White to Play and Win

Pete Tamburro on Jul 3, 2009

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Last time out we had a position involving a queen sacrifice and a king-hunt attack that followed because White was able to keep checking with his other pieces and consequently forcing the opposing king up the board for a mate. You were promised that you would be shown a game that preceded this one because it seemed likely that this older game was the inspiration for the later attack. Try it out yourself and then see if you come to the same conclusion we do. You might do well to review the tips we had in the last puzzle.

Solution:

Here's the whole game ...Ed. Lasker-Sir G. Thomas, 1912:

1.d4 f5 2.e4 fxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 e6 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Nf3 0–0 8.Bd3 b6 9.Ne5 Bb7 10.Qh5 Qe7

And we reach the diagram. Eduard Lasker's solution in the game was:

11.Qxh7+ Kxh7 12.Nxf6+ Kh6 13.Neg4+ Kg5 14.h4+ Kf4 15.g3+ Kf3 16.Be2+ Kg2 17.Rh2+ Kg1 18.Kd2# 1–0

He could have castled, too, to give mate. We hope you see the value in knowing these two games as they teach a great deal about how to expose the opposing king and then force it down to your end of the board for mate.

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.