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Bh5 🙂 amazing move right?
Qxh6+
Qxh6+
1.Nxd6!.Rxd6.2.Qxe5+.f6.3.Qxd6.Qxd6.4.Rxd6 and white is exchange up with a continuing attack against exposed black king.
1….Bf4 does not help-2.Nxf7+.Kg7. 3.Nxd8.Bxh2.4.Rxh2 and white is a piece up with a continuing attack.
Harry
Here is a theme a good deal similar to yesterdays puzzle.
But less clear I think. Attractive seems:
1. Nxd6
The threat Nxf7+ gaining queen for knight must certainly be guarded.
1. … Rxd6 (what else?)
2. Qxe5+
Expecting K move or Bf6, then Qxd6 has gained R+2p for N and is up with quality.
But black has an interesting resource and will certainly try:
2. … Qf6!
How will white regain the sacked piece now? If Qxd6 then Qxf3 and black is up with 2B for R. If Qxf6 then Rxf6 and black rook is off the hook, black is up with a bishop. If Rxd6? then Qxe5 and black is up with queen. And 3. Rxh6+? Bxh6 seems to not help at all. But white must continue to investigate his resources here. He finds:
3. Qxd6 Qxf3 (or be down with quality)
4. Rxh6+! Bxh7? (alternatives below)
5. Qxh7+ Kg8
6. Rg1#
Or:
4. … Kg7?
5. Rg1! Qe3 (f6 Qxf6+)
6. Qf6+! Kg8
7. Rh8#
Amazing!
But I’m sure black instead plays:
4. … Kg8!
The better move, gaining tempo by not allowing Qf6 with check. Rg1 is no efficiently met by Qe3 (threatening Qxg1+).
I don’t have the time to analyze further now, so I leave it here:
1. Nxd6 Rxd6
2. Qxe5+ Qf6!
3. Qxd6 (what else?) Qxf3
4. Rxh6+ (what else?) Kg8!
How to continue here?
Who is better, black or white?
What is swindle and what is real?
1.Nd6
If 1…Rxd6 2.Qxe5
Otherwise 2…Nxc8
Thanks Suzan for all these problems.
One side line I ignored in my first line was:
1. Nxd6 Bf4??
2. Qxf4!! exf4
3. Nxf7+ Kg7
4. Nxd7
and white is up with a piece.
Fun, but still this doesn’t help against the problem I encountered after Nxd6 Rxd6! Qxe5+ Qf6!
I might like:
1. Bh5 Rf6
2. Bxf7
If black takes this B sack, then I find the N sack Nxh6 very promising.
If he doesn’t take, I suggest Qh5 or Rdg1 to be promising moves.
Generally, I find this diagram quite complicated.
Your whole analysis is flawed. Ask me how
Nxd6
I would have moved Knight to d6
Cold As Heaven
What’s the problem Suzie?, Your puzzles are getting easy.
1. Nxd6 Rxd6 (1…Bf4 2. Nxf7+ Kg7 3. Nxd8 wins) 2. Qxe5+ f6 3. Qxd6 wins 2 pawns and the exchange.
Kanayo
Qxh6
1Nd6 gives upper hand
My very first thought was Rxd6 (to keep the knight eyeing g7 and h6), but I quickly found the defense:
1. Rd6?? Rd6
2. Qe5 Rf6!
Even f6 or Qf6 should hold for black (though I am not completely sure), but Rf6 looks just flat out winning for black.
So, I decided to look at the other immediate capture at d6, and it looks better to me:
1. Nd6
Threatens Nf7 forking the king and queen while also threatening Nxc8. So, lets see if black can take the knight:
1. ……Rd6
2. Qe5 f6 (Qf6 3.Qd6 anyway)
3. Qd6 and white has won an exchange and still has major pressure on black’s king.
I keep thinking I am missing something even stronger here, but not sure what it might be.
Nitul,
I didn’t spot Bh5. It might play out this way:
1. Bh5 Rf6
2. Nd6 Rd6
3. Qe5 f6
4. Qd6 Qd6
5. Rd6 Be4
And white has won an exchange for a pawn. I think 1.Nd6 is just better for the extra pawn.
Nxd6
Nxd6 and next Qxe5+?
? Whats wrong with Nxd6?
Norwegian patzer
It seems that none of you looked into this line:
1. Nxd6 Rxd6
2. Qxe5+ Qf6!
Better than f6.
The point is that Bf3 hangs!
3. Qxd6 Qxf3
White has given 2 pieces for a rook.
How does white win this?
pht,
I did look at it, though I provided few details other than that white continue with Qd6. I should have taken a deeper look, though, since I underestimated its complexity a little. That line is worse for black if he plays Qf3, and no better if he doesn’t:
1. Nd6 Rd6
2. Qe5 Qf6
3. Qd6 Qf3?
4. Rh6! Kg7
Of course, 4. …Bh6 is mate starting with 5.Qh6+ and 6.Rg1+. Also, 4. …Kg8 is met by 5.Rg1 Qe3 6.Qh2+-. Continuing:
5. Rg1 f6
6. Rg5 Kh6 (mate otherwise)
7. Rf5! Qh1 (nothing better now)
8. Ka2 and exactly how does black prevent mate without giving up major material?
I saw pht’s suggestion in an earlier comment of the defense …Qf6 and it appears to be a good one. Some others, without offering supporting analysis (until Yance supplied some), proposed 1) Bh5 for White’s next move instead of 1) Nxd6 and this could be the rationale behind it – at h5 the Bishop won’t be hanging after an eventual Nxd6 Rxd6; Qxe5 Qf6.
On the other hand with 1) Bh5 White invites a whole other set of variations beginning with …Bxe4 where Black tries to balance the exchange of Bishops for Rooks.My notes are a bit of a mess so for now I’ll just point out the main starting variation:
1. Bh5 Bxe4 [If …Rf6 then White proceeds with the Nxd6 plan. 2) Nxd6 Rxd6, 3) Qxe5 and now if …Qf6, the Black Queen isn’t threatening to pick up the Bishop in the series of exchanges. That’s the point of Bh5]
2. Bxg6 Bxh1
3. Nxd6 … Getting wild but at least we have this one motif familiar from our previous analysis. But now there’s no Black Rook to snap off the Knight. Nxf7 is of course the immediate threat and Black must either move the King to avoid discovered check or move the Queen
[A – Black moves the King]
3. … Kg8 Avoiding discovered check and simultaneously creating a pin on the Knight as the Rook on d1 is unprotected
4. Bxf7 Kf8
5. Qxh1 … I’m not at all sure what’s best here but perhaps simple is best?! White momentarily has a piece up, removes the pin on the Knight by protecting the Rook and renews the threat to win an exchange and make use of the discovered attack on the Queen
[B – Black moves the Queen, but where?]
[B1] 3. … Qc7
4. Qxe5+ Kg8 Perhaps … f6 is a tougher defense. Perhaps White replies 5. Qe6 – White still threatens Nxc8 and Rxh1 and now his own Bishop is no longer under attack. This analysis is getting too long and my notes are messy so I won’t analyze in depth.
5. Bxf7+ Kf8
6. Be6 … Not at all sure what’s best here but this simple retreat has a two-fold idea: to free the Knight from the burden of portecting the Bishop in case White gets a chance to play Nxc8. Also, if the Black Rook moves and no longer protects the Queen, White threatens Qh8+ Ke7; Qg7+ skewering the King and Queen.
[B2] 3. … Qf6 Isn’t White simply winning material after either 4. Nxc8 or 4. Qxh1?
Summary – 1. Bh5 may be the most promising. It looks better than an immediate 1) Nxd6 because of the …Qf6 defense that pht mentioned. In the variations with 1… Bxe4; the …Qc7 defense on move 3 looks like the most critical one
– Craigaroo
Oh, now I see Yancy Ward’s additional analysis of the …Qf6 / …Qxf3 line after 1.Nxd6.
At a glance it looks good. I like especially his contribution of 6.Qh2 in the line 3…Qxf3, 4.Rh6 Kg8
– Craigaroo
To Yancey Ward:
Thanks a lot for diving deeper into a line more complex than anticipated.
After:
1. Nd6 Rd6
2. Qe5 Qf6!?
it’s human to miss that Bf3 is hanging.
I think perhaps you did (and I’m certainly human) since I otherwise miss the source of complexity….
I might like to point out that 2. … Qf6!? seems the only likely answer here, since the alternatives lack any practical promises and seem next to resigning! Whenever you think you stand poor, you want to complicate, don’t you?
Well, after:
1. Nd6 Rd6
2. Qe5 Qf6
3. Qd6 Qf3!?
we have the interesting situation that white needs to find a mate pattern (either mating or gaining really heavy material).
So this is exactly what we have to investigate, isn’t it?
Enforced is:
4. Rh6
Here I see no need to look at Bh6?? so the alternatives are Kg7 or Kg8.
After
4. … Kg7/Kh7
5. Rg1
you suggest 5. … f6
And that’s exactly the black move I don’t like!
Personally I miss what’s wrong with:
5. … Qe3?!
With the double function that it threats Qxg1 since there is only one rook in first line now, and it guards:
6. Rxg5 Qxg5!
and I miss to see what white has next.
I don’t claim that black wins, but this really seems complicated…
pht,
Uh, the thing that is wrong with black’s Qe3 at move 5 is the little matter of 6.Qf6 check followed by 7.Rh8 mate. It is easy to overlook the pin on black’s bishop leaves the f6 square undefended.
As for the entire line of 2. …Qf6, where I underestimated it was in the value of 4. …Kg7 attacking the rook at h6, not in missing Qxf3.
To Yancey Ward:
Thanks for so patiently answering my questions.
Yes, I do see the pin on the bishop, and I do see white’s winning 6. Qf6+, when the king is on g7.
Then I have to go back to
4. … Kg7
In my notices I had the somewhat ugly or artificial looking 4. … Kg8 here, and that’s why 6. Qf6 wasn’t a check in my line!
So I have to find out what actually happens when I play:
4. … Kh8
5. Rg1! Qe3 (only try to delay white’s Qf6)
6. R6h1!!
Oops, that was the simple move I actually missed!
With both white rooks well protected (instead of 2 hanging rooks), open h file and pinned bishop in g file, this continues:
6. … f6 (or any)
7. Qf6!
and this is over soon.
After 4. … Kg7 it goes as you already outlined.
Thanks a lot for your contribution on this one!
Yes, 6.Rhh1 will win, too. Black surely defends better with a move like 6. …Be4 rather than f6, but I see no real defense after white plays 7.Qe5.
I feel sorry and ashamed to have suggested 6.Qh2 to pht when Yancey had already suggested the same.Just while glancing through I read comment by anonymous thanking Yancey for suggesting it.Still I could not find it in Yancey’s comment.Then I searched “Qh2” by using CTRL F key and noticed Yancey’s comment
Dear pht,
Possibly you have not moved the pieces on chessboard but simply calculated in mind seeing just the original position.Otherwise you would not have missed the forcing lines.
1.Nxd6 Rxd6 2.Qxe5+ Qf6 3.Qxd6 Qxf3 4.Rxh6+ Kg8 5.Rg1 Qe3 6.Qh2
(a)6…. Kf8
7.Rh8+ Ke7
8.Qe5+ Kd7
9.Rd1+ Bd5
10.Rxd5+ Kc6
11.Rxc8+ (here you thought it is without check)
11….. Kb7
12.Qc7+ Ka6
13.Ra8+ Qa7
14.Qxa7#
(b)6… f6
7.Rh8+ Kf7
8.Qh7+ Ke6
9.Qf5+ Ke7
10.Rh7+ Kf8
11.Qxc8+ Be8
12.Rh8+ Kg7
13.Qxe8 Qxg1+
14.Ka2 f5
15.Qf8+ Kg6
16.exf5#
These are just sample moves.It is possible to vary at times but the outcome is obvious.