In our effort to show you how chess players think, we are looking at more elemental positions so you realize there is another level of thought. Our first charge to you was to look for checks and captures and forced moves. Often, as with this position, all three are involved. There is, however, another element: geometry. You will win in this position if you understand the geometry of the knight move. That’s our hint. Go through the first three ideas in your scan, then ask yourself how the knight’s peculiar move comes into play here.

Solution:

he key capture to consider in this position is Bxd5. If you recall what we said earlier about indirect threats, then you will realize that White is attacking the knight on d5 twice, if only the knight weren’t there. Your first thought (considering our hint) might have been to play 1.Nb5, but after 1…Qd7 2.Bxd5 Qxb5 Black is OK, and even better as his bishop and rooks will be more active and there will be pressure on the White queenside pawns—but that’s positional chess!

So, you look at the capture on d5 first. Here’s where the geometry comes in. If you realize the value of the knight move, you realize that Nb5 is interesting because with all Nb5 moves chessplayers will many times see a follow-up Nc7+, forking king and rook and winning. You haven’t exactly got that here, but you really do! Because you know the idea of the knight fork you see that the knight, if it gets to c7, not only attacks e8 and a8, but d5 as well! Ah! Thus, combining that geometric element with the exchanges (which are also forced moves because not recapturing also loses a piece) results in winning a piece: 1.Bxd5 Bxd5 2.Nb5 Qc6 3.Qxd5 Qxd5 4.Nc7+ winning a piece and the game after recapturing on d5. The queen sacrifice is known as a pseudo-sacrifice because you’re getting the material right back. So, you see that although looking at captures and forced moves and checks is useful, a knowledge of geometry helps!

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