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1.c4 d5 2.Ra7! Qxa7(or else lose material) 3.Bxd5+ Kg6 4.f5+ Kxh7 Rh2#
The important thing here is to play the discovered check, c5+, WHEN the Black queen cannot support an interpose with d5.
So the 1st move, 1. Ra7, becomes obvious, to deflect the Black queen from protection of d5.
1. Ra7 Qxa7
2. c5+ d5
3. Bxd5+ Kg6
4. f5+ Kxh7 (or Kh6)
5. Rh2#
1.c5+ Kg6
2.f5 Kxh7
3.Rh2#
?
1.Ra7! Qxa7
2.c5+ d5
3.Bxd5+ Kg6
4.f5+ Kxh7
5.Ra2#
The black pawn on d4 is key, because it blocks the check that would occur on Qxa7 otherwise.
Ra7 deflects queen so d5 is not a meaningful way to block the check.
1Ra7 Qxa7 or Rb8 or Rh8
2c5+ d5
3Bxd5+ Kg6
4f5+ Kxh7 or Kh6
5Rh2#
else
1Ra7 Re8 or g5
2RxQ+ Kg6 etc
The fresh idea is to pin the black queen, in order to avoid an interposition with a pawn: c5 straight away doesn’t work because of .. d5, and the pawn is protected. But
1. Ra7 .. Qxa7 (other replies gets the same mate as follows)
2. c5+ .. d5
3. Bxd5+ .. Kg6
4. f6+ .. Kxh7/Kh6
5. Rh2#
Ah. If it weren’t for these simple puzzles, I’d feel I didn’t know chess at all.
1. c5+ d5
2. Bxd5+ Qxd5
3. Ra7+ Kg6
4. f5+ Kh6 or Kxh7
5. Rh2#
The very first question I would ask is can I deflect the queen from covering d5 so that I can play c5 with a discovered check? The obvious way to try this is
1. Ra7 Qa7 (alternatives later)
2. c5 Kg6 (d5 delays only)
3. f5 Kh7/h6
4. Rh2#
So, clearly, black cannot take at a7, but with the queen now pinned, the discovered check cannot be stopped, so the black king must either be moved to g6, the d-pawn moved to block the check premptively, or a rook must be moved to support the d-pawn. Let’s look to see that each of these is going to lose:
1. Ra7 d5
2. Rb7 Kg6
3. f5 with the same mate as before.
So, we can eliminate the move of 1. …Rd8, too, since the same capture at b7 is going to lead to mate anyway (and the open hole at f8 is no good due to the knight). Also, this line shows that you don’t even need to play Ra7 on the first move, but can, in fact, actually play c5 immediately, and then pin the queen. Finally, moving the king is no good:
1. Ra7 Kg6
2. f5! and mate will follow with either Rh2 or Rb7.
Ra7 Qxa7
c5+ Kg6
f5+ Kxh7
Rh2 mate
Beginning with c5+ doesn’t quite
work it seems.
1. Ra7 Qxa7 2. c5+ d5 3. Bxd5+ Kg6 4. f5+ and 5. Rh2 mate could be the answer, best regards, Riku Finn
The initial move of the combination is very nice.
Best regards
Stef
To the anonymous commenter that claimed 1.c5 doesn’t quite work:
The move does lead to mate as a few commenters have actually outlined:
1. c5 d5 (Qd5 2.Bd5; Kg6 2.f5)
2. Ra7 with the same range of threats that arise in the transposed line that starts with Ra7- if black takes at a7, white checks with Bd5 with the same mate on the h-file; if black supports the d-pawn, Rb7 starts the mate.
I’m sorry for Yancey Ward and Anup (and others, eventually) but
1. c5+ .. d5
2. Bxd5+ .. Qxd5
3. Ra7+ .. Kg6
4. f5+ .. Qxf5 and White loses.
Regards,
Consul
“Bobby was Fischer than Boris, but who’s the Fischest in the World?” (anon)
Sorry, i forgot to mention that my point is to mate in the shortest path.
2. Ra7 allows Black to delay…