White to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Real game tactic
About Author
White to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Though I noticed the weak bank rank almost immediately, it took a couple of minutes to actually notice that white’s queen also attacks d8 directly. However, it wasn’t very obvious how to take advantage of this. I finally spotted the idea of knight fork from c7, and this made the rest easy to see, though it still took some thought on how to finish since some of the idea was illusion:
1. Qe7!
A double threat. I was so hung up on mating from d8, that I never noticed that the white queen could infiltrate to e7 to threat mate from e8, too. Black must either give the king a hole to hide in, or me must play Bd7. Moves like Qc6 allow mate starting with Qd8. Continuing:
1. …..Bd7
2. Rd5
The fork, of course, doesn’t really work since black can capture at d1 first, so white seems to be forced to play Rd5, but this does win:
2. …..Bb5
Or, if 2. …ed5, 3.Qxd7 will net a piece since white can play Qe7 if black tries 3. …Rd8 (the queen can’t take immediately at b5 without allowing Qxd8). If black tries Re8, white just captures at d7 with the queen and black will have to deal with Qe8 before he can capture at either b5 or d5. And, finally, on 2. …Bc6, white should win with 3.Rd6 Qb5 4.Rd8 Rd8 5.Qd8 Be8 netting an exchange similar to the line that follows. Continuing:
3. Rd6 Bc6
And white is up an exchange. He could probably just double the rooks and and win easily (my choice), or push the queenside starting with b4.
Back at move 1, giving the king a hole to hide doesn’t look better to me for black, though I think this line puts white to a tougher test:
1. Qe7 h6
2. Rd5 ed5 (Qb5 3.Rd8-+)
3. Nc7
And for a fork, though not the one I had in mind at the start:
3. …..Rb8
4. Nd5 Qe6
White gets a strong attack if black takes the poisoned b-pawn: [4. …Qb2? 5.Qe8 Kh7 6.Ne7 h5 (or play Be6 allowing Qxb8) 7.Qg8 Kh6 8.Qf7 Qb6 9.Re1 and how does black prevent Qf4?]. However, I now think black still can’t avoid losing material. Continuing:
5. Qc7 Qd5 (Ra8 6.Qd8 Kh7 7.Nc7)
6. Qb8 Qc5
7. c3 and white is still up an exchange, and now a pawn, too.
This wins, though I still have the nagging feeling I am missing a stronger play right at move 1 for white.
Qe7 has possibilities, but Bd7 reply appears to neutralize the attack. For example,
[FEN “r1b3k1/pp3ppp/1q2p3/1N1r2Q1/8/8/PPP2PPP/3R1RK1 w – – 0 0”]
1. Qe7 Bd7
2. Rxd5 Bxb5
3. Rd6 Bc6
4. Rfd1 h6
{Now we have a pretty good attack going, but the black king has an escape route and the white king is going to be very vulnerable if we remove the rook from the first file. For example,
5. Rd8+ Rxd8
6. Rxd8+ Kh7
7. h3 Qa5 {Now the white king is in great danger and white doesn’t have time to finish the attack on the black king with his rook and queen, unless I’m missing something.}
mating threat 1.Qe7 wins pawn and the initiative after 1. .. h6, rook exchange and Nc7; or wins exchange if 1. .. Bd7 2.Rxd5 Bxb5 3.Rd6. great attacking trio !