This is a position from Capablanca (Barcelona, 1935)
White to move. How should White proceed?
Special thanks to Andreas for sending this position to us.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
World Champion Tactic
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Nf6!!
Nice, must be right
If black takes,
1…Qxf7 then it is mate
2.Nxf7#
After 1…gxf
2.Qh7#
If black just do a nothing move like Rb8 then
2.Qh5#
1.Nf6 Ng8 2.Qh5+ Nh6 3.Qg6 and Black can postpone the mate, but only at the cost of his queen.
“How should White proceed?”
He should play a world champion tactic.
Not being a world champion, I couldn’t possibly find it, or else it wouldn’t be a world champion tactic.
as to the third comment,
1. Nf6 Ng8
is followed by 2. Qg6, and not Qh5+, with forced checkmate in h7.
To Amir Ahmad :
1. Nf6 Ng8
must be followed by
2.Qh5+ ,and not Qg6+,
If 2.Qg6 Nxf6 3.Nf7 Qxf7! and Black is fine.
Susan, I am a little confused about whether this position is accurate. In the actual Capablanca game, the black Q seems to be on e8 and the black N on f5 (Nf6, of course, is he winning move in both cases).
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1242938
1.Nf6…
A 1…Qxf7 2.Nxf7#
B 1…gxf6 2.Qh7#
C 1…Ng6 2.Qxh6 Qg8 (gxf6 2.Qh7#) 3.Nf7+ Qxf7 4.Qh7#
D 1…Ng8 2.Qh5+ (2.Qh6? Nxf6 3.Nf7+ Kg8 4.Nh6+ Kh8 etc) Nh6 3.Qg6 (mate to follow on h7 as per variant C)
Variation D
1…Ng8 2.Qh5+ Nh6 3.Qg6 Qg8 seems to block mates on both h7 and f7 – as 4.Nf7+ is answered by 4…Nxf7.
“Anonymous Anonymous said…
Variation D
1…Ng8 2.Qh5+ Nh6 3.Qg6 Qg8 seems to block mates on both h7 and f7 – as 4.Nf7+ is answered by 4…Nxf7.”
If 3…Qg8, then Ng8 seems to be pretty nice for white 🙂
1 Nf6 Ng8
2 QxQ RxQ
3. Nf7#
1 Nf6 Ng8
2 QxQ RxQ
3. Nf7#
Perhaps Black won’t notice 3…Rxf7.
“If 3…Qg8, then Ng8 seems to be pretty nice for white.”
I would agree. I think I would just check that Black cannot hang on with R + B vs. Q + P.
So 4…Kxg8 5.Qh7+ Kf8 6.Qh8+ Ng8 7.Qh5 threatening Qf7# and Qf3+.
Knew there had to be some reason why that diagonal was open.