Black must have been expecting white to recapture on b3, but instead was surprised with

18 Ng6+ hxg6 19 Rh3#

A cute checkmate.

=====

The latter is what it did to me today; yes today, a Monday.

As I opened the puzzle home page I was already heady with the 'Q-sac-Monday' ease.

I was humming 'easy does it' under my breath when I noticed there was no Q to sac.

'No problem, its perhaps a day when you take the enemy Q instead.' That I could take it without having to move my little finger did not register in my complacent, humming-a-tune mood.

I decided to take the enemy Q with some style!

21. Nf7+ Kg8 22. Nh6+ Kh8 23. Bxb3 blah blah blah.

You can imagine my consternation as I clicked the link to the game.

What an obvious solution! I felt like a donkey whose arse too must of been red at that embarrassing moment.

Not for me to justify my predicament, but just a small anecdote comes to mind.

An elderly man riding a bike in slushy conditions slipped and fell. A group of urchins, barely controlling their guffaws of amusement, rushed to his help.

14.-,e3?
15.Rf3. The little trick with Ng6+ starts to surface, but still Black's bishop covers h3. Black gives a helping hand with one more pawn move:

15.-,b5?
16.Be6!
The Ng6+ thing is ready now. Good defenses are not easy to spot. 16.-,g6 does not look great, but what else?

16.-,Qb4+??

Losing the queen, or the king! The rest is history.

Dad: "Well, just take a look at the powerful pieces in your army."

Boy: "They're just chunks of wood."

Dad: "No, they're not. They're mighty heroes. You've got a queen - the most powerful piece on the board. She can zoom up files and diagonals. If the board was a gazillion squares wide, she could still travel from one end to the other in a single move. Think Xena the warrior princess. Amazonian lady in a leather miniskirt. But don't tell Mom I said so."

Boy: "Yeah, she's kinda neat. I guess. But the other army has got a queen too."

Dad: "Then there's the knight. Like a mounted Aragorn leaping over enemy orcs in one last stand at the battle for Helm's Deep."

Boy: "The other army has got knights too. It's like, boresville drawsville USA. He's got everything I've got. Couldn't I get something really cool, like a Mega Knight of Doom +4? Now that would be awesome!"

Dad: "Do you know that chess pieces can get superpowers?"

Boy: "You mean they go all green and muscly and all their clothes fall off except their shorts?"

Dad: "Something like that. You see, if you can get a knight past the middle of the board, he changes from mild mannered Peter Parker into a web-slinging crime fighter with sticky fingers."

Boy: "Don't believe you."

Dad: "It's true. And if a bishop can control a diagonal near the enemy king, he takes on laser-beam eyes. 100% lethal. And a rook turns into the man of steel if he can get safely to the third rank in front of his own pawns. Then he can swing from one side of the board to another."

Boy: You're just making this up! And how does the queen get to be a superhero?"

Dad: "Ah, that's a really neat trick. She gets her amazing powers when you sacrifice her, put her back in the box. Especially on a Monday. On chessgames.com."

White is a whole queen down.

Black threatens 18... Qxe6.