This is the position after 27…Qd1. It is White to move. This is the actual from round 3 of the World Championship in Mexico City between Grischuk and Aronian.
What would you play here as White?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
World Championship Tactic
Here are Mihail Marin’s comments at Chessbase.com:
28.Nh6?! Instead, he could have obtained an overwhelming advantage with 28.Qh6! , threatening Rh4, and if …Nxh4, then Qxf6+ followed by mate on g7. 28…Qd2 The only try. 29.f4! Rd6 (Defending f6. If 29…exf4 30.Rh4 , Black is forced to sacrifice the queen with 30…Qxg2+ 31.Kxg2 Nxh4+ 32.Kf2 Nxf5 , but after 33.Qxf6+ Ng7 34.Rd4 he is too passive to count on saving the game.) 30.fxe5 Qxh6 (30…fxe5?! shortens Black’s suffering because of 31.Rg5! , with the terrible threat Qxh7+ followed by Rh5+ and mate on h6.) 31.Nxh6 Rb6 32.exf6!? The most ambitious continuation, although the g8-rook was not poisoned either. 32…Rf8 33.Ref4! White calmly defends his important f6-pawn and Black is helpless in view of the threat h4-h5. The point is that 33…Nxf4 allows mate in 2 with 34.Rg8+! Rxg8 35.Nxf7#.
I spent a while look at this in my head earlier and I didn’t quite get it. I immediately tried to look at ideas like Qxh7+ followed by Rh4+, but there just wasn’t a mate. I looked at Rxg6 for a while, but I couldn’t find a good line after .. Qxh5 (or .. fxg6 for that matter).
I then saw that Qh6 threated a lot, but I struggled over how to punish .. Qd2. I saw something like f4, but I missed the culmination with Rh4 and Qxf6+. Without a concrete answer, I decided that Qh6 was probably best.
I then saw the solution on the Chessbase site, but I didn’t want to spoil it for anyone so I waited for someone else to post about it.
As I noted on the PlayChess server, there’s another instructive, hard-to-believe point here. Back up the last two moves: 27.Kg1-h2 Qd1. The purpose of 27.Kh2 was to threaten 28.Rh4 by stopping …Qd1+ being a check that would trade Queens. Black can’t take Nxh4 because White’s other Rook captures and then Black can’t defend both h7 and g7. Hence Black played …Qd1 anyway, thinking he had to pin White’s Rook in order to prevent 28.Rh4, but as many noted, the fact that Black’s Queen no longer observes f5 allows 28.Qh6!
However, Black could play with sang froid (ice-cold blood in French) anything like 27…c5!?, and answer 28.Rh4 by the retreat 28…Nf8! Now it *looks like* Black should get his face mated here, as White has 4 attackers to only 2 defenders, or 3 counting Black’s King. It is rare that one can retreat a stout blockader like the Knight on g6 and survive! Yet that appears to be the case—Black can defend f6 from the side, White’s Knight on f5 cannot become a 3rd attacker on h7, and Black can play …Rg6 if needed.
This is worth looking into further, but Deep Fritz 10 running for several minutes on 4 cores did not find a breakthrough
Qxh7+ Kxh7
Rh4+ Nxh4
Rxh4+ Qh5
Rxh5 mate
Qh7?? is horrible blunder
“Qh7?? is horrible blunder”
The one who posted this move probably would have more of your answer if you told him WHY he/she was wrong and not only say that he/she was a “Patzer”.
Always keep that in mind, please, friendliness and helpfulness in this blog should be naturally.
Anonymous 3:35 take a look at g6 – the black king can enter it after the knight has left.
So after white has sacced queen and rook vs. only a knight and a pawn black plays Kg6 and white should resign.
1. Qxh7+??, Kxh7
2. Rh4+, Nxh4
3. Rxh4+, Kg6 0:1
Greetings
Jochen