26.Qxg6 wins a piece, as 26. ...hxg6 27.Rf3 sees Black without defensive ressource against mate.

I was about to post a sophisticated and philosophic essay on such a combination, but I decided it would be a little too 'overwrited'

:0)

Peace!

I would have played Qxg6 OTB, but it was getting annoyed at not "seeing how it works".

Welcome to CG.

When rated 1000, I think that one should concentrate on studying tactic and playing often. It doesn' t make sense to learn opening variations by heart, nor to go deep in endgame study.

For opening theory, just try to follow what chess players call 'the 3 golden rules', i.e. control the center; develop your pieces; hide the K.

For endgame, get familiar at mating with K+Q vs K, K+R vs K, Q(R)+R vs K, and maybe K+B+B vs K. Get acquainted to what is insufficient to mate and some K+P vs K endgame.

Learn to recognize tactic patterns like:

THE BASIC MATES;
DOUBLE ATTACKS;
PINS; THE ABSOLUTE & RELATIVE ONES
SKEWERS;
DISCOVERED CHECKS/ATTACKS;
INTERFERENCE;
CLEARING THE PATH (for someone' s piece)

Practice at solving puzzles, say, 1/2 to an hour a day. There are plenty of excellent training books available. Here' s one concentrating on mate patterns: CHESS, by Laszlo Polgar. There' s 5334 problems in that book !

Today it took me a little longer to realize that I would have enough time to bring the rook into play. 26...hxg7 27.f3 and mate follows.

There were several things that lead me to the solution quickly: 1) The "Greco's mate" pattern is something I "know"; 2) I tend to look at forcing moves (i.e. checks, captures, and threats); 3)The black king cannot move.

Just keep trying!

QUIET MOVES (as one calls 27.Rf3 here) are among the most difficult to find. That is because such a move does not attack anything immediatly but instead introduces a delayed threat, here 28.Rh3. The main difficulty related with a QUIET MOVE is that although it seems to be a kind of 'hoping-the-opponent-don' t-see-the-trick' move, it is in fact flawless, as Black does not have any way of defending against the delayed threat, nor has he any sort of counter-attack to disturb.

By the way, here is an interesting link for practicing. You will find there hundreds of easy-to-solve puzzles, classified from 1 to 4 move solution.

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com...

This also apply to <nanok> as well.

1) First choice, look at the most violent (usually Queen) sac available on the board.

2) Dismiss the enemy position as hopeless if the sacrifice is rejected, if it can be.

3) After sacrifice is accepted, continue with obvious follow-up.

4) Check to verify that the enemy cannot stop the mate threat, or only by giving up their own Queen and more.

<26.?>

Material: /+\ /

Candidates: <[Qxg6]>

-ML-
The 'puzzle' is relatively easy because the position presented only has one 'puzzle move'. However, finding such a move in a game is something completely different, as compared to the Monday puzzle.

<26.Qxg6!!> is a relatively passive Queen sacrifice that leads to a completely won game for White. Accepting, although the continuation is a passive move from White, leads to mate.

/A\
<26....hxg6 27.Rf3> and Black has no defense to mate along the h-file.

<27....Re6 28.Bxe6 Qf7 <(28....Qe7 29.Rh3† Qh4 30.Rxh4‡ 1-0)> 29.Bxf7 Rg8 30.Rh3‡ 1-0>

/B\
However, Black doesn't have that many good moves to counter. Black has lost a piece and the threat is still there. After Qe7 or h6: