White to move. Can White save this game?
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Qe7
Yep, Qe7 does it but there’s a second even trickier follow-up move to find as well — this is not a simple 2-mover. After Qe7, white threatens QxN+ with mate to follow, so black takes the queen with RxQ; after PxR, black’s knight is pinned so white threatens PxN=Q and e8=Q and even RxN+ followed by e8=Q, so white easily gets the queen back:
1 Qe7!! RxQ (or else mate)
2 PxR Qc5! (or else mate)
3 Bd6!! (this wins more material than e8=Q or RxN+ or PxN+, because black must sack the queen for the bish, yet white still gets to queen: the pawn will promote on either e8 or f8 and thus can’t be stopped)
3 … QxB+ (or else mate)
4 RxQ Rb8
5 Rd8 and the pawn promotes next with PxN or PxR.
Tom,
After
1. Qe7 Rxe7
2. fxe7 Qc5
white can continue with
3. Rxf8+ Kh7
4. Rh8+!! Kxh8
5. e8Q+
And mate within the next 2 moves.
bah!
this is a black square game, I had worked that one out….
and I considered all the other black squares, but not that one…
why did I automatically discount it?
four possibles, and I only looked at three of them (:-(
Rxf8!
Anon_2:21 said…
“Tom,
After
1. Qe7 Rxe7
2. fxe7 Qc5
white can continue with
3. Rxf8+ Kh7
4. Rh8+!! Kxh8
5. e8Q+”
Ok, but black is up in material and winning.
“And mate within the next 2 moves.”
Say what? You may have overlooked that Black can interpose with the queen:
5 e8Q+ Qf8!
and white is down the exchange.
Tom, black’s king is on h8 so 5. -, Qf8 is simply countered by 6. Qxf8 and it is mate (okay it is not mate in 2 but in 3).
Qf8 is jut a deceleration.
Greetings
Jochen
Of course I did not mean “it is mate” but “it is mate SOON” (one more move left…).
Jochen said…
“Tom, black’s king is on h8 so 5. -, Qf8 is simply countered by 6. Qxf8 and it is mate (okay it is not mate in 2 but in 3). Of course I did not mean “it is mate” but “it is mate SOON” (one more move left…).”
Ok, hold on — I was half-awake and looking at the pic without a board again. What I was looking at was not the ridiculous Kh7?? but Kg7! and I was interpreting Rh8+ to be Rg7+. D’oh!
Given that, well of course black is mated with Kh7?? but what if black simply plays Kg7 instead. That would be:
1 (Qe7) (RxQ)
2 (PxQ) (Qc6)
3 (RxN+) Kg7
Yes, it’s mate in three if black played Kh7? but if black does play the obvious Kg7 instead, then black is equal here. Now it makes no sense to sack the rook at g8 as the queen can interpose at f8. So white’s only try is:
4 e8=Q QxR for now if
5 Be5+ Kg8 and black is better.
That’s what I was looking at.
3 RxN? is much weaker and at best gives white drawing chances. Whereas the desisive
3 Bd6!! wins outright.
I think 3 Bd6!! is crucial to the problem and the only possible way for white to decisively win here, and that there is no mate or even advantage of 3 RxN+? after Kg7.
I’m hosting a wild party tonight, so I don’t have time to set up a board and verify this right this moment, but the variation is rather simple to see just from the pic; I don’t think I missed anything here — it was only my chysslexia of interpreting the ‘h’ as ‘g’ in my haste above.
Haha, I missed something, too (don’t we do always?).
Kg7 wasn’t possible in my mind because of that pawn f6 still standing there.
Memo to myself: stop writing here without having used a check board – there are too many phantom chess figures in my variations.
But wouldn’t that be boring somehow?
And: yeah, Bd6 looks really decisive, good job!
Much fun with your big party tonight!
We will watch your posts tomorrow with many interest. 🙂
Greetings
Jochen