White to move. How should White proceed?
Guseinov, G (2650) – Ezat, M (2425) (38th Olympiad Dresden GER (10), 2008)
5nr1/pr2bk1p/6p1/4Rp2/1q3N2/2Q5/PPPB1P1P/2KR4 w – – 0 25
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1Re8 wins it for white.
RxBd7+. RxR drops the queen. KxR allows Qd3+. So Qxd7, turning off the potential mate. Then white can bring all the pieces to bear checking the king on the diagonals and the rook on the d file. Black is doomed.
1.Re7 definitely catches my eye first, but the rest is rather complicated, and makes me think I am missing something stronger and simpler:
1. Re7 Qe7
Obviously, 1. …Re7 loses to 2.Qxb4, and 1. …Ke7 loses to 2.Nd5 with a deadly fork. Continuing:
2. Re1!
This is the hard part of the line, in my opinion. My first instinct was 2.Qc4 here, but black can deploy the knight at e6 as both a defender and to activate the rook at g8. Black’s position would still be bad, but not necessarily hopeless. With 2.Re1, however, white starts to nail the coffin shut, I think:
2. …..Qc7
White’s threat is 3.Qc4+, and black can only guard the square with the queen from c7 (if 2. …Qb4, white can just exchange at b4 to be up a piece and a pawn). Continuing:
3. Qd4
White renews the threat of the check on the diagonal by attacking the d5 square….
3. …..Qc6
I don’t see a better move for black here. If black guards d5 with Rb5, white can play Nd5 threatening both Re7 and Qf6: [3. …Rb5 4.Nd5 Qd6 5.Re7 Qe7 6.Ne7 Ke7 7.Bg5 Ke6 8.Qf6 Kd5/d7 9.Qf7+-]. Continuing from 3. …Qc6 above:
4. Nd3
White now threatens to fork the king and queen from e5….
4. …..Nd7
Black can guard the e5 square with Rb5, but white can choose to simplify the position by playing Ne5 anyway, or go for a more complicated, but probably winning line by playing 5.Bg5 that threatens Re7+ followed by what is a likely forced mate, or massive material loss: [4. …Rb5 5.Bg5 Nd7 6.Re7 Kf8 7.Rd7 with what has to be a forced mate at some point since 7. …Qh1 is adequately met by 8.Kd2]. Also, if black opposes the rook with Re7: [4. …Re7 5.Re7 Ke7 6.Ke6 Qf6 is going to either mate and/or lose to knight fork from b4 or e5]. Continuing from 4. …Nd7 above:
5. Qh4
Moving the attack back to the e7 square. If black plays 5. …g5, white can take at h7 followed by the capture at f5 to completely denude the hapless king. Best I see is to guard e7 with the queen, but this leaves c4 unguarded now…
5. …..Qd6
6. Qc4 Kg7 (Kf8 7.Bh6 Rg7 8.Qc8)
7. Bc3 Nf6 (Kf8 8.Qc8 Kf7 9.Qb7)
8. Re6 Qe6 (any better?)
9. Qe6 wins enough material to be clearly decisive.
For a “practical tactic”, the above seems a little convoluted to me. What simpler tactic am I missing here. I have looked at the simple 1.Qb4, and white should win in that line after the smoke settles:
1. Qb4 Bb4
2. Bb4 Rb4
3. Nd5 Re4 (Rb7 4.Rde1)
4. Re4 fe4
5. Rd4 Ke6
6. Nc3 and the e-pawn falls leaving white up two good pawns. Indeed, were I playing this position over the board, I would certainly go for this line rather than the one I outlined above due to the simplicity. In any case, I will go look for the actual game to see what was played.
1.Re7 was what white played, and the line followed my main line idea right up to Qh4. There black defended with Rg7, but after the queen check from e7 and then e8, black had to lose the queen at c6 just to avoid the mate (I completely overlooked that line).
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1524387
Qc6
Yeah. This is a toughie. Good job, Yancey.