This position appeared in a recent issue of
Chess Today:
It's Black to move and win, from the game Baklan-Hammer, Cappelle la Grande 2009; click below for the solution.
It's clear enough that the battery of Black's queen and bishop on the long diagonal spell trouble, but White's knight blocks the line while the queen seems to keep everything protected. No matter; Black can blast it apart starting with
22...Bd4!.
White resigned here, because after
23.Nxd4 Re1+! forces mate next move, whether by 24.Bh1 Qh1# or
24.Qxe1 Qxg2#.
Did this combination look familiar? If you're a Fischer fan (or at least well-acquainted with his games), it should. Here's the final position of his famous game with Robert Byrne, from the 1963/4 US Championship he won with an 11-0 score:
Byrne (White) resigned here, and in My 60 Memorable Games Fischer expressed "bitter disappointment" that Byrne didn't continue with
22.Qf2. What did Fischer have planned?
The answer is of course very similar to what we've already seen; it's the same motif, but with a small change in the move order. The first move is obvious,
22...Qh3+, and after
23.Kg1,
23...Re1+! does the trick:
24.Rxe1 Bxd4 25.Qxd4 Qg2#. (It has to be done this way and not a la Baklan-Hammer, as 23...Bxd4? 24.Rxd4 leaves the Ra1 free to deal with 24...Re1+??) I'm sure Hammer would have found his winning idea whether he knew the Fischer game or not, but it would be interesting to know if he was aware of it and whether it helped him find it sooner.