Razumenko 1985
It is White to move. Is this a win, loss or draw for White? No computer please 🙂
7k/3N4/5K2/8/2Q1p3/2p5/8/7q w – – 0 0
Level of difficulty: Difficult
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1.Nf8
Qd4
I don’t have the time for this tonight, but can I guess the first move? I guess 1.Qd4 is the start. Just a process of eliminating the “obvious” move of checking from c8.
Why 1.Qd4, you ask? Because it deals with the issue black’s first harassing check, should one be played- when white’s king moves off the a1/h8 diagonal, black will be in check. Why not 1.Qc3 in that case, you ask? Because black’s reply of Qf3 with check wins for black by forcing the immediate exchange of queens and black gets a passed pawn the white knight can no longer stop.
After 1.Qd4, black has a problem- either 2.Kg6 or 2.Kf7 looks deadly to me if black has checked. So, black must either play Kh7/g8 or play the queen to h7, but all of those look likes lots of hard work to me, and I have to go to bed early tonight.
The right idea seems to e to put the Q on the a1-h8 diagonal so that any check can be answered by a quick mate. But 1. Q:c3 Qf3+ loses, so the right move must be 1. Qd4.
Black’s best move must be 1…Qh7 threatening the N and an X-ray on the Q. Now after 2. Ke6+ (what else?) Black plays 2….Qg7 and 3. Nf6 seems obvious.
At this point it looks like 3…Qg6 is best, but I can’t see anything other than 4. Qd7 c2 5. Qe7 threatening Qf8#.
It looks like black has to play 5…Qg4+ 6. N:g4 c1Q but the rest is fog. With Black’s K confined to h8 and no checks on the e-file, it seems like White is winning but I don’t see the rest.
So far so good. 7. K f7 and I do not see black queen continue to check beyond two moves. For example 7….Qf1+ 8. Kg6 , Qa6+ 9. Nf6 or
7……Qc4+ 8. Kg6, Qg8+ 9. Kh6 and there is no defence against 10. Nf6
I don’t know if i missed something. But White wins comfortably
Qc8, Kh7
Nf8, kg8
Qe6, Kh8
Ng6, Kh7
Qf7, Kh6
Qf8, Kh5
Qh8, Kg4
Q x Qh1
With a Queen down, Black should resign here.
2nd move for black NOT Kg8?? But Kh6 holds
1.Qd4!! Something about this move really appeals to me 🙂
1.Qd4! This move really appeals to me 🙂
Any checks by black can me met with discovery and then Nf8 and mate.
The first door is difficult to find. after that the game plays automatically.Not like many Q endings. After spending some time giving direct checks I felt there could be some quiet ingenious move.And I found it.
1.Qd4 . One can divide the puzzle into 2 parts.(1) Black K moving away from the diagonal to avoid discovered check and (2)black Q trying to harass white K.
(1)(a)1…. Kh7 2.Nf8+ Kg8 3.Qd5+ Kh8 4.Qe5 Kg8 5.Qg3+ Kxf8 6.Qb8# there may be some offshoots here and there but easy to solve.
(b)1…. Kg8 2.Qd5+ Kh8 3.Qe5 Qh7 4.Ke6+ Qg7 5.Nf6 Qg6 6.Qc7 ( to control g7 when not occupied by black Q) 6…Qh6 7.Qc8+ Kg7 8.Qg8#
(2)(a)1…. Qf3+ 2.Kg6+ Qf6+ 3.Qxf6+ Kg8 4.Qg7#
(b)1…. Qh6+ 2.Kf7+ Kh7 3.Nf6+ Kh8 4.Qd8+ Qf8+ 5.Qxf8#
1. Qd4 (not 1. Qxc3 because of 1. … Qf3+ 2. Qxf3 exf3 0-1) Qh6+ (a. 1. … Qh4+ 2. Kf7/g6+ 1-0; b. 1. … Qf1+ 2. Kg6+ 1-0; c. 1. … Qg2 2. Kf7+ Kh7 3. Nf8+ Kh6 4. Qh8+ Kg5 5. Qg7+ 1-0) ) 2. Kf7+ Kh7 3. Nf8+ Qxf8+ 4. Kxf8 1-0
CraigB seems to be on the critical line. I have to think about this a bit longer:
1. Qd4 Qh7! (other moves mates!)
2. Ke6 Qg7 (again, mate otherwise)
3. Nf6!
The hard move to spot in my opinion. At this point, I think Craig is right and black does best with Qg6 since white is now threatening Qd8 with a deadly check if black moves a pawn. In addition, the knight at f6 guards g4 for a move so black can’t check from there. Continuing:
3. ……Qg6
4. Qd7
I think Qa7 is ok here too. The idea is to keep the king locked on h8 and to keep the black queen out of harassing from g4 and g8. Now black has find a move that doesn’t lose, and all that can provide hope is one of the pawn moves- for example, 4. …Qh6 allows Qd8+ followed by mate on the next move from g8, and the black queen must keep an eye on h7. Also, Qg7 is met by the same threat of check from the 8th rank. So…
4. ……c2
5. Qe7
So, white is again threatening a quick mate, and Craig is right- black must give up the old queen just to stop that, at either g4 or g8:
5. ……Qg4
6. Ng4 c1Q (the point behind c2)
So, it is foggy at this point, but I think there are multiple paths- the one I like here is…
7. Kf7
This is an odd looking move, but black’s e-pawn is a problem for black:
7. ……Qc4 (alternatives below)
8. Kg6!
And now white’s knight stands ready to shield the king if black checks from the sixth rank, and then the e-pawn is in the way of checks from c2, for example, or to keep the queen from checking from g2 after the check from c6. Even the check from g8 is useless as the white king then goes to h6 keeping white on the edge of mating black:
8. ……Qg8
9. Kh6! and I don’t see how black prevents mate now.
Back at move 7, black does no better with…
7. ……Qf4
8. Nf6!
And, again, the black e-pawn stabs black in the back- the queen can’t reach c4 for another check. All black can do now is guard the back rank for a bit:
8. ……Qb8 (all other moves short#)
9. Qd7!
A waiting move and a threat (Qh3#). Now the black queen can’t go to any of the squares on the 8th rank safely but a8, but that allows white to mate with Qh3. So, black must play the only check…
9. ……Qb3
10.Kg6 Qg3 (nothing better)
11.Ng4
And now the black queen is out of safe checking squares once again. There is no way to prevent mate now.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ush, I unforgiveably missed:
1. Qxc3?? Qf3+!
2. Qxf3 exf3
0 – 1
Secondly I missed that after:
1. … Qh7
2. Ke6+ Qg7
white has the beautiful move:
3. Nf6!
nicely preventing Qg4+ or any K move and threatening Q mate and clearly forbidding a pawn move.
Of course, in this line I should not have an alternative, I should not have the easy draw with Qxg7? since black here has 2 pawns instead of 1.
To Atul Borkar:
Your suggestion is interesting, you might like to know what you missed here:
1. Qc8+ Kh7
2. Nf8+ Kg8??
Here black had the much better move Kh6! and then it is hard to find a good move for white, since black has Q in h-file, preventing Qh3#.
In your line, with 2. … Kg8?? there is a really, really quick win for white. Instead of 3. Qe6+(?) you should try a discovered check:
3. Ng6+! Kh7 (only legal move here)
4. Qh8#
Yancey,
In your response to Craig’s comment this position had come up.
1.Qd4 Qh7 2.Ke6+ Qg7 3.Nf6 Qg6 4.Qd7 c2 5.Qe7 Qg4+ 6.Nxg4 c1=Q there seems to be forced mate.
7.Qf8+ Kh7 8.Nf6+ Kg6 9.Qg8+ Kh6 10.Qh7+ Kg5
Here one may stop taxing the brain and win the Q and game by 11.Qh5+ Kf4 12.Qh6+ 11.Qf5+ Kh6 12.Qh5+ Kg7 13.Qh7+ Kf8 14.Qg8#
Qd4
Continuing from last session black can sacrifice Q at g8.
5… Qg8+ 6.Nxg8 c1=Q 7.Kf7
(a)7…. Qc4+ 8.Kg6 Qxg8+ 9.Kh6 and now black Q asks her K “My Lord!Do you want to die without my help or in spite of my help?”
(b)7…. Qf1+ 8.Nf6 Qc4+ 9.Kg6 Qg8+ 10.Nxg8 and wins