White to move. How should white proceed?
Portisch – Seirawan 1982
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White to move. How should white proceed?
Portisch – Seirawan 1982
1.Qc7 Rd8 2.Bxa6….
Rook D1 takes Knight @ D7. If queen takes the Rook, then Queen advances for Check @ B7 and the white gets the Queen after checking the king on B8 with Rook.
Many lines exist 1.Rxd7 Qxd7 2. Qb6+ Kb8
3. Rg8+, Be6! or Bf4+ leading to mate.
Rxd7 Qxd7
Qb6+ Kb8
Bf4+ Kc8
Be6 Rxe6
fxe6 Qd8
Rg8 1-0
After 1. Rxd7 Black is busted.
Then it will go 1. .. Qxd7 2. Qb6+ Kb8
From this point a likely variation is:
3. Bf4+ Kc8 4. Be6 Rxe6 5. fxe6 Qd8 6. Rg8 Bf8 7.Rxf8 Qxf8 8.Qc7#
1.Qb6+! wins.
1. Rxd7 Qxd7
2. Qb6+ Kb8
3. Rg8+ Bf8
4. Rxf8+ Rxf8
5. Bf4+ Kc8
6. Be6 pinning (and winning) queen.
Difficult, but after a lot of trying and failing I ended up with:
1. Bf4
A:
1. … Rd8?
2. Bxa6! b6 (bxa6 Qc7#, N any Qb6#, any Bf1#)
3. cxb6 Nxb6
4. Qxb6 Ka8
5. Qb7#
B:
1. … Qd8?
2. Qxd8 Rxd8 (Bxd8 Rxd7)
3. Rxe7
up with piece, but else Qd8 would have been a brilliant defence…
C:
1. … Rc8 (seems enforced)
2. Bxa6! bxa6 (what else?)
3. Rxd7! Qxd7 (what else, other than delaying sacks?)
4. Qb6+ Ka8
5. Qxa6#
The c-line is beautiful if this is correct.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Should add that I first tried (the obvious) idea:
1. Rxd7? Qxd7
2. Qb6+ Kb8
3. Bf4+ Kc8
4. Be6 Rxe6
5. fxe6 Qxe6
Material in full balance and king stands excellent on c8.
I also tried 1. Bxa6?? Kb8! (bxa6?? Qc7#)
2. Bf4+ Kc8
and my bishop on a6 looks stupid.
Natural conclution is: “must delay my attack and first disallow Kb8”, so:
1. Bf4!
Obvious threat now is Rxd7 followed by Qb6#. But it also threats Bxc6 followed by Qc7# or discovered mate, and I simply couldn’t find a black move sufficient to meet both threats.
A rook move seems to give K a harbour on a8, but white opens a-file with the bishop sack.
One line I forgot to discuss:
D.
1. … Bd8?
2. Rdxd7! Rb8 (Bxa5 Rxb7#, Qxd7 Qb6#)
3. Qxa6#
And 1. … Qd8 (longest lasting?) drops a piece.
Complex it is, I cant’t wait to see other peoples answers…
C4xA6
If pawn takes bishop, A5-C7, mate
Or
C4xA6 E3-F4+
just to start with few ideas 🙁
1. Rxd7, Qxd7
2. Qb6+
is an interesting line. Can win the black queen or get the king in this line.
Dear pht:
I can’t resist. At the end of the line you give starting with 1. Rxd7, you say that “Material in full balance and king stands excellent on c8.” I think White, from his point of view, would agree with you after 6. Qc7#. The Black king will be a tasty dish for the White queen.
Dear Lucymarie:
What you say about 6. Qc7# is absolutely correct, and reviewing this it clearly follows your line ending with 8. Qc7#.
To see an enforced mate in that many moves when only calculating in head without a board was not easy, and a had the initial feeling that black should probably somehow escape from this pretty obvious attack.
Therefore I took interest in the idea of first disallowing Kb8 with Bf4, and then I found a series of natural defences for white that should fail.
However, my “main line” (C) also contains an error:
1. Bf4 Rc8
2. Bxa6 bxa6
3. Rxd7 Qxd7
4. Qb6+ Ka8
5. Qxa6+
I thougt this to be mate, but now I see:
5. … Qa7
6. Qxc8+ Qb8
7. Qxb8#
Of course this is also such a lengthy line that I may be likely to still have overlooked something..
Then I would like to ask:
If this was not a puzzle, but a game where you had not enough time to calculate it to the end, what would you then have judged to be the most promising move here:
1. Rxd7 immediately
or
1. Bf4 with the intention of Rxd7 afterwards?
Qb6 wins too and quite easily
first things first, remove the knight complication.. 1.Rxd7,Qxd7 2.Qb6+,Kb8(warlord can run but cant hide)3.Rg8+,or Bf4+.. da noose begins to tighten,Bd8 or Kc8. 4.Be6, forcing the rook exchange, Rxe6. 5.fxe6,Qe7(stuck on e7 to delay mate)6.Bg5, smoking da queen out of e7,Qxg5 or Qxc5+(ill fated kami-kaze mission, not even qualified as a martyr…)mate is inevitable, next!!!