Tactics Time!: Solutions
A couple of days ago, I presented a couple of tactical exercises.
Here's the first:
And here is the second:
Black to move and win in both cases. Solutions follow:
Position 1 (Meskhi-Lelchuk, Yurmala 1980):
I suspect that many of you immediately thought of 1...Qg3, with the idea of the elegant mate after 2.fxg3 Nxg3#. Unfortunately, 1...Qg3? is met not by 2.fxg3? but 2.Qxf3!, when White is winning.
Instead, Black should simply grab a pawn with 1...Qxe4. White's best now is to accept the loss of the pawn and push Black's pieces out with 2.Be2 Nh4 3.Rg1 Nf4 4.Nxf4 exf4 5.Bd3, when Black is up a pawn with a superior position after 5...Qd5, but at least White is still alive.
White decided to fight back with 2.Nxc7 Bxc7 3.Bd5, when a queen retreat or 3...Ng3+ 4.fxg3 Qxe3 5.Rxf3 leaves White with an edge.
But now, the "original recipe" works:
3...Qxe3!
Again, 4.fxe3? walks into Ng3#, but White saw this and was prepared:
4.Bxf3
If the queen retreats with 4...Qc5, then 5.Bxh5 leaves White down a pawn after 5...Rxf2, but the opposite-colored bishops leave White with some drawing chances, as long as the Black bishop doesn't find an open b8-h2 diagonal to the White king. But there's much better:
4...Rxf3!
Very neat! If 5.fxe3 Black regains the queen - with a full extra piece as interest - after 5...Rxf1+ 6.Qxf1 Ng3+ and 7...Nxf1.
White chose instead 5.Qxf3, but after 5...Qxf3 6.gxf3 Rf8 Black had a completely won game. The remaining moves were 7.Rfe1 Rxf2 8.Kg2 Rd3 9.Re3 Nf4+ 10.Kg3 Rd2 11.b3 Bb6 12.Rf3 g5 13.Re1 Bxf2+! 0-1
Position 2 (Koskinen-Kasanen, Helsinki 1967):
Our second game is, by all accounts, a fraud. The full game has never been seen, every writer who includes this position has expressed severe skepticism, and I believe I finally saw an explicit admission in the last year that the game was bogus. (If someone knows/can remind me of the location of that report, that would be great.)
That said, it's a wonderfully imaginative fraud! The White king is in tons of trouble, obviously enough, but if White can get in b3, clearing the b2 square for retreat, then his huge material advantage (two pieces and two pawns!) may lead to victory.
For now, though, Black almost has two ways to give mate: first, by taking on b4; second, with ...Nc2+. In both cases, White has just enough to stop the threat. The first is covered by White's defensive "supply line" on the e1-c3 diagonal, the second by White's rook's defense along the h2-c2 line. These two defensive lines intersect at d2, and that little fact is what underlies the winning idea.
So now we have an idea, but how do we enact it? 1...Qd2 won't work, because although it occupies the magic square, Black is also getting rid of one of the attackers of b4. So, incredibly, the solution is
1...Qxb4+!! 2.Bxb4
and only now
2...Rd2!!
Incredibly, Black, who is already down a queen, two pieces and two pawns, places a rook en prise - and in style, as the rook can be taken five different ways! Nevertheless, Black is threatening both 3...Nc2# and 3...axb4#, and there's only one way to stop both:
3.Qxd2
Unfortunately, the White queen is now overloaded. She needs to protect both c2 and b4, so Black can win by driving her away from one of the two defensive lines. As the c2 square has backup from the rook on h2 but the b4 square does not, our solution - involving another sacrifice, naturally - is
3...Nc2+! 4.Qxc2 axb4#
Fantastic! A nice final touch is that it's a pure mate: none of Black's queenside units are superfluous: each covers exactly one square relevant to the mating net. The first time I saw this puzzle, it gave me goose bumps. I don't react that strongly to it any longer, but it still pleases to me to see it, and it's a pleasure to share it with others and to see their reaction as well.
I hope you liked it!
Here's the first:
And here is the second:
Black to move and win in both cases. Solutions follow:
(show)
Position 1 (Meskhi-Lelchuk, Yurmala 1980):
I suspect that many of you immediately thought of 1...Qg3, with the idea of the elegant mate after 2.fxg3 Nxg3#. Unfortunately, 1...Qg3? is met not by 2.fxg3? but 2.Qxf3!, when White is winning.
Instead, Black should simply grab a pawn with 1...Qxe4. White's best now is to accept the loss of the pawn and push Black's pieces out with 2.Be2 Nh4 3.Rg1 Nf4 4.Nxf4 exf4 5.Bd3, when Black is up a pawn with a superior position after 5...Qd5, but at least White is still alive.
White decided to fight back with 2.Nxc7 Bxc7 3.Bd5, when a queen retreat or 3...Ng3+ 4.fxg3 Qxe3 5.Rxf3 leaves White with an edge.
But now, the "original recipe" works:
3...Qxe3!
Again, 4.fxe3? walks into Ng3#, but White saw this and was prepared:
4.Bxf3
If the queen retreats with 4...Qc5, then 5.Bxh5 leaves White down a pawn after 5...Rxf2, but the opposite-colored bishops leave White with some drawing chances, as long as the Black bishop doesn't find an open b8-h2 diagonal to the White king. But there's much better:
4...Rxf3!
Very neat! If 5.fxe3 Black regains the queen - with a full extra piece as interest - after 5...Rxf1+ 6.Qxf1 Ng3+ and 7...Nxf1.
White chose instead 5.Qxf3, but after 5...Qxf3 6.gxf3 Rf8 Black had a completely won game. The remaining moves were 7.Rfe1 Rxf2 8.Kg2 Rd3 9.Re3 Nf4+ 10.Kg3 Rd2 11.b3 Bb6 12.Rf3 g5 13.Re1 Bxf2+! 0-1
Position 2 (Koskinen-Kasanen, Helsinki 1967):
Our second game is, by all accounts, a fraud. The full game has never been seen, every writer who includes this position has expressed severe skepticism, and I believe I finally saw an explicit admission in the last year that the game was bogus. (If someone knows/can remind me of the location of that report, that would be great.)
That said, it's a wonderfully imaginative fraud! The White king is in tons of trouble, obviously enough, but if White can get in b3, clearing the b2 square for retreat, then his huge material advantage (two pieces and two pawns!) may lead to victory.
For now, though, Black almost has two ways to give mate: first, by taking on b4; second, with ...Nc2+. In both cases, White has just enough to stop the threat. The first is covered by White's defensive "supply line" on the e1-c3 diagonal, the second by White's rook's defense along the h2-c2 line. These two defensive lines intersect at d2, and that little fact is what underlies the winning idea.
So now we have an idea, but how do we enact it? 1...Qd2 won't work, because although it occupies the magic square, Black is also getting rid of one of the attackers of b4. So, incredibly, the solution is
1...Qxb4+!! 2.Bxb4
and only now
2...Rd2!!
Incredibly, Black, who is already down a queen, two pieces and two pawns, places a rook en prise - and in style, as the rook can be taken five different ways! Nevertheless, Black is threatening both 3...Nc2# and 3...axb4#, and there's only one way to stop both:
3.Qxd2
Unfortunately, the White queen is now overloaded. She needs to protect both c2 and b4, so Black can win by driving her away from one of the two defensive lines. As the c2 square has backup from the rook on h2 but the b4 square does not, our solution - involving another sacrifice, naturally - is
3...Nc2+! 4.Qxc2 axb4#
Fantastic! A nice final touch is that it's a pure mate: none of Black's queenside units are superfluous: each covers exactly one square relevant to the mating net. The first time I saw this puzzle, it gave me goose bumps. I don't react that strongly to it any longer, but it still pleases to me to see it, and it's a pleasure to share it with others and to see their reaction as well.
I hope you liked it!
(hide)
Related Posts (on one page):
- Tactics Time!: Solutions
- Tactics Time!