Our position today comes from a fascinating correspondence game from 1945 won by British legend Leonard Barden, playing Black with the Two Knights Defense against Young as White. Opting out of two more solid lines, Barden spectacularly sacrifices his rook for a bishop in order to get open lines to attack the White king. It starts out: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Qf3 cxb5 [More solid are either 8...Qc7 9.Bd3 h6 10.Ne4 Nd5 11.0–0 Be7 12.Ng3 0–0 13.b3 Nf4 14.Bb2 f5; or 8...Be7 9.Bxc6+ Nxc6 10.Qxc6+ Bd7 11.Qf3 Rc8 12.Nc3 Bc6 13.Qh3 Nd5]9.Qxa8 Bc5!! (“simply” developing”) 10.Ne4 Nxe4 11.Qxe4 0–0 12.0–0 Re8 13.Qe2 Bb7 14.Qxb5 Bb6 15.d3 Re6 16.Kh1 [Better was 16.Nc3! Bc6 17.Qb4 Rg6 18.Ne4 f5 19.Be3! fxe4 20.dxe4 Qf6 21.Bxb6 Qf3! 22.g3 Bxe4 23.Qxe4 Qxe4 24.Bxa5 Qxc2 with an imbalanced game, although Black is fine. Thus, Barden's sacrifice has merit.]And now, just like the correspondence players, you have about three days to find the complete solution.

Solution:

16...Bxg2+ Since this was correspondence chess, White had lots of time to figure out what he didn't consider and resigned. What did he see? Here it is: 17.Kxg2 [17.Kg1 Rg6 18.Bf4 exf4 19.Re1 Bxf2+ 20.Kxf2 Qh4+ 21.Ke2 Re6+ 22.Kd2 Qxe1#] 17...Qa8+ [I.A. Horowitz used to call this an "airplane check."] 18.f3 Rg6+ 19.Kh3 [19.Kh1 Qxf3+ 20.Rxf3 Rg1#] 19...Qc8+ 20.Kh4 Bd8+ 21.Bg5 [21.Kh5 Qh3#]21...Bxg5+ 22.Kg3 Be3+ 23.Kh4 Rh6+ 24.Kg3 Qh3# Wow!

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