This position came from one of my games when I was a young teenager. My opponent was IM Hardicsay and he was Black. I showed this game at my talk at the Chess4Life Center in Bellevue, Washington. It is White to move. How should I proceed?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Re8 and then Ne4.
FP
1. Qa4 Qc8
2. Qc7
1.Re8+ Qxe8 2. Ne4 f6
(If 2… f5 3. Nf6+ Kf7 4. Nxe8 +-)
3. Qb7
(If 3. Nxf6+ Kf7 4. Nxe8 Rxe8 5.h3 Nd7 6. Qb7 Re7 7. Qc8 Re8 8. Qc7 Re7 9.Qxd6 Nf6 +-)
3… Nd7 4. Nxf6+ Kf7 5. Nxe8 Rxe8 6. Bf4 Re2+ 7. Kg3 Bf5 8. Qxb5 Re4 9. Bxd6 +-
As proposed by Martin W. but more tactical variation: 1. Re7 Bf5 and then 2. Nxb5 with numerous threats.
i like very quiet move Kg1 avoid Qh4+ ideas and black is in a very difficult situation with many threats looming
Susan,
I’ve really enjoyed these problems.
Are you going to do a book of them for players rated 2000-2300 ELO ?
Here’s hoping
Andrew Brett
Of course Qa5!
N.
Sofia, Bulgaria
i was quite influenced to make move 1.Kg1 because Ive been reading Dvoretsky’s work Secrets of Chess Tactics, where Artur Yusupov discusses how one theme in many of Kasparov’s great combinations is how he finds a simple king move that prevents all of the opponent’s counterchances before continuing with the decisive route. Here this would be an ample opportunity to display such a technique. Sure 1. Re7 is what was played and is probably the best move but 1.Kg1 has a lot of merit in my opinion. let’s see some variations to support.
1. Kg1
A) 1….f6 2. Nxb5! Bd7 (what else?) 3. Nxd6! and now a pretty end would be 3…Nc6 4. Qxd8 Nxd8 5. Re7 +/- ending in a forced mate with a pawn after 5…Ne6 6. dxe6 Bc6 7. Rg7+ Kf8 8.e7#
B) 1….Bd7 2.Ne4 f6 (what else?) 3. Nxd6! same ordeal as before but knight had a different road to d6 3…Qc7 (black is helpless 3…Nc6 4. Qxd8 Nxd8 Re7 leads to the above conclusion again) 4. Re7! wow leaving the Nd6 hanging 4…Qxd6 (nothing better) 5. Rg7+ Kf8 6. Rd7+ Ke8 7. Rxd6 and forced mate in 4 from here.
if it werent for 1. Re7 1.Kg1 would be the most artistic continuation
1 Qa5 ! Qc8(d7) 2.Qc7
France
sorry 1.Qa5 Qh4+ followed by Qh6 dont work for white
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1. Re7 (threatening 2. Ne4 and preventing Qh4+)
1. … Bf5
2. Nxb5 Bd7
3. Nxd6 Qxe7
4. Qxb8+ and black is lost
1. … Bd7
2. Qxb8 Qxb8
3. Ne4 and mate soon
I first look at Re7 with the idea of deviate the queen with Rd7. But chasing the bishop from the defense of d7 with h3,g4 is slow and if the rook move to d7 black check with Qh4+.
The other idea is to exploit the pin and playing Re7-b7
Thats the right idea but before moving the rook from e7 u need a king move ! like Kg3 !
So the strongest continuation is:
1.Re7! Bf5 2.Kg3!
In the game black feared of the manoeuvre Re7-b7 and play Bd7 to close the line but here also the is a nice combi. A mate in five played by Susan and a mate in four very powerfull too..
Guys, white wins by force with 1.Re8+! Qxe8 2.Ne4, threatening Nf6 mate. The only way to avoid it is to play 2…f6, because if 2…Qd8 then 3.Qxb8! and mates.
After 2..f6 3.Nf6+ forks the queen. Black is lost.
There is no need to complicate oneself by considering 1.Kg1 or 1.Qa5 Qh4+? 2.K moves Qxh6, as 1.Re8+ wins immediately.
1. Qa5 is a mistake, because:
2. … Qh4+ and 2. … Qxh6
First I thought about 1. Re7, but
1. Re8+ looks more effective:
1. … Qxe8 (moving queen away from
white king, and giving
new threats for white)
2. Ne4 (threatening Nf6 mate or fork after
f-pine move)
and black looses:
2. … Qxe4 is too slow (3.Qxb8 with mate)
2. … f5 3. Nf6 with a huge breakfast of
black pieces
Marcin, Poland
Just to add to my previous post:
After 1.Re8+! Qxe8 2.Ne4 if black plays 2…Qxe4 of course 3.Qxb8+ and mates.
I also like what some people suggested 1.Re7, but 1.Re8+ is more appealing to me.
1.Re7 Bf5 2.Nxb5 Bd7 and now not 2.Nxd6 as Guiseppe proposes but 2.Rxd7 Qh4+ 3.Kf1 Qxh6 4.Qxb8+ Qf8 5.Qxf8 Kxf8 6.Rd8+ Ke7 7.Rxh8
In the variant 1.Re8+ Qxe8 2.Ne4 f6 3.Nxf6 (fork – Renzo) Kf7 4.Nxe8 Rxe8 black R and N play a losing fight against white Q but still some way to go.
In a way it’s pretty pointless “combination”. There are at least 5 direct wins and two dozen slower wins. The material balance is approximately equal. Black’s knight is pinned, black’s rook is out of play and black’s king is in a mating net and none of his pieces are fulfilling any purposeful functions.
Can’t believe an IM would continue playing in such a position.
Lantonov, you are right… 1.Re7 is more effective. As I said, I liked both 1.Re8+ and 1.Re7.
1.Re7 is very Alekhinian! 🙂
In fact, I just saw that Susan actually played 1.Re7, completely paralyzing black.
I was also wondering how an IM could have gotten such a position and I saw it was due to two key factors:
1. Starting complications in the center without first giving his king a shelf.
2. Bad opening handling (Bg7? instead of b5)
Then Susan exploited that masterfully with a casacade of sacrifices, starting with 17.Bb5+! which followed by 18.Re1+ and 19.Bh6+ explains the shameful position of black K at g8 and R at h8. Quite embarrasing.
It is quite true that black should have resigned before.
The game was played in 1985. Great game by Susan!
Here’s the link:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1110010
looking at it , my first guess was to play Ne4 , i think it also wins .
Whatever black plays he’s lost but maybe i could be wrong .
at least my two cents…
1.Re7!!
(1.Re8+?! Qxe8
2.Ne4 f6
3.Nxf6+ Kf7
4.Nxe8 Rxe8
5.h3 Nd7
6.Qb7 Re7
7.hxg4 Nf6
8.Qc8 Re8
9.Qa6 Nxg4+
10.Kf3 Nxh6+- but not more)
1…Bf5
(1…Bd7
2.Qxb8 Qxb8
3.Ne4 c4
4.Nf6#)
2.Kg1! f6 (what else?)
(2…c4
3.Rb7 f6
4.Rxb8 Kf7
5.Rxd8 Rxd8
6.Qxd8 leaving black with a bishop alone;
2…b4
3.Rb7 f6
4.Rg7+ Kf8
5.Qb7 Qe8
6.Rxg6#)
3.Rg7+ Kf8
4.Qb7 Bd7
5.Ne4 Ke8
6.Nxd6+ Kf8
7.Rxd7+ Kg8
8.Rxd8#
a very nice one by GM Susan Polgar (if it would have been a position of one of my games I’d have taken 1.Re8+ and would have lost it by some strange reasons – e.g. smoking breaks…)^^
1. Re7 !! Bf5
2. Qb7
threatening Rxf7,Rg7 Qf7#
also Qc7 threatening the black Q which has nowhere to go.
@sudhir – black will answer 2…nd7 – and of course white has a decisive advantage, but still a long way to go …
I think Kg3 will win instantly.
But I can be wrong because just to days ago I lost my game in the external competition 🙂
@vohaul
I finally looked up this game and saw that Peter Hardicsav played 1. … Bd7 making making the game into a mateing
problem with different ways to start.