White to Play

Pete Tamburro on Feb 1, 2013

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

This is a real Friday thinking exercise. White has a winning attack here, and you need to spend some time thinking it all the way out. It’s direct, but complex.

Solution:

This is a combination of all the elements we have gone over here. This is one of those attacks that puts it all together: the initial sacrifice to break open the king position, cornering the king so it can’t escape, offering more material to get the queen in the game: 1.Nf6+ gxf6 [1...Kf8 2.Nxh7+ Ke7 3.Bg5+ f6 (3...Kd7 4.Qf5+) 4.Nxf6 gxf6 5.Qxf6+ Kd7 6.Qf5+ Re6 7.Qxe6#] 2.Bh6 f5 3.Rg4+ Kh8 [3...fxg4 4.Qxg4+ Kh8 5.Qg7#] 4.Qc3+ Re5 [4...Be5 5.Bg7+] 5.Rg8+ Kxg8 6.Qg3+ Kh8 7.Qg7# Many of you will not have seen the whole solution. The best way to improve is to now look at the solution and the diagram at the same time and see it through. Then, and this is important, just look at the diagram and write down all the lines and check it against the answer. If you frequently do this, you’ll find yourself seeing a lot more when you play.

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.