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Richard Costigan vs Lawrence Day
Toronto Winter Fest (1987), Toronto CAN, Jan-??
Indian Game: Wade-Tartakower Defense (A46)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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sac: 47.Qe6+ PGN: download | view | print Help: general | java-troubleshooting

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Kibitzer's Corner
Feb-21-18  Walter Glattke: Normally 47.Rxf7 would win.
Feb-21-18  agb2002: White is one pawn down.

Black threatens Q(R)xe3.

The white bishop covers d6 and f6. This suggests 47.Qe6+:

A) 47... fxe6 48.Rxf8+ Ke7 49.R1f7#.

B) 47... Re7 48.Qc8#.

C) 47... Kd8 48.Bf6+ wins the queen (48... Re7 49.Qxe4 followed by Bxe7, etc.).

D) 47... Be7 48.Qxf7+ Kd8 49.Qg8+ Bf8 50.Qxf8#.

Feb-21-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: 47.Qe6+ Be7 (47...Re7 48.Qc8#; 47...fxe6 48.Rxf8+ Ke7 49.R1f7#) 48.Qxf7+ Kd8 49.Qg8+ Bf8 50.Qxf8#.
Feb-21-18  ASchultz: I kept trying to make mate work with Qe6+ Kd8 Qb6+ Ke8 (Kc8 Qb8) Qb8+ Rd8 Qb5+ Rd7 but I only saw perpetual. Then I saw the bishop discovery.
Feb-21-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Can't remember which Costigan brother I met decades ago--they're twins. Nice comeback from what looked like a bad position.
Feb-21-18  stst: Tricky... first knee-jerk seems to be a Q-sac, QxR+, after KxQ, RxP+, the K can simply go up/down the e-file and the 2 WR can do nothing to deliver mate. Rather then, go with RxP threatening QxR mate, without any rescue. Naturally, RxR, then Qc8+, Ke7, Qc7+ Ke6, and Qd6#... step by step ... closer and closer ...

Qe6+ might be quicker only if a help-mate: fxQ then the 2R will execute. If Kd8 then it will be a long wind.

Feb-21-18  Whitehat1963: Didn’t even consider it. Should have, obviously.
Feb-21-18  Cheapo by the Dozen: Qh8/Bg7 depends on two non-forcing moves. That's too slow.

Qxd7+ is hard to make work; Black's king has too many places to go.

Rxf7 wins, because ... Rxf7 allows Qc8+/Qc7+/Qxf7+.

I stopped there, without even seeing that the queen is poisoned after Qe6+.

Feb-21-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  Dionysius1: 47. ♖xf7 works as well.If Black forces the Queen exchange then White picks up the bishop. If he takes on f7 White can keep checking to mate.
Feb-21-18  gofer: Like a few others, I found <47 Rxf7> checked all the possible responses and thought that the only defence for black was to exchange queens moving into an end game whole bishop down!

<47 Rxf7 ...>

Threatening Qxd7# and also Rxf8+ Ke7 R1f7#

47 ... Be7?
48 Qh8+ Bf7
49 Qxf8#

47 ... Rxf7
48 Qc8+ Ke7
49 Qc7+ Ke8 (Ke6 Qxf7#)
50 Qxf7+ Kd8
51 Qxf8+ Kd7
52 Qd6+ mate next

<47 ... Qxd3+>
<48 Qxd3 Rxd3>
<49 Rxf8+ Ke7>
<50 R1f7+ Ke6>
<51 Rf6+ ...>

51 ... Ke7
52 R8f7+ Kd8
53 Rxd7+ Kxd7
54 Kf2 +-

<51 ... Kd5>
<52 Kf2 > +-

Pg6 is impossible to defend and Pg4's promotion is probably less problematic than either Pb5 or Pc4, now that white's king is within reach of both of them!

~~~

Pity I didn't look further...

Feb-21-18  yadasampati: 47. Qe6+ is by far out the most elegant solution
Feb-21-18  whiteshark: <47.Qe6+!!>, and that's it.

Found it in a procedure of exclusion.

Feb-21-18  patzer2: I picked 47. Rxf7 +- for my solution to today's Wednesday puzzle. I didn't look for alternatives because I saw 47. Rxf7 Qxe3+ 48. Qxe3 Rxe3 49. Rxf8+ +- (+9.26 @ 30 ply, Stockfish 8) wins easy enough.

However, I wished I had considered the stronger game continuation 47. Qe6+! Kd8 48. Bf6+ +- (mate-in-12, Stockfish 8).

P.S.: Black's decisive mistake was the pawn grab 38...Rxc3?, allowing 39. Rh2! +- (+7.46 @ 29 ply, Stockfish 8). Instead, 38...Ra1 = holds it level after 38...Ra1 39. Rh2 Rxf1+ 40. Kxf1 Qa1+ Kf2 41. Qxc3 = (0.00 @ 33 ply, Stockfish 8).

Feb-21-18  mel gibson: Just out of interest.
Stockfish 8 says mate in 12:

47. Qe6+

(47. Qe6+ (♕h3-e6+ ♔e8-d8 ♗e5-f6+ ♔d8-c7
♕e6xe4 ♗f8-d6 ♖f1-a1 ♖c3-a3 ♖a1xa3 ♗d6xa3 ♕e4-a8 ♗a3-c5 ♖f2-a2 c4-c3 d4-d5 ♗c5xe3+ ♔g1-f1 ♖d7xd5 ♕a8xd5 ♔c7-c8 ♖a2-a8+ ♔c8-c7 ♗f6-d8+) +M12/42 59)

Feb-21-18  cocker: 'Found' 47 Rxf7 and didn't look any further.
Feb-21-18  Cibator: As Gerald Abrahams remarked, sacrifices on vacant squares can often be harder to spot!
Feb-21-18  malt: At first Glance, 47.R:f7 R:f7 48.Qc8+,
47...Q:e3+ Spoilt it
Then spied 47.Qe6+ Kd8
(47...fe6 48.Rf8# )
(47...Be7 48.Q:f7+ Kd8 49.Qg8+ Bf8 50.Q:f8#)
(47...Re7 48.Qc8#)
48.Bf6+ Kc7 49.Q:e4

Looked back at 47.R:f7 Q:e3+ 48.Q:e3 R:e3 49.R:f8+ Ke7 50.R1f7+ Ke6 51.Rf6+ Kd5 is as far as I got

Feb-21-18  Pasker: After wasting some time on Qxd7 I found the solution. Qe6+!! and if now Kd8 Bf6+ wins the queen and that's it.
Feb-21-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  Diademas: Patted myself on my back after finding 47 Rf7. The game continuation is much nicer.
Feb-21-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  Breunor: I also went for Rxf7. A harder puzzle is to go back one move to find 46 Bxe4!
Feb-21-18  takchess: Hmmm. I thought Qxd7 than a series of rook checks.
Feb-21-18  Marmot PFL: I found a longer and less elegant solution with 47 Rxf7 and see several others did the same. This is because quickly finding a good moves I failed to look for a better one. still I wold say it was easier than yesterday.
Feb-21-18  Marmot PFL: Mr Day played this game a few years after this one L Day vs T J Costigan, 1977 I played several sets of brothers but never twins as far as I know (hard to be sure with twins).
Feb-21-18  areknames: Like others I only considered 47.Rxf7. And yes, had there only been a pawn to capture on e6, the crushing Qxe6+ would have been so much easier to spot!

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