48 .. Qg3
49 Qxd3 Qxd3
50 ba/b6 Kc7/Qh7+

*****

patzer2: Today's 48...Qg3! solution initiates a mate threat (e.g. 49. bxa6 Nf2#) which forces surrender of decisive material (i.e. White Queen) to delay mate (e.g. 49. Qxd3+ Qxd3 ) .

The immediate combination began a move earlier with 47...Qxf2+. However, as other posters have noted, White's game was lost long before. Perhaps 31. Qe2 = or 31. Qd1 = would've held.

P.S.: Took me longer than usual to solve this "easy" Tuesday puzzle because the forcing move 48...Qg3! wasn't initiated by a check or capture.

(I got full marks!)

Lot of compensation for that wreck of a king side pawn structure. Look also how the quick domination of the d file encourages white to liquidate the rooks. With the queens on the board and the quick liquidation of the rooks the doubled pawns are not a liability. So not only does the f4 pawn clamp down on white leaving the h pawn undefended, it also helps keep the f6 pawn giving the knight the e5 outpost. The knight is just the better piece. By move 30 or so the bishop does not have a useful thing to do. A frustrating position for white. What a difference from a rook and pawn ending.

Bottom line is, Black can always stop the pawn with his king, and the Queen and two extra passed pawns make short work of the white king.

Black wins by threatening mate with 48...Qg3! when 49...Nf2+ will be a killer, e.g. 49. Bg2 Nf2+ 50. Kg1 Qxa3 or 49. Qa2 Nf2+ 50. Qxf2 Qxf2 51. bxa6 c4.

This was a very unpleasant game for MVL, because black got the better play right out of the opening. White did not play the best line (better in this opening is Chessgames.com world team vs Akobian). By move 16 black already had the initiative, and tho white tried to simplify to relieve the pressure, by move 31 black had solved all his problems, and was up a pawn with promising chances in the ensuing endgame (3-2 queenside majority with centrally located knight, and better placed king. For the next half dozen moves white poked around looking to find complications in a queen ending, or chances for a repetition, but by move 38 it was clear that blacks chances were continuing to improve and white's position was all the more problematic. He was most likely already lost, tho he played on for another 10 moves. After 40.Qe1? Qd3! it was clear that black would take control of every bit of space white gave up. It then seemed the only hope for white is an outright blunder on blacks part. The last straw was 41.Be2? (who knows, apparently white was trying to remove knight squares and gave no consideration that after ...Qc2, Qd1+ was not available as a defense because of the weakness of his B pawn after Nd3. It's hard to say, but any way you look at it, there were not many good moves available for white. Very difficult.) In any event, black's king was moving into prime position and with his Q deep into white's q-side, and with white's king so far out of play, I don't think anyone would have criticized MVL for resigning at that point.

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