6+ Kh5 3.Rf5+ Bxf5 [3...Kh4 4.g3+ (4.Bg5+ Kh5 5.Nf4#) 4...Kh3 5.Nf4#] 4.Be2+ [Another route works, too: 4.Ng7+ Kg4 5.Be2+ Nf3 6.Bxf3+ Kh4 7.Nexf5#] 4...Bg4 5.Ng7+ Kh4 6.g3+ Kh3 7.Bf1# I love those backwards bishop moves! One of the things that got us to thinking about this game was whether the victor had played over a very famous master game that did something very similar. We'll give you a shot at that on Friday!

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