In chess play there are positions, that cry out to experienced chess players. Take this position. The Black king is still in the center of the board, White has a check at h5 which cannot be defended by the pawn moving up because of the then unprotected knight on h6, and that knight on g5 with the pawn on f7 are nasty intruders into the Black position. The game started out with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 f5 4.dxe5 fxe4 5.Ng5 d5 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.e6 Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 Nh6. Seeing 9.Qh5+ is no big deal; however, we have been trying of late to get you to look at all the follow-up moves and all the reasonable defenses your opponent can try. See if you can see the whole thing…all the variations, and then check the solution.

By the way, we got an interesting letter about the last problem. We added our reply to the solution. Take a look. See if you wondered the same thing.

Solution:

9.Qh5+ Kf8 [9...g6 10.Qxh6 Qe7 11.Rb1 and White is a piece up with an easy win; 9...Ke7 10.Ba3+ Kf6 11.Nxh7+ Rxh7 12.e7 and the pawn queens or Black has to give up his queen for the pawn] 10.Ba3+ Kg8 [10...Qe7 11.Bxe7+] 11.Qf7+ Nxf7 12.exf7# Isn't that a great finish? Did you see it all? Did you miss Ba3+ as a possibility in your attack? Did you see the queen sacrifice and mate? If you saw it all...great! If not, then take another look and see how you missed possibilities by not considering them. As time goes on, you'll start to automatically consider all your pieces' moves.

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