White to Play and Mate

Pete Tamburro on Jul 13, 2008

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This is an interesting position full of possibilities. The winner of this game, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, won this against H. Wolf in 1903 in Monte Carlo. However, although he did finish off his opponent fairly quickly from this point, he missed two different mates in five! Can you find one of them?

Solution:

The two solutions are: 27.Ne6 Bxe6 (27...Rbxe6 28.Bxh7+ Nxh7 29.Rg4+ Ng5 30.Rh8#) 28.Bxh7+ Nxh7 29.Rxh7 Kxh7 30.Rh4+ Kg8 31.Rh8#; OR 27.e6 Nxg6 (27...Bxe6 28.Nxe6 fxe6 (28...Qe5 29.Bxf7+ Rxf7 30.Qxf7+ Kh8 31.Qxf8#; 28...Rbxe6 29.Bxh7+ Nxh7 30.Rg4+ Kf8 31.Qh8#) 29.Qxf8#) 28.Rxg6+ hxg6 29.Rh4 Qxh2+ 30.Rxh2 fxe6 31.Rh8#

If you want to see what Pillsbury played (using his famous Pillsbury Attack with Ne5 and f4), here’s the whole game:

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.Nf3 Be7 6.e3 0–0 7.Rc1 b6 8.cxd5 exd5 9.Ne5 Bb7 10.f4 a6 11.Bd3 c5 12.0–0 c4 13.Bf5 b5 14.Rf3 Re8 15.Rh3 g6 16.Bb1 Nxe5 17.fxe5 Nd7 18.Bxe7 Rxe7 19.Qf3 Nf8 20.Rf1 Qd7 21.Qf6 b4 22.Na4 Qc7 23.Nc5 Bc8 24.Rh6 a5 25.Rf4 Rb8 26.Bxg6 Rb6 27.Qxb6 Nxg6 28.Qf6 Re8 29.Rf1 Be6 30.Qg5 Kh8 31.Qh5 Nf8 32.Nxe6 Rxe6 33.Rxe6 1–0

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.