The pun seems out of place given that Waters was the winner with the black pieces.

Yeah, right. Try 20. Rh1 (this refutation has been first posted by <al wazir> and <dzechiel>). While 18...Bxg2 wins, it requres much more effort.

<craigdc: That's the quickest Thursday I've got for a while, so it must have been easy>

Seeing 18...Rxf3 does not mean you solved the puzzle.

You missed 20.xe7 xg2 21.h4 - should've played 20 ... xg2 instead of af8.

If you saw all this in a matter of seconds, congratulations. Why don't you just enter a tournament to cash in an IM norm? Correctly guessing the first move is not solving a puzzle!!

or

b) I'm getting much better.

Since so many others thinks so, too, I'm afraid the answer is a).

Anyway, I saw that in order to mate, Black must move his bishop out of the way to allow Qh2#, and that the knight defends that square. So let's first remove the knight with 18. ..Rxf3. After 19. exf3 Bxg2, White is dead, so what about 19. Bxf3? I noticed that 19. ..Bxf1 20. Kxf1 gives White a new flight square and the queen cannot give check from h1 since the bishop defends it. So why take the rook anyway, it's worse than useless for White. The only other square to put the bishop on is g2, and then it was easy to see that all of 20. Bxg4, Bxg2, Kxg2 or any other White move that doesn't give check leads to mate in 1. And giving check with 20. Qg8+ Rxg8 would only delay the inevitable. Not taking the rook on move 19 leads to catastrophe, too.

Then I thought I must have missed something because this is too easy. The key themes (destroy the guard and clearance for the queen) are easy to see, and White doesn't have many options. Plus, checkmate happens quickly in most lines so there's no need for deep evaluation. All in all, my solution seemed to be more Tuesday or at most Wednesday level. But White really doesn't have any convincing response.

Personally, I did take a look at 19. Qe6, but considered the position to be dead lost for White after 19. ..Bxg2. And what does White threaten to do anyway? Sacrifice the exchange by giving Q for N or R while Black's king remains in total safety? I confess I didn't calculate it out to a forced mate, but I know enough about chess that if you're a piece and an exchange down, you'd better have some positional compensation. And in this position, White does not get any compensation whatsoever. In fact, Black's pieces are still more active and the king is much more secure. Multiply things with the material advantage and that's enough to realize that Black wins easily, even if it's not a mate in 3.

To illustrate things, 19. Qe6 Bxg2 20. Kxg2 Rf6 may not be the fastest way, but it's not hard to see who's winning these positions:

a) After 21. Qxf6 Qh2+ 22. Kf3 Nxf6

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or

b) After 21. Qxg4 Qxg4

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or

c) After 21. Rh1 Qxh1+ 22. Kxh1 Rxe6

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<Billy Ray Valentine: even if White plays 19. Qe6 and Black doesn't find the best moves, Black still has moves which will bring home the full point (unless I'm missing something>

18. hxg3 xf3 19. e6 xg2 20. xg2 h2+ 21. xf3 f8+ 22. xg4 <h5+> 23. g5 f5+ 24. xf5 xf5 25. xf5 h3+ 26. g6

It will still take a while to win this:

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