White to move &
win
White looks poised to launch an attack on the black
king, but how? It seems like everything is held together.
Still, White holds a 4-1 piece advantage in the attack: queen, rook,
rook and bishop versus the lonely knight. None of Black's other
pieces are close enough to help out with the defense.
So White is +3 in the piece count, which means there
just HAS to be a way to break through Black's defenses. That
bears repeating: with a +3 piece count available to the attack,
their simply has to be a way to break through. That means
you have to look for it!
Let's look again at Black's defenses:
-
The knight is defended by the pawn and the king.
-
The pawn is defended by the king.
-
The potential invasion square c7 is protected by the
king.
Starting to notice a pattern? The king is doing
everything! It HAS to be overworked.
1.Rxa7+ Kxa7 2.Rc7+
The rook sacrifice deflected the king away from c7,
allowing White to invade with his other rook.
2...Ka6
Other tries don't work any better:
2...Kb8 3.Qxb6+ Ka8 4.Ra7#;
2...Ka8 3.Qa3+ Na4 4.Qxa4+ Kb8 5.Qa7#
3.Qa3+
The king is being forced out into the middle of the
board. Black has nothing better than the desperado...
3...Na4
3...Kb5 4.Rc5# (4.Qa5#)
4.Qxa4+ Kb6 5.Qc6# (or 5.Qa5#)
Notice the e1-bishop is getting in on the action too, preventing the
king's escape to a5.
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