White to move. Can White hold this position? How should White proceed?
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Early morning chess tactic
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White to move. Can White hold this position? How should White proceed?
Rxf8 Qxf8
Bh7+ Kh8
Bg6+ Kg8
Qh7++
1. Rxf8+ leads to mate in 4, no matter if king or queen take that rook.
The mate after 1. -, Kxf8 is a little harder to find – I don’t want to say more in the first post, spoiling the party.
Greetings
Jochen
Ah, much too slow with typing, so my post wasn’t the first.
You missed the Kxf8 variation, wolverine.
the king variation is a bit longer but quite obvious …
Actually it’s a much harder puzzle if we take Susan literally and make it a “White to play and draw” situation.
As far as I can see
1 Rxf8+ Kxf8 (Qxf8 leads to an easy perpetual check)
2. Qh8+ Kf7
3. Qh5+ g6
4. Bxg6+ Kg7
and I cannot see any way to force a draw from here. (5. Qh7+ Kf8 6. Qh8 is checkmate).
Any other ideas?
1. Rxf8 Kxf8
2. Qh8+ Kf7
3. Bg6+ Kxg6
4. Qh5#
Wolverine gave the nice mate after 1 … Qxf8.
Jochen said…
“Ah, much too slow with typing, so my post wasn’t the first. You missed the Kxf8 variation, wolverine.”
All of you beat me to this one, as I was sleeping. I’m getting quicker at these though, and I like to analyze how I find the solutions so that I’ll find them ever more quickly and that they will ‘jump out at me’ more often.
First I noticed that if the black queen weren’t there, then Qh8+ would mate after KxQ and Rf8++. But the queen is there. Then I tried RxN+, and noticed that if …QxN, Bh7+ forces the king into the corner and Bg6+ with discovered check traps the king so that Qh7++ is mate next move.
I knew that must be the solution, if only there were a mate after …KxN, which is a little harder to find, yes. But now that I was looking for it and expected it to be there, I immediately saw that after Qh8+ Kf7, white sacks the bish on g6 and forces KxB and then the King is trapped on an awkward square, so that the queen simply mates on h5. (I even found a retreating move for once.)
That was nice, as the whole process unfolded in my head in about 15 seconds or so. I’m getting better and better at spotting these tactics, and seem to be improving my mental algorithms.
After …Kxf8, Qh8+, Kf7, Bg6+, if KxB then Qh5++
1.Rxf8+
If Qxf8 then its checkmate will follow with
2.Bh7+ Kh8
3.Bg6+ Kg8
4.Qh7#
If 1. … Kxf8
2.Qh8+ Kf7
3.Bg6+! Kxg6
4.Qh5#
This is a nice puzzle. It shows that material superiority does not mean much if the pieces are not in position to actively attack or defend. It is also amazing how powerful the e5 and g4 pawns are. Kasparov once said that pawns on good squares are like pieces.
that’s a long story tvtom on a very obvious attack, you must have slept well