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I looked for a while at 1.g4 seeming to “take the air” out of the situation (Q exchange to follow), there has to be something better.
Much better:
1. Qb6+ Ka4
2. Re8!! Qxe8 (everything else is also hopeless, Q has no place to go)
3. Qb4#
1. ♕b6+ ♚a4
2. ♖e8
2. … ♛xe8
3. ♕b4#
Very nice puzzle!
1. Qb6+ Ka4
2. Re8!! wins the Queen!
1-0
No idea. Too difficult.
1.Qb6+ Ka4 2.Re8 +-
1. Qb6 check Ka4
and now
2. Re8! Qxe8 (what else)
3. Qb4 checkmate
Not the first time, but the first time in awhile. I am stumped on this one.
My first thought is 1.Qb6:
1. Qb6 Ka4
So, now, my first plan of 2.b3+ doesn’t really help since the black king reaches a3 safely, and I think white has to exchange queens just to protect his own king, and the ending looks bad for white afterwards (though I don’t know for sure). So I have spent a long time trying to make 1.c4+ work as a way to remove the guard on the c4 square and to give the white rook more room on the c-file, but black should easily draw in this line, and win many of the others. For brevity (for once), I will cover what I think is the most important line:
1. c4 Ka5! (the only good move)
2. Rc5 b5! (Kb6 is unclear to me)
3. Qd2 Kb6
4. Rd5
At this point, I don’t see any other way for white to hold this, and I looked at literally everything. Continuing:
4. …..Rd5
5. cd5
Again, almost surely the best white has here. In any case, I won’t take this any further. I would certainly rather be playing black here than white- black’s pawns are connected on both wings, his king is active near the isolated d-pawn, which white will struggle to hold. I would guess this is drawn with proper play, but who knows in a queen ending this rich in variation.
I hope I am not overlooking something obvious. Calling it “tactic” makes me think I am.
Qg6 Re8
Qb6 Re8
2.Re8. Yikes! How did I miss that?