| Feb-18-17 | | JohnTal: 39 ... Be6, 40 fe ...Kf8, 41 Nf5! closes the deal. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | wtpy: After a tricky Thursday where I went with the second best move, gimmes for Friday and Saturday. |
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Feb-18-17
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Bit easy for a Saturday; in my playing days, would have played the winning move not for its correctness but because it looks so cool. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | Boerboel Guy: This was not Very Difficult at all. I would have played this instinctively over the board. Got it!, again! :-) |
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| Feb-18-17 | | mel gibson: The computer agrees:
32. Qxc5
(32. Qxc5 (♕b6xc5 d6xc5 ♖d2xd8+ ♗c4-g8 ♘c3-b5 ♖c7xc6 ♖d1-d7 ♕e7xd8 ♖d7xd8
♔h8-g7 ♘b5-d6 ♖c6-a6 ♘g3-f1 ♖a6-a7 ♔g1-f2 ♗g8-a2 ♘f1-e3 h7-h5 ♖d8-c8 ♔g7-h6
f5xg6 ♔h6xg6 ♖c8xc5 ♗a2-e6 ♘e3-f5 ♗e6-d7 ♖c5-c3 ♔g6-h7 ♘d6-c8 ♖a7-a8
♖c3-c7) +5.49/19 111)
score +5.49 depth 19 |
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| Feb-18-17 | | yadasampati: <An Englishman>: "(...) because it looks so cool." I would say that is intuition :-) For more or less the same reason, it took me about 15 seconds to find Qxc5, the following Rxd8+ and Rd7. I think that humans have one advantage over computers, and that is that we can experience something as "looking cool". Computers still rely on generating massive amounts of variations, but are still very much limited in doing so, and can therefore miss important things. Recently we were given another nice example of that in a game between Caruana and Nakamura (London Chess Classic 2016, Caruana vs Nakamura, 2016 ). Caruana declared afterwards that in his preparations his computer did not see 21. Nf5 because it puts too much importance on material balance. So his brilliant queen offer did not only beat Nakamura but also the computer :-) |
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Feb-18-17
 | | al wazir: I thought 32. Qxc5 had to be the key but gave up on it because I completely overlooked 35. cxd7. But the win is considerably harder after 36...Bc4. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | stst: Bank on the double R on d.
The line h5 -- gxh5, Nxh5 is slow and not enough support on the K-side.To have a break-through on d, have to Q-sac:
32.QxN dxQ
33.RxR+ (A)QxR
34.RxQ+ Kg7
35.Rd7+ RxR
36.cxR Any (legal move)
37.d8=Q will win
33...... (B)Kg7
34.R8d7 (harass Q) RxR
35.RxR pinning Q,K QxR
36.cxQ and promotes on next, similar.
The initial
32.Nd5 forks R,Q is refuted by BxN,
33.RxB R8c8 will annihilate White's attack.
See if the game adopts this main line. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | stst: got the main line, overlook the Bg8 defense, but it turns out very similar, esp. the idea of the c-Pawn promoting. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | AlicesKnight: Saw the main idea which looked enough to get a win - and after 39... Bxe6, 40.fxe6, Nf5/e7 is unstoppable. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | Sharpen Your Tactics: Re. Coolness. I too like to play moves as Aagaard says That are more interesting than correct. Nice Caruana game that is a very cool sac . I will mull over that one. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | saturn2: I calculated till move 34 and probably would have played 36 RxR but I concluded that to stop the free pawn on c6 will cost black the queen for rook. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | morfishine: <32.Qxc5> Oughta do it leaving White in the drivers seat while Black cools his heels ***** |
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| Feb-18-17 | | gofer: This onw was way too easy for a <Very Difficult>. The queen sac
screamed to be played and the consequences were all forced. The
bishop retreat to g8 was the only wrinkle in a simple plan... <32 Qxc5 ...>
32 ... Rdc8?
33 Qxc4 Rxc6
34 Nd5 Rxc4
35 Nxe7 
<32 ... dxc5>
<33 Rxd8+ Bg8>
<34 R8d7 Rxd7>
<35 cxd7 Qd8>
click for larger viewAll forced. All pretty easy.
So now we have a simple calculation to make how to attack Qd8
with Nc3 before Bg8 can snake across (via f7 and e8) to attack
Pd7. Well, once we see the bishop plan we can see that we need
to defend against Be8 (and Be6), so Nc7 fits the bill perfectly!
That means our route to d8 is <Nb5, Nc7 and then Ne6> - BUT only
if black tries to attack with the bishop.
<36 Nb5 ...>
What if black tries to play the king across - still hoping for
<Nb5, Nc7 and then Ne6>? 36 ... Kg7
37 Na7 any move
38 Nc6
As there are multiple routes for Nb5 to attack Qd8 neither the king nor
bishop can get there in time...
<36 ... Bf7>
<37 Nc7 Kg7>
<38 Ne6+ Bxe6>
<39 fxe6 Kf8>
<40 Rd6 Ke7>
<41 Rc6 Qa5>
<42 Rc8 ...>
click for larger view42 ... Qa1+
43 Kh2
42 ... Qe1+
43 Nf1 |
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| Feb-18-17 | | thegoodanarchist: If you are going to play 38...Kg7, and allow the royal fork, then you might as well play it out until the end with 39...Bxe6 40.fxe6 Kf8 41.Nf5, and then resign |
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| Feb-18-17 | | schachfuchs: Yes, not really 'Very difficult'.
I was a little bit surprised of Mel Gibson's computer line
32.♕b6xc5 d6xc5 33.♖d2xd8+ ♗c4-g8 34.♘c3-b5 ♖c7xc6 giving up the joker Pc6?! Of course, it's also won for white, but I like 34.Rd8-d7 (34.Rd1-d7 Qxd8) more. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | ChessHigherCat: <stst: got the main line, overlook the Bg8 defense, but it turns out very similar, esp. the idea of the c-Pawn promoting.> Ditto. Qc5 is obvious in the context of the puzzle, because you know there's a winning move and it's the only likely candidate. Since black has no immediate counterplay, it's easy to promote the pawn. Leave a comment! |
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| Feb-18-17 | | agb2002: White has a knight and a pawn for a bishop.
The white rooks x-ray the black rook on d8. This and the advanced pawn, which controls d7, suggest 32.Qxc5 dxc5 33.Rxd8+ Bg8 (33... Kg7 34.R1d7 wins a piece at least) 34.R1d7 Rxd7 (else the black queen is will be captured next move) 35.Rxd7: A) 35... Qe8 36.Nd5 (threatens Nxf6, c7, Rd8)
A.1) 36... Bxd5 37.exd5
A.1.a) 37... Qc8 38.Ne4 Kg8 (38... Qf8 39.c7 followed by Rd8 wins) 39.Nxf6+ Kf8 (39... Kh8 40.Rxh7#) 40.Nxh7+ Ke(g)8 41.Nf6+ Kf8 42.fxg6, with the threat 43.g7#, wins. A.1.b) 37... e4 38.d6 e3 39.Re7 Qxc6 40.d7 Qd6 41.Re8+ Kg7 42.d8=Q wins (42... Qxg3 43.Qe7+ Kh6 44.Qxe3+, etc.). A.2) 36... Qf8 37.c7 Qc8 38.Nxf6 wins (threatens 39.Rd8 Qxc7 40.Rxg8#). A.3) 36... Qc8 37.Ne7 Qe8 38.Rb7 (threatens c7) 38... Qa8 39.fxg6 A.3.a) 39... hxg6 40.Nxg6#.
A.3.b) 39... Kg7 40.Ngf5+ Kf8 (40... Kh8 41.g7#) 41.Nxg8 Kxg8 42.Nh6+ Kf8 43.g7+ Ke8 44.g8=Q(R)#. A.3.c) 39... Bc4 40.c7 Qxb7 41.c8=Q+ Qxc8 42.Nxc8 hxg6 43.Nb6 + - [2N vs B]. A.3.d) 39... h6 40.Nxg8 Kxg8 (40... Qxg8 41.c7 wins) 41.Nf5, with the threat Nxh6+ and g7+, looks winning. B) 35... Qf8 36.Nd5 looks similar to A. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | YouRang: Saturday 32.?
click for larger view
Black's weakness is the Q having to guard the attacked Rc7 as well as the double-attacked Pd6. My thought was to go after the queen with <32.fxg6> (making f5 available for my N), thus expecting <32...hxg6>
click for larger view
The Pg6 guards f5, so I hit it with <33.h5>
click for larger view
There's not much black can do to avoid Nf5 now. He may try <33...Rcc8> to free the Q from its defense, but then <34.hxg6>
click for larger view
I don't see any way for black to avoid crumbling under the threats of Nf5 and Rxd6, and white ending up with deep passed pawns on both sides of the board. |
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| Feb-18-17 | | Everett: Intuition is based on profound experience. |
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| Feb-19-17 | | ASchultz: Interesting that Rxd7 or cxd7 works--so yes, this is a bit on the easy side, but in terms of calculation possibilities, it's neat to see if both captures on d7 work, and how. <Al Wazir> 36 ...Bc4 in the game had me worried too but Na7 should demoralize Black quickly. The B can't attack the d7 pawn, so the Q is helpless. The key is to see how the one knight attacks d8 pretty quickly. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 32.Qxc5