a) 22...Bxc8/Be8 23.R(x)e8#

b) 22...Qd8 23.Qxd8+ Nxd8 24.Rxd4. Black is already two rooks down and will lose one of his skewered minor pieces as well.

c) 22...Nd8 23.Qxd7, and since Rxd7 again fails to Re8#, Black is a rook and a bishop down.

If 22... Bxc8 then Re8#

That takes care of "take the checking piece."

There are two other options. Move out of check is one. If 22... Kh7 then 23. Rxd4+ is a further disaster.

The final option, interposition, gives either 22... Nd8 or Qd8.

If 22... Qd8, then 23. Qxd8+ Nxd8 leaves white up the rook. If 22... Nd8, then 23. Qxd7 puts the threat of Re8# back in play, and there's really no good defense after that.

22. Qxc8+ Qd8 23. Qxd8 Nxd8 24. Rxd4

You could show a hundred examples of back rank mate to any student of the game but it won't make a jot of difference. It has to happen to them before the lesson sinks in. Feel the burn.

All this puzzle has done is remind me of a play-off final I won 2-1. I cannot remember one move of the two games I won but I do recall my loss. Back rank mated (it was not even a combo but a one move threat!)

Comparing Tal's blunder to Kasparov's missed win based on a weak rank...

Kasparov vs Ribli, 1989

...is not really correct. This was a blunder, a simple slip. It happens even to a genius such was Tal.

Tal quote - <In the first round three grandmasters lost, and I was one of them. That didn’t surprise me at all, because it was my sixth tournament in row when I lost in the first round>

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Kamsky vs G Meins, 2014