|
|||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|
Chessville
Advertise to Single insert:
|
Black's king is under pressure and short of squares but White is a piece down with three pieces hanging. Obviously, he must act quickly. Here is the solution as given by Florian in Informant 36: 1.Rxe7!! Kxe7 If 1...Rxh8 2.Rfxf7+ Kg8 3.Rg7+ Kf8 4.Rcf7 mate 2.Qf6+ Kd6 3.Rd1+ Kc5 Or 3...Kc7 4.Qe5+ Qd6 5.Qxd6 mate -- DS 4.Qd4+ Black resigned. Very nice, although 4.Qe5+ wins more quickly, as the reader can verify. In my opinion a move deserves two exclamation marks if it is particularly brilliant or (especially) if it is the only way to win. In this case a single exclam is more appropriate because there is another way for White to bring home the point: 1.Qxh7! This threatens 2.Qxf7 mate and so restricts Black's choice of replies. Now 1...f5 doesn't work on account of 2.Qxe7 mate, so that leaves only: 1...Rg7 2.Qh8+ Rg8 3.Qh5! This threatens mate on f7 yet again and Black has only one defence. 3...Rg7 Both 3...f5 and 3...f6 fail to 4.Qe8+ followed by 5.Qxe7+ and 3...Rg6 fails to 4.Qxg6. 4.Rxf7+! A thematic deflection combination. 4...Kg8 Taking the rook (with 4...Rxf7) loses immediately to 5.Qh8 mate. 5.Rxg7+ Kxg7 6.Rxe7+ White mates next move regardless of Black's reply. I think that in a practical game, and especially if White happens to be short of time, the alternate solution is much better because it involves more common tactical patterns and thus there is less chance of error. I don't know about you, but I find diagonal crossfire harder to visualise than crossfire along ranks and files. A matter of taste or of specific learning? I don't know.
Our hero Georg Marco was one of the greatest annotators of the nineteenth century, with a number of fine tournament books to his credit. However, his play in this game, while pretty, was not as accurate as it might have been: 1.Bb5!(?) Qxb5? This is far too compliant. Black can muster something of a defence with 1...Nxf4!? 2.gxf4 Qe6 3.f5 Qh6. He should still lose after 4.Qxh6 gxh6 but there is a lot of technical work remaining for White. 2.Ne7+ Kh8 3.Qxh7+! Kxh7 4.Rh1 mate
1.Rh1! f6 Forced. If 1...h6 then 2.Nf6+ wins the queen since 2...gxf6 allows 3.Qxh6 and mate next move. 2.Qxh7+ Kf7 3.g5! 3.f5 is also good but the text is simpler. 3...Rg8 Or 3...fxg5 4.Bh5 mate. 4.gxf6 Kf8 There is no defence against White's attack. All other moves allow 5.Bh5+ Kf8 6.f7 and wins. 5.Ne7! Qxe7 Black must surrender his queen, since 5...gxf6 fails to 6.Qxg8+ Kxe7 7.Rh7+ Ng7 8.Rxg7 mate. 6.fxe7 White has a queen against Black's rook, and from where I'm sitting his technical task looks a lot simpler than it did after 4...gxh6 in my note to Marco's analysis above. Finally, here is a more clear-cut example, again from the Encyclopaedia of Chess Middlegames: Combinations.
After 2...Bxf6 White's operation to drive Black's queen to d7 is completely superfluous. Simpler and stronger is the immediate 3.gxf6! since after 3...Nxf6 there follows 4.Rh8+ Kg7 5.Bh6+! as in the game. Black cannot prevent this. After 1.Rxh7, Black can stave off mate for quite awhile with 1...Qxd1+!? followed by 2...Kxh7. That alone should induce White to look for something stronger (see the next note.) In the diagram position, what could be simpler than the immediate 1.Qh2? Black is forced to play 1...h5, but then White has 2.Be2 Qd7 3.Nxh5! If Black does not capture on f6 next move, then White plays 4.Ng7 and mates soon thereafter. And if Black does capture on f6, he still gets mated quickly. I have enough examples of this sort of thing to fill a book. Don't tempt me!
Read more Backtalk!
|
The
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
