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Qb6
Queen to F2
Wow, this was tough. Took me forever to give up on 1.Qh4, however, once I did, the key theme hit me, though I had to give up on 1.Ne2, as well, and that wasn’t easy to do either:
1. Qb6!!
Protects the knight, and allows the white queen access to h6. When I tried 1.Ne2, the idea was to mate on the h-file, but black can force white to use up a move by queening the g2 pawn, and the mate comes in 4 no matter what I tried. Continuing with the 1st move variations:
Variation 1:
1. …..Kh1
2. Ne2 and no matter what black does, white mates with either Qg1 or Qh6.
Variation 2:
1. …..g3
2. Nf3! and black is mated with Qe6 if the king moves to h3, and is mated with Qg1 if he moves to h1.
Variation 3:
1. …..Kg3
This is the hardest line to visualize- it isn’t easy to see that Qh6 can mate in one of the lines below:
2. Ne2! and on Kh4, Kh3, Kh2, white mates with Qh6, while Kf3 is mate after 3.Qe3.
A very pretty problem with a very non-obvious 1st move.
1)Ne2 Kh3
2)Qf2 and mate next move!
if g3 then Qg3#
and Kh2 Qh4 #
No escape.
Qb5
oops Qb6
The white K can’t come up to assist fast enough for a mate in 3, so we can rule out K moves.
N moves don’t work – the only promising one is 1. Ne2, which is met by 1…g1Q and no mate in 3. The move Ne2 looks like it will be important, but it doesn’t work straight away.
So we know the solution must be a Q move. We also can assume it must protect the N, because if the N drops there will probably be no mate in 3.
1. Qf2 doesn’t work after 1…g3.
1. Qd4 doesn’t work because the K can sneak out via h4 (e.g. 1. Qd4 Kg3 2. Ne2+ Kh4, and there is no mate next move). If only the Q could get to h6 in that line!
After
1) Ne2 what if black plays g1 (Queen)?
I don’t see a mate possibility in 3 anymore.
1.Qb6 Kg3 2.Ne2+ Kf3 3.Qe3 mate or 1.Qb6 g3 2.Nf3+ Kh3 3.Qe6 mate
Who won Tal?
Source: Friedrich Dubbe, Schachminiaturen, 1902