White to move. How should white proceed? (Grischuk – I. Sokolov, B02)
5k2/3q1Pp1/3p4/p2P2Pp/1p1Q3P/1P1B2K1/P3R3/7r w – – 0 1
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Susan Polgar
September 15, 2011
Chess Improvement, Chess Puzzles, General News, Major Tournaments
13 Comments
White can win with Re8:
1. Re8 Kf7 (or Qe8 loses too)
2. Bg6 Kg6
3. Qe4 Kf7 (Qf5 4.Re6 Kf7 5.Qf5)
4. g6 Kf6
5. Rf8 Qf7
6. Rf7#
1. Re8+! Kxf7+ 2. Bg6+! Kxg6 3. Qe4+ Kf7 (3. … Qf5 4. Re6+) 4. g6+ Kf6 5. Re6+
Well, my first superficial analysis spotted this line almost immediately:
1. Re8+ Qxe8
2. fxe8Q+ Kxe8
3. Qe4+ K~
4. Qxh1 1-0
White wins with his overwhelming material superiority. So, quite obviously I expected black to not take the rook at move 1. What else? The only other move is:
1… Kxf7
2. Bg6+ Kxg6
3. Qe4+
Now black has two options:
3… Qf5
4. Re6+ K~
5. Qxf5+ K~
6. Re8#
Or:
3… Kf7
4. g6+ Kf6
5. Re6+ Qxe6
6. Qxe6#
So I was wrong – black has to take the rook at move 1, or else he’s checkmated in 6 moves.
So, in the second pass, I looked at the black-takes-the-rook-at-move-1 a bit more closely. After about 5 minutes, I found what I had missed the first time round:
1. Re8+ Qxe8
2. fxe8Q+ Kxe8
3. Qe3+!!
This subtle move wins the game outright – there is a checkmate for everything that black can do now.
3… Kf8? 4. Bg6 and mate cannot be avoided.
3… Kf7? 4. Qe6+ leads to mate.
3… Kd8? 4. Qb6+ leads to mate.
3… Kd7? 4. Qa7+ leads to mate.
Working out the actual mating moves I leave to the reader. Look at how the two pawns e5 and g5 restrict the black king to the seventh and eighth ranks and the mating net. Fantastic position – one I enjoyed solving.
1Re6 2Bg6 wins in both variation
1Re6&Bg6 Wins
1. Re6, Qxf7 (Qxe6 loses to dxe6)
2. Bg6, Qxe6 to prevent Re8#
1. Re6, Kxf7
2. Qf4+, Kg8
3. Qf5, Qxe6
4. dxe6 and a quick mate
1. Re6, Rc1
2. Bg6 and Black is vulnerable here too
Hi Susan Polgar,
Well,both Shailendra & S.K.Srivastava had given the solution to this puzzle : by suggesting “Re6 followed by Bg6” – Good.
So,What I will now give is,a slight interesting variation of initial move with complete set of two examples for white’s win.
Example One
============
1.Re8+ K*f7
2.Re6 a4
3.Qe4 Rg1+
4.Kh2 Rg4
5.Qg6+ Kf8
6.Kh3 Qf7
7.Q*Qf7 K*Qf7
8.Bg6+ Kf8
9.Re8++ Mate.
Example Two
===========
1.Re8+ Q*Re8
2.f*Qe8 K*e8
3.Q*g7 Rg1+
4.Kh2 Rg4
5.Bg6+ Kd8
6.Qf6+ Kc8
7.Bf5+ Kc7
8.B*Rg4 h*Bg4
9.Kg3 Kb6
10.Q*d6+ Ka7
11.g6 Kb7
12.g7 Ka7
13.g8(Q) Kb7
14.Qgb8++ Mate
White wins the game in ease [ Simple puzzle ]
By
Venky [ India – Chennai ]
Re8+ followed by Bg6+ after KxP forces the king out into the open for a brutal slaughter. Freud would be proud.
1. Re6 comes to mind, blocking the queen check. then white can manoever at will toward mate.
1. Re8+, Kxe8 2. Qxg7+, Kxg7 3. f7xe8 with promotion to win the Queen.
This is more forcing than the above comments and I like it better.
Re8+, Bg6+, Qe4+, (….Qf5,Re6+) g6 does the trick
I come in here too late, sorry.
To my surprice a majority have preferred the to me unclear looking Re8+.
The only idea coming across my mind when seeing the diagram, is something as “rare” as a defencive move (but initiating a fierce attack at the same time):
1. Re6 Kxf7 (only delay was Rg1+ since there are no Q checks)
2. Bg6+ Kf8
3. Re8+ Qxe8 (only move)
4. Bxe8 Kxe8
and white is comfortably up with material.
Well, black doesn’t have to play Kxf7.
The funny thing is that any other black move order (including g6) seems to be answered with exactly the same white move order, having exactly the same effect.
Surprising solution, but this looks correct to me:-)
+M8 Re8+ Qxe8
fxe8Q+ Kxe8
Qe3+ Kd7
Qa7+ Kd8
Qb8+ Ke7
Qc7+ Ke8
Bg6+ Kf8
Qf7++ 1-0