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Jan-12-23
 | | HeMateMe: Love dat pun! |
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| Jan-12-23 | | goodevans: A very pretty finish but hardly an 'insane' puzzle. You need only to see that g7 is fatally weak and that the R is dispensable as the B can take over the attacking duties. That said, GM Dominguez, who's no slouch, wasn't able to see that. |
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| Jan-12-23 | | dunican: A nice pun, indeed, but I am afraid I am not the one who's come up with it as stated on the homepage. |
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Jan-12-23
| | HeMateMe: You'll have to return the $1,000 prize money? |
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Jan-13-23
 | | Honza Cervenka: 26...Qb5 27.fxe6 Qc5+ 28.Bf2 Qc2 29.Qxc2 Bxc2 30.Rd7 Bxb3 would have been better. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | actinia: Another swing and a miss from whoever picks these puzzles. From comments above, 27. ? was a Sunday puzzle in 2011 and here 28. ? is 'very easy'. If 29. ... Kf8 then 30. Qxg7+ Ke8 31. ? is still tricky. Not a 'very easy' puzzle. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | Walter Glattke: 27.Rxg7+ mating 27.-Kxg7 28.Qxe5+ Kg6 29.Bc3 (no Qa1+) Rg8 30.Qf6+ Kh5 31.Qxf5+ Rg5 32.g4+ Kh4 33.Be1+ Kh3 34.Qf3# /32.-Kh6 33.Qf6+ Rg6 34.Qh4#
All other many variations quickly mate by a magic bishop effect - no escape |
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| Mar-31-25 | | King.Arthur.Brazil: The first move seems very easy: 28. Qxe5 Bxd7 29. Qd5+ Kf8 30. Bb4+ Ke8 31. Qg8#. (Good Mondays!). However, B can reply Be6 when 30. Qxa8+ Kf7 31. Qf3+ Kg8 32. Bb4? Qa1+ 33. Kf2 Qd4+win the WB. Or 30. Qxe6+ Kh8 31. Bc3 Rf8... there is some resistance. Therefore, best is 28. Qxe5 Bxd7 29. Bc3! Kf8 (forced) 30. Qxg7+ Ke8 31. Bb4 Qe2 32. Qf8#. The king really discovered this only after studying the annoying ... Be6! LOL. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | Allderdice83: Not your typical Monday puzzle. I was thinking, where's the sac? Then I found 27. Qxe5 Bxd7 28. Bc3, but after 28 ... Kf8, 29. Qxg7+ Ke8, White must be careful. Not 30. Bf6?? Qa3! which both covers e7 and allows Black to block 31. Qg8+ with Qf8. White appears to be flat-out losing here, although it's tricky. Instead, White must play 30. Bb4! taking away a3 from the queen, and the only way to stop White's 3 (!) mate threats is to give up the queen with 30 ... Qa1+ 31. Qxa1 Kf7. |
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Mar-31-25
 | | takebackok: Really think about it Monday, wow tricky not sure 28. Qxe5 Bxd7 29. Bc3 looks crushing but then (29...Kf7) no 29...Qf1+ and gets a little bumpy 30. Kxf1 Rf8+ 31. Kg1 forced (if Ke1 or e2 Re8) Rf6 32. Qb8+ Kf7 33. Bxf6 and then winning some pawns. I think. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | morea: What counts "Very Easy" here on chessgames.com? What is the level of playing strength? For 28. White to play, I looked at both Rxg7+ and Qxe5, but neither seemed to work. After 28. Rxg7+ Kxg7 29. Qxe5+ Black can simply defend with Kg6, and I couldn't see how White could regain the material. So instead I went for 28. Qxe5 Bxd7 29. Qd5+
because at least this wins back the Rook, though overall I thought White still remained worse. Then after some more thinking I thought that 28. Rxg7+ Kxg7 29. Qxe5+ Kg6 30. Qd6+ Kh5! (Kg5 Bd2+ mates soon, or Kf7 Qd5+, or Kg7 Bc3+ all allow the fork soon) 31. g4+! (the only move that works) and now 31... Bxg4 32. Qd5+,
or 31... Kxg4 32. Qg3+ Kh5 33. Qf3+
and White can equalize. It's hardly better than equal though... ======
Looking at the game continuation, I missed 29. Bc3!, but I think Black can still hold after 29... Kf7 or Kf8, because if White retakes the a8 Rook, the position is just about equal. So why did Black resign? ======
Looking at earlier comments, this used to be an "Insane" puzzle at move 27. I wish there were more consistency in how puzzles are graded. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | Walter Glattke: It seems 27. Rxg7+ Kxg7 28.Qxe5+ Kg6 29.Bc3 Qd3! wins for black, sf always plays 27. Qxe5 |
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Mar-31-25
 | | perfidious: This POTD belongs much later in the week than a mere Monday. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | King.Arthur.Brazil: On 29...Kf7 the winning line is: 30. Qxg7+ Ke6 31. Qe5+ Kf7 32. Qf6+ Ke8 33. Bb4 and B lose big material to save his K. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | saturn2: 28.Qxe5 and white attacks g7 So Bxd7 and now 29. Bc3 hopefully the king does not escape by Kf8 |
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| Mar-31-25 | | murkia: I love Sunday!
Got Saturday. Got Sunday. Missed Monday. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | mel gibson: Gee whizz - that's a tough Monday puzzle.
Stockfish 17 says mate in 20:
28. Qxe5
(28. Qxe5 (1.Qxe5 Bxd7 2.Bc3 Kf7 3.Qxg7+ Ke6 4.Qe5+ Kf7 5.Qf6+ Ke8 6.Bb4 Qf1+ 7.Qxf1 Kd8 8.Bd6 Be8 9.Be5 Kd7 10.Qf5+
Kd8 11.Qf3 Rb8 12.Bxb8 Ke7 13.Be5 Ke6 14.Qf6+ Kd5 15.Qd6+ Ke4 16.Bg7 b5
17.Qd4+ Kf5 18.Qf6+ Kg4 19.h3+ Kh5 20.Qh6+) +M20/68 730) White wins _ mate in 20. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | TheaN: <How> is this a Monday? This pattern is precise and I missed the fall back to f6, even after looking at my screen for like five minutes and didn't want to spend more on a Monday. <28.Qxe5> forces <28....Bxd7> due to the mate on g7 and now White can reinforce the threat with <29.Bc3>. This time around Qxg7+ is not avoidable (hence the rook sac) so <29....Kf8> is forced, leading to <30.Qxg7+ Kf8>:
click for larger view
I would have played this til mate as Black, even if a game between two super GMs. Point is that White has a lot of ways to slip up: just taking the rook is likely a draw, allowing the king to escape via d8 probably even loses but is at least a draw. White has to find a way to relocate the bishop (Bb4) without the king going to d8 to escape. Mind that this idea would work if Bf6 is playable but then Qa3 and Black takes the a3-f8 diagonal. Instead, White's queen has to request a dance from the Black king: <31.Qh8+! Kf7 (Ke7 32.Qf6+) 32.Qf6+ Ke8 (Kg8? 33.Qg7#)> and with the queen on f6, d8 is covered so <33.Bb4 +-> and Qa1+ is the only move preventing mate in the short term. Weird that I missed this, though I guess Qh8-f6 isn't natural. Very instructive showing the power of opposite bishops here, White relocates to f6 to create an inescapable mating net, all while keeping the opponent's major pieces at bay. The entire sequence after Qxe5+ is <not> Monday level, though, not even close. |
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Mar-31-25
 | | MissScarlett: Well, I found <Qxe5> easily. But I had missed the Rook being taken by the Bishop. |
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Mar-31-25
 | | scormus: <TheaN: <How> is this a Monday?>
I don't know, I didn't get all of it.
And I don't know why B resigned after 29 Bc3 either, I wouldn't think it was because he saw <mel's SF M20> and assumed W would see it as well.
After 29 ... Kf8 30 Qh8+ Ke7, 31 Qxa8? only draws so W has to hunt the BK down in order to win. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | Muttley101: <scormus: I don't know why B resigned after 29 Bc3 either, ... After 29 ... Kf8 30 Qh8+ Ke7, 31 Qxa8? only draws so W has to hunt the BK down in order to win.> Indeed, this is a mating attack. If 29 ... Kf8 then 30 Qh8+! Ke7 31 Qf6+! (this is the point of 30 Qh8+!, it forces the king to e7 or f7 so Qf6+ is now with tempo) 31 ... Ke8 (only move) and now 32 Bb4! is the quietus. Black's king cannot escape from the threat of Qe7#, and a1 is covered by white's queen, so 32 ... Qa1+ 33 Q:a1 leaves white a queen for rook up. You are right. When I saw the position I thought "why is this is a Monday puzzle?" as I know the game and that white sacs the rook to play Q:e5 and Bc3 at the end, and although this is short with few variations, it is by no means an easy position to solve. As others have said, this game has been used as a Sunday puzzle before. In conclusion, black resigned because after Bc3 he could see the mate. Great choice all the same, and people should embrace what it has to offer imho. |
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Mar-31-25
 | | chrisowen: I its war quick its lot dupe c fey its gm v its x Qxe5 its a bath its latch its ignite c i fo bag bug q fact film Qxe5 its ear x |
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| Mar-31-25 | | TheaN: <Muttley101: Great choice all the same, and people should embrace what it has to offer imho.> I do, but is not really the point. CG themselves imposed the increasing difficulty curve which is the staple of their puzzles. As I've said before, they're limited by game positions which means certain variations might be tougher, but that's where quality control comes in. This used to be fine (occasional day swap, and it's somewhat subjective also), but lately quite pivotal variations just seem to be blatantly ignored. Here, it was probably "yeah Black's getting mated after Bc3" and called it a day. What annoys me though is no feedback whatsoever; there's been some stir on the daily puzzle for a while now but we have no idea how they're picked and if there's any control atm. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | actinia: <TheaN> It makes me wonder why they don't proofread the daily puzzles. Give a strong player this puzzle and ask them if they agree it's very easy. A very easy puzzle would be mate or a big gain in material and an obvious win after a short sequence of moves. This puzzle has the Qh8+/Qf6+/Bb4 finesse you have to see to count as fully solved. |
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| Mar-31-25 | | actinia: Maybe for Tuesday this week we can get the 1999 Kasparov-Topalov rook sac as the 'easy' puzzle |
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sac: 28.Qxe5