Also worth considering was 25. Bc4+!?, which allows Black to equalize only if he can find some clever defensive resources, and 25. Qh6 which also holds with advantage.

Of course RV's recommended 24. Bc4+! Kh8 25. Re1 is probably White's best improvement in terms of enhancing his winning chances.

So black should do something asap.

I first thought about 26 ... Qg3 thinking (mistakenly) that 27. fxg3 Rxc1 is mate. Of course it isn't mate, and after I noticed that the king can simply take the black bishop or the white bishop can take the black rook, I wondered what planet I could actually be from to even think this momentarily.

Then I started thinking about how it would be nice if the black queen/bishop battery could have the position of the pieces reversed (i.e., have the queen where the bishop is and have the bishop behind the queen). Is there a way to do this? - move the h2 bishop to create some sort of threat, then get the queen in front of the bishop, etc... It didn't take long to realize that that was impractical.

I came back to that Qg3 move - not as the first move of course, but I wondered if could somehow get the queen down there, and thinking about the location of the two bishops and the rook, I saw:

26 ... Bxg2+
27. Kxg2 [forced] Rxf2+

Now white has 4 legal moves. It is pretty easy to exclude moves like 28. Kh3 (because of the reply Qxg3#). Moving the king back to h1 leads to 28 ... Rxc1+; 29. Kg2 Qg3+; 30. Kxc1 Qg1#

Okay, so much for the unexpected moves. What about 28. Rxf2 or 28. Kxf2?

a) 28. Rxf2 Qg3+
29. Kf1 (or h1) Qg1#

b) 28. Kxf2 Qg3#

And there is nothing white can do.

Yesterday's puzzle was very nice and so is today's. Both feature a queen and bishop checking a king. And like yesterday's, the other white pieces act more as hindrance than help.

Once you get over the shock of the move,the finish is easy.

Each variation has epaulette qualities-28 ♔xf2 ♕g3# or

28 ♖xf2 ♕g3+ 29 ♔f1 ♕g1# Ok,this one doesn't 29 ♔h1 ♕g1#

27. Kxg2 is forced. Now we would really love to play Qg3+, but the f pawn gets in the way. So let's try to destroy the f pawn with 27 ... Rxf2+ and the rest is a matter of calculation.

I love the way that 27. ... Rxf2+ accomplishes several things at once. It destroys the f pawn, making g3 safe for the white queen. It deflects the rook from the back rank, to give the queen the mating square g1.

And it does all this with check so that white does not have time for a counterattack.

<Once> - It is not the White Queen - just the Black Queen that is ready to move to g3. Not the White Queen. I know that you mean it is the Black Queen.

Don't feel bad that you eat your own word, OK? Don't worry, OK?

:-D