Best move to activate rook is by g5 plus its forcing since it threatens to capture a piece if Black moves the Knight his exposing himself even more considering its a key defender (of h7-square)

23. g5 hxg6
(23...Nf8? 24. gxh6 gxh6 25. Rxh6 and Black position is very risky and unsafe)

Now white attempts to attack Black weak h8 by Ng6, again very forcing since it threatens mate via 25. Rh8#

24. Ng6!

If Black decides to play fxg6?? this allows White a very strong move Qxe6+

25... fxg6??
26. Qxe6+ Qf7
27. Rh8+! Kxh8
28. Qxf7 and white is winning

26. Qxe6+ Kf8??
27. Rh8+ Ng8
28. Qxg8+ mate 1-0

So fxg6?? is out of the picture
After 24. Ng6 maybe Black could try
either 24...Nh7 or 24...Rh4 since any other move allows Rh8#

25. Ng6! Nh7
26. Rxh7 Kxh7
27. Qh5+ Kg8
28. Qh8# (So Nh7 no good)

24. Ng6! Rh4
25. Nxh4 gxh4
26. Rxh4 g6
And Blacks position is abit better now although his down the exchange

And finally after 24. Ng6!
Black cant try 24. Bxg2+?! as this leads no where

e.g.
24. Ng6! Bxg2+?!
25. Kxg2 Rg4+??
26. Qxg4!
(since Black cant recapture the queen because of Rh8#)

24. Ng6! Bxg2+?!
25. Kxg2 Qb7+
26. f3 also leads Black no where

Lets see how I faired

==

Just glancing at the position, my gut instinct says that it is black who appears better. Black is castled, with no doubled pawns and his bishop and rook both seem to be more active than their white counterparts.

But, white has some advantages as well: All the open h-file gives ready access to the black king, and all of the white pieces are aimed in that direction. Lastly, the black pieces by-and-large are not in position to defend the monarch.

So, what are some ideas here? Let's list some candidate moves and the ideas behind them.

- 23 g5, by pushing this pawn white will either gain a tempo on the knight and be able to play 24 gxh6, or black will be forced to capture with 23...hxg5 opening the h-file completely for the white rook/queen combination.

- 23 Nxf7, as has been seen many times in the past, f2/f7 is the weakest point on the board, and by taking this pawn white would remove the support for the black pawn on e6 at the same time he's opening the e-file allowing a double attack on that square.

- 23 Qe3, this attacks the rook on d4 (in order to gain a tempo), but also positions the white queen for quick transfer to the h-file, or to cover g5.

I don't see any other candidates that I want to get behind (but that certainly doesn't mean I'm right. If I had to pick one of these, it would be

23 Qe3

Gaining a tempo by attacking the rook. Black would normally respond with

23...Rad8 24 g5

I don't know how black will respond here. Taking with

24...hxg5

seems to give white an awful lot of activity for his pieces (25 Qh3), but it may be survivable.

I suggest giving the exchange and putting a halt to White's attack. White hasn't a forced win after 23..Re4!

But looking at the solution, i think the puzzle is indeed quite "easy". 23.g5 is a move that certainly comes to mind, and once you see that the knight on g6 cannot be taken (which is not too difficult) 24.Ng6 is obvious.

i think, if the puzzle has been rated medium/difficult i would have been able to solve it.

Sure, back can give an exchange (23...Re4 or 24...Rh4), but in may eyes both lead to a technical lost position.

i do not agree with <Terry McCracken>'s <White hasn't a forced win after 23..Re4>. i think the position is a technical win for white. And in a won position you always have a forced win (by definition), although we are not able to give the lines.>

Of course you don't agree as you don't know what you're talking about!

Switching to the darkside, Black's Rd4 is unprotected and his Ra8 is out of play. The Bb7 is a threat - we have to watch out for lines with Bxg2+.

I looked for a while at 23. Qe3, but it didn't excite me. Black defends his rook with 23...Rad8 and on 24. g5 hg 25. Qh6 Rh5. Can't see how white is going to break through.

So then I switched my allegiances to 23. g5 with a double hit on Nf6 and h6. And this is where it started to get fuzzy. Black has many defences to calculate. We need to think about hg, Nd7, Ng4, Re4, Ne4. Wandered down some pretty lines for each ... not worth recounting here. But I figured that 23. g5 was the move I would play, so I went for that. Long and bitter experience has taught me not to spend too long on Sundays.

Fritz11 finds this: 23. g5 Re4 24. Bxe4 Nxe4 25. Nd3 Nxg5 26. Nxb4 Rc8 with an eval of +1.02. Good for white, but not the walkover in the game. It's the exchange for the pawn, but lots of play left in it.

I have to admit that I didn’t really spend enough time looking at alternative responses from black (too eager to see if I was right!) and I note with interest <Terry McCracken>’s 23 ... Re4. After the “obvious” 24 Bxe4 Nxe4 white has a material advantage, but both kings are looking less than safe and I’m not completely sure white’s winning.

Another response I didn’t look into was 23 ... Ne4, although simply 24 Nf3 seems to pose black a bit of a problem.

Anyway, I’ll be looking back later to see if 23 g5 hxg5 24 Ng6 really is the solution, and in a way I’ll be a little disappointed if it is.

and of course you are right, that i dont know what i'm speaking about, which goes for everybody else who is talking about chess.

and to your demand to give prooving lines: due to the finity of chess, for every position is true, that there is either a forced win for white or for black or at least one player can force a draw. So your statement <White hasn't a forced win after 23..Re4> implies that there is a forced way to win for black or a forced way to draw. Can you demonstrate this ?

<Terry McCracken: This isn't a good puzzle.> Black is not completely lost when he plays optimal. However, the puzzle itself appears to be reasonable since g5 is clearly the best move. Toga II in multivariant analysis gives me he following after a few minutes:

1. g5 +0.92
2. Qe3 -0.31
3. Kg1 -0.46

Position after <26.Nxb4>

click for larger view

There is also <26...Bxg2+ 27.Kxg2 Qb7+ 28.Kg3 Qxb4 29.Qe4 Qf8>

click for larger view