| Oct-12-15 | | rgr459: Nepo sacrifices his two central pawns for piece activity and creates tactical threats involving black's king. Nice game. |
|
Jan-13-17
 | | Gregor Samsa Mendel: I rarely get Friday problems, but I actually got this one, after 20 minutes of thought. White probably took less time than that for the entire game. |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | razetime: Whoah.. The final attack was perfection. I got it in about move 12 minutes. The final pawn move took most of my time. |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | diagonalley: <GSM> me too! |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | gofer: This one was quite simple for a <Friday>. <19 Qxb7 ...>
This removes one defender of Rc6 and White now threatens to win Rc6 by playing Bxe7 removing the rook's only remaining defender.
The rook has nowhere to go and cannot be defended by another piece. So the exchange is forced. <19 ... Rxc5>
<20 Ne4! ...>
The rook and queen are <forked!>... ...reminds me of a <Two Ronnies Sketch>. But the knight is immune.
20 ... dxe4
21 Qd7+ Kf8
22 Qd8#
So the queen must move, but where?! The problem is that after white has played <21 Nxc5> black is going to struggle to hold on to Ne7 because <21 ... O-O> is met by <22 Qxe7> - if the black queen has left the
d8-h4 diagonal...
<20 ... Qh4>
<21 g3 ...>
The queen is forced to leave the d8-h4 diagonal! <21 ... Qxh3>
<22 Nxc5 ...>
Now black cannot castle or it will lose Ne7, but if the king gets stuck in the middle of the board he is dead very quickly as Qh3 is hanging!!! 22 ... Nf5
23 Qd7+ Kf8
24 Qd8#
22 ... Bf6
23 Qb8+ Nc8
24 Qxc8+ ...
24 ...Bd8
25 Qd7+ Kf8
26 Rxe6!!! 
click for larger view24 ... Ke7
25 Rxe6!!! fxe6 (Qxe6 26 Qc7+ winning the queen) 26 Qd7+ Kf8
27 Nxe6+ Qxe6 (Kg8 Qe8#)
28 Qxe6
click for larger view<22 ... O-O>
<23 Qxe7 Bxb2> 
click for larger viewWhite is a rook up, but three pawns down. But black is still clearly losing. Positionally he has lots of weaknesses... |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | cocker: Beyond me, but 21 g3 is clever move to stop Black castling. |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | morfishine: Positionally obvious |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | Ninamoja7884: 20...De5 21.S:c5 Dd6 22.Da7 Sc6 23.Da8+
Ke7 24.Db7+ Kf8 25.Se4 Db8 26.D:c6 d:e4
27.Dc5+ Kg8 28.De7 Bf8 29.Rd8 Kg7 30.D:f7
K:f7 31. R:b8 g5 32.R:e4 Bg7.33.Rb7+ Kf6 34.Ra7 Kf5. 35.Rd2 Bd4 36.g4+ Kf6 37.R:a5 e5 38.Ra6+ Ke7 39.Rc2 Kd7 40.Rh6 Rb8.41.b3 Rh8 42.Kg2 Ra8 43.b4 1-0 |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | Captain Hindsight: But a quick castling ensures that the king is moved to a covered position before any pins or other threats can be applied by your opponent. |
|
Jan-13-17
 | | Jimfromprovidence: I thought that black would play 20...Qf4 so that after 21 Nxc5, 21...Qd6, below, stops 22 Qd7+.
click for larger viewWhite now has 22 Qb5+ Kf8 23 Qxa5 and is up an exchange. 
click for larger view |
|
Jan-13-17
 | | gawain: Instructive combination. I intuited the first couple of moves but failed to appreciate the full consequences. The pawn move 21 g3 is very fine, chasing the black queen from the d8-h4 diagonal. |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | YouRang: Friday 19.?
click for larger view
I (white) am down two pawns and my queen is under attack, which is a bit of a hint regarding which piece to move. I entertained the idea of counter-attacking the black queen (e.g. 19.Bxe7), which would be okay except after ...axb4, that pawn is attacking my Nc3. So, I eventually considered the obvious: Take back a pawn and get close to the black K with <19.Qxb7>.
click for larger view
Soon after contemplating this move, I saw the winning ideas related to opening the central files for the rooks. Black's position is extra tenuous because the black Q must defend Ne7 (otherwise Qxe7#), and the Ne7 is the only defender of Rc6. - My Bc5 isn't guarded by my Q anymore, but it's now defended tactically because of 19...Rxc5? 20.Ne4! forking Q+R, and black dare not try 20...dxe4?? (opening the d-file) 21.Qd7+/Qd8#. - But what if black doesn't take the Bc5, e.g. <19...Bf6> to guard Ne7? Then I have <20.Rxd5!>
click for larger view
I threaten both the black queen and Qd7+/Qd8#. Amazingly, the rook is immune even though it can be captured three ways: - 20...exd5? 21.Qxc6+ due to pinned N
- 20...Nxd5? 21.Qxc6+
- 20...Qxd5? 21.Nxd5.
It appears that any other move can be answered by removing the rook's defender: 20.Bxe7 Qxe7 21.Qxc6+ . |
|
Jan-13-17
 | | agb2002: White is two pawns down.
Black threatens axb4.
White has Qxa5, Qxb7, Bxe7, Nxd5, etc.
-----
19.Bxe7 seems to lose: 19... axb4 20.Bxg5 bxc3 21.Rxd5 0-0 22.Rd7 cxb2 - +. -----
19.Nxd5 loses a piece at least: 19... axb4 20.Bxe7 Qxd5 21.Rxd5 Kxe7 - +. -----
19.Qxa5 doesn't seem to achieve much after 19... 0-0 20.Bxe7 Qxe7 21.Nxd5 Qc5 22.Qxc5 Rxc5 23.Nb4 Bxb2 24.Nd3 Rc2 and Black keeps an extra pawn. -----
This leaves 19.Qxb7:
A) 19... Rxc5 20.Ne4
A.1) 20... dxe4 21.Qd7+ Kf8 22.Qd8#.
A.2) 20... Qf4 21.Nxc5 + - [R vs B+P] (21... Be5 22.Qb5+ Kf8 23.Nd7+ wins the bishop). A.3) 20... Qh4 21.Nxc5 Bd4 22.Qb8+ Nc8 23.Qxc8+ Ke7 24.Qc7+ Kf8 25.Nd3 wins. B) 19... Bxc3 20.Bxe7 Qxe7 21.Qxc6+ and 22.Qxc3 wins. C) 19... Be5 20.Rxe5 wins (20... Qxe5 21.Qxe7#). D) 19... 0-0 20.Bxe7 wins. |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | RandomVisitor: After the double pawn sacrifice white apparently has compensation, but needs to play accurately:
click for larger viewKomodo-10.1-64bit:
<0.00/34 14.Rad1> Bf6 15.Rfe1 Nge7 16.Bd4 Qg5 17.Bxf6 Qxf6 18.Rxd5 Nxd5 19.Nxd5 Qd8 20.Qc3 0-0 21.Nf6+ Kh8 22.Nd7+ Kg8 23.Nf6+ |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | swclark25: I looked at 19)Qxb7 but thought 19)Qxa5 might be better since it still protected Bishop on c5 and allow for follow-up Qa8+. Looking at Black after 19)Qxb7, would 19)..Bxc3 be better than 19)..Rxc5? Black could still take Bishop on c5 later. Am I missing something? |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | mel gibson: I saw it too but the computer doesn't give much of an advantage -
only 2 pawns worth:
19. Qxb7 (19.
Qxb7 (♕b4xb7 ♖c6xc5 ♘c3-e4 ♕g5-e5) +2.11/22 377) score +2.11 depth 22 |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | Boomie: <swclark25: Looking at Black after 19)Qxb7, would 19)..Bxc3 be better than 19)..Rxc5? Black could still take Bishop on c5 later. Am I missing something?> 20. Bxe7 and everything is hanging including the Rc6 with check. |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | morfishine: Perhaps <19.Qxa5> was sounder and more "solid", but <19.Qxb7> was "flashier" and slightly faster Who Knows and who cares as long as both are winning ***** |
|
| Jan-13-17 | | YouRang: <morfishine: Perhaps <19.Qxa5> was sounder and more "solid", but <19.Qxb7> was "flashier" and slightly faster
Who Knows and who cares as long as both are winning> Actually, 19.Qxa5 is not sounder or even winning.
click for larger view
It creates no immediate threat, whereas 19.Qxb7 threatened either 20.Bxe7 & Qxc6 or 20.Rxd5!. Without the immediate threat, black has time for either 19...O-O, or even 19...Bxc3. In either case, white has only recovered one of the two pawns he had lost. |
|
Kibitzing
