Jan-19-15
 | | Phony Benoni: And, as the Knight falls in our Monday Melodrama... |
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| Jan-19-15 | | lost in space: I love Mondays!
32....Rxf1+
A: 33. Rxf1 or 33. Qxf1 34. Qh2#
B: 33. Kxf1 Qf2# |
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| Jan-19-15 | | Cheapo by the Dozen: Toughest Monday for me for quite a while. I spent over a minute looking at lines that divert the knight before it occurred to me to eliminate it outright. |
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| Jan-19-15 | | M.Hassan: Black is 2 pawns up
32............Rxf1+
If 33.Rxf1 Qh2#
If 33.Kxf1 Qf2# |
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Jan-19-15
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: I'm impressed with how quickly Black's attack exploded in White's face after the too-clever 19.e4 and 20.Nd2. After 25...Rd4, just five moves later, pieces swarm all over the King side. |
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Jan-19-15
 | | agb2002: Black is two pawns ahead.
White threatens Qxc6.
The white knight prevents 32... Qh2#. Hence, 32... Rxf1+ 33.Q(R)xf1 (33.Kxf1 Qf2#) 33... Qh2#. |
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| Jan-19-15 | | stst: most direct is Rxf1 followed by Qf2#
but, a little more patient is to have R(d)-d2 threatening R(f)xg2 |
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Jan-19-15
 | | Once: Interesting game to play through. Black plays very energetically to push the white pieces back. |
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| Jan-19-15 | | morfishine: 32...Rxf1+ and mate next move: 33.Kxf1 Qf2# or 33.Qxf1 Qh2# <Once> I second that! ***** |
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Jan-19-15
 | | Oxspawn: The king has only one baseball bat and only the knight protecting h2 so cannot defend once the knight falls.
32. Rxf1+
33. Kxf1 Qf2#
33. Rxf1 or Qxf1 Qh2#
The white queen was chased around for a while before finding herself isolated and irrelevant. |
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| Jan-19-15 | | gars: I simply did not see 33) ... Qf2# after 32) Kxf1. Instead I tried 32) ... Rxg2+
33)Kxg2 e3+
34)Be4 Bxe4 and if my "chess vision" is right (it seldom is, by the way), this is a checkmate. |
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| Jan-19-15 | | gars: <Nick46> Mondays are always good to all of us, my problem is trying the Monday POTD before 0700am! |
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| Jan-19-15 | | zb2cr: Simple. Unlike a lot of Mondays, there are actually two braches to the tree of analysis, instead of all moves being forced. 32....Rxf1+ eliminates the White Knight guarding h2. Now two variations: a. 33. Rxf1, Qh2#
b. 33. Kxf1, Qf2#. |
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| Jan-19-15 | | TheaN: Monday 19 January 2015 <32....?> This one took me a while, because the typical monday sacrifices Qh1+, Qh2+ or Rxg2+ don't work. The white Nf1 is a thorn for black, that is defending against all possible mates. Hm, yeah. <32....Rxf1+> then. <33.Rxf1 Qh2# 0-> or <33.Kxf1 Qf2# 0-1> are equally mate. Interestingly, I missed that white can capture with the queen as well (read through the comments before posting as I saw the mate in two). Typically though, as long as the recapturing piece is not the other knight, Qh2 will be mate regardless. It does not matter white can recapture with multiple pieces, Rxf1 is the most obvious and explains the principle of Qh2#. |
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Jan-19-15
 | | Penguincw: When I first saw the puzzle, I thought it was a mate in one on h2. However, eliminating the knight will then allow black to check mate on f2 or h2 (depends on who takes the rook). |
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| Jan-19-15 | | CHESSTTCAMPS: Black is up two pawns and has all pieces activated, 3 of them virtually unopposed in the vicinity of the weakened white king-side. One defender prevents checkmate on h2, so black should eliminate it: 32... Rxf1+
A. 33.R|Qxf1 Qh2#
B. 33.Kxf1 Qf2#
So how did white drift into total passivity? |
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| Jan-19-15 | | TheaN: For what it's worth, after 31....Rxf2! white can no longer effectively defend against mate. 32.Qxf2 Qxf2+ 33.Kh1 e3! and mate to follow soon. Other tries just drop the queen in a silly fashion to avoid mate. <gars: 32) ... Rxg2+
33)Kxg2 e3+
34)Be4 Bxe4 and if my "chess vision" is right (it seldom is, by the way), this is a checkmate.> Not yet, but it works <32....Rxg2+ 33.Kxg2 e3+ 34.Be4 Bxe4+ 35.Kg1 Qh1#> I avoided mating with 35....Qf2# because that was the initial move you missed. White is seemingly as helpless against 32....Rxg2+ as Rxf1+, yet the latter is two moves quicker. |
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Jan-19-15
 | | Bubo bubo: As Q-sacs seem to have fallen out of favour in 2015, the key move is neither 32...Qh2+ nor 32...Qh1+. Black rather removes the guard of h2 and clears f2 for the queen with 32...Rxf1+, mating after 33.Rxf1 Qh2# or 33.Kxf1 Qf2# |
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| Jan-19-15 | | BOSTER: <An Englishman: After 25...Rd4 just five moves later pieces swarm all over the King side>. This is only because white played the wrong game.
This is the pos. white to play 27.
click for larger view Black rook d4 created the classical a pinning chain-knight e4-queen f4. But this pin could be very easy unpinning playing 27.Qg5. If black queen retreat white will play 28.f3.
And it is not clear who is better, even white queen mobility is limited. |
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Jan-19-15
 | | gawain: I like puzzles such as this one where there are alternative mates depending on which equally fatal choice the victim makes. |
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| Jan-19-15 | | laskereshevsky: 32...Rxf1; ...... Monday Business... |
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| Jan-19-15 | | ThunderFire234: <stst> Sure Rdd2 works, but it is only a mate in 10 after Qc8+, so why even risk that kind of thing when you can win immediately? And it's not like Rdd2 is easier to find than Rxf1+? ^^ |
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| Jan-19-15 | | passion pour 64: <gars> With 32...Rxg2+? 33.Kxg2 e3+ 34.Qxc6 Rd2+!(34...Qf2+? 35.Kh3 Black is lost) 35.Kg1 it's only 35...Qf2+ 36.Kh1 Qh4+ perpetual check.What a pity! |
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| Jan-19-15 | | TheaN: <passion pour 64: <gars> With 32...Rxg2+? 33.Kxg2 e3+ 34.Qxc6 Rd2+!(34...Qf2+? 35.Kh3 Black is lost) 35.Kg1 it's only 35...Qf2+ 36.Kh1 Qh4+ perpetual check.What a pity!> True story, missed that. 33....e3? is the losing move though, not 32....Rxg2+!? which is still mate in nine after 33....Rd2!. After 33....e3+? 34.Qxc6 Rd2 35.Nxd2! Qh2+ 36.Kf3 Ne5+ 37.Kxe3 Qh6+ 38.Ke2 Qh2+ 39.Kd1 Qh5+ 40.Kc2 Nxc6  White should in fact win, but that is quite a difficult position still. Not neccesary to look at, but interesting nonetheless. |
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| Jan-21-15 | | patzer2: White was busted after 27. h3? fxe5  .
Necessary was 27. Qg5! when Fritz indicates strong play might go 27. Qg5! Qe6! 28. h3 h6 29. Qh4 Nxf2! 30. Nf6+ Kg7 31. Nfh5+ gxh5 32. Nxf5+! Qxf5 33. Qe7+ Qf7 34. Qxe5+ Kg8 35. Qe6 Nxh3+ 36. gxh3 Bd5 37. Qxh6 Rd2 38. Qg5+ Kh8 39. Qh6+ Kg8 40. Qg5+ Qg7 41. Qxg7+ Kxg7 42. Red1 Rg2+ 43. Kh1 Rc2+ 44. Kg1 Rg2+ 45. Kh1 Rd2+ 46. Kg1 Rg2+ = with a draw by perpetual check. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 32...Rxf1+