46.Kb2 bxc3+! and wins the queen with a knight fork;

I have so wanted to ask this question and now seems like an excellent opportunity.

<frogbert> you have looked at these puzzles over the years and have a sense of their increasing difficulty M-S, right?

When you were ACTUALLY PLAYING this game, at move 45....if you can recall your thoughts and feelings from the actual game....when you played the knight move....

Did it seem to be a "medium-easy" decision at that time? (compared to NOW: OUR knowledge that THIS IS A PUZZLE and WE CAN SOLVE IT BECAUSE it is medium easy).

Hope my question makes sense. No time to elaborate if not.

Thx for any reply.

then bxc3+ 47.kxc3 ne4 haul back it just a fraction of friction 46.kc4 qe4 and mate rinse it her d4 patch i now open in shut bring b7 feeling

the weight soon animals pour in 49.kxa5 qb6 on high waver minutae fold over clinks in chain bend age fan behind in try it cab off dence

thicket damn clams it hope in muscle the king bet 45.cxb4 decked out axb4 level crown then kingb3 a bin once bid for knight desist forages i

You have kibitzed twice here on CG and both of them have been directed at me...keep it coming! :D

no i didn't remember, blunderdome, but due to my habit of jotting down time spent for each move, i found that it was played at 2h/40 moves followed by 1h to complete the game. that is, after i managed to dig up the score sheet from nearly 7 years ago.

Did it seem to be a "medium-easy" decision at that time? >

good question, pinned piece!

first, it's always easy to think a combination is easier and more straight-forward than what it actually is once you know the solution. while it's chessgames.com that decides on the difficulty level of the puzzles, my initial thought was that this was possibly of tuesday/wednesday difficulty. in hindsight maybe wednesday/thursday would be more correct and possibly "medium" more descriptive than "medium/easy".

back to the game and when it was played: my opponent was a solid master-level player who has even played in the championship group of the norwegian championships once - in fact the first year magnus carlsen participated, in 2002 - after finishing top-2 in the master/"candidate" group in 2001. he spent an entire 20 minutes on 44. Rd1 after which i found nothing better than 44... b4+ to continue to pose problems for his slightly lose king. my notes say that i spent 5 minutes on that move, but i know i hadn't figured out the precise difference between white's two possible responses at that time (Kb3 or cxb4 first).

now, he didn't play the losing move 45. Kb3? very quickly. in fact, he spent a full 8 minutes on this move. for some reason i must have sensed that the position held some possibilities, and i assume that i simply started looking at forcing moves, which often is a good approach in tactical positions. i know that i considered 45... a4+ first, it being the most forcing alternative. i saw that i could win back the exchange after 46. Kc2 Nf2+ but the resulting position is far from convincing for black. "luckily" i didn't see 46... Nxf4! followed by 47... Qxg5 in the a4-line, because if i'd noticed that option, i might not have studied the position long enough to hit upon the right idea.

however, in the 45... a4+ line, i must have seen that 46. Kc4 leads to immediate mate, so i guess that made me consider 45... Nc5+ next. when i suddenly noticed that Kb2? loses to bxc3+! i got very excited, and i don't remember considering anything but 46... Qe4+ as follow up to 46. Qc4. however, i didn't see the *forced* mate - the line i calculated before playing 45... Nc5+ was 46. Kc4 (or i win the queen for a knight) Qe4+ 47. Qd4 (forced) Qe2+ 48. Rd3 (Qd3 wins the queen again, so...) 48... Qxa2+ mate. i remember thinking that "i can't move my bishop e8" because it would open b5 for the white king, which i guess is the reason why i didn't even consider the line leading to forced mate after 47... Bf7+.

once i'd seen the winning line with Qe4+ followed by Qe2+ i only double-checked my calculations a couple of times, not even trying to find something "better", as the line i was looking at was already clearly winning. it was my team mate im øystein hole who pointed out the forced mate the first time, when i set up the position for my team mates after the round (it was a team competition), asking them to solve the "puzzle". when i was shown 47... Bf7+ etc. my comment was "oh, i didn't see that at all - my plan was 47... Qe2+, winning the queen or mating!"

i spent a total of <11 minutes on my 45th move>, and i probably had a couple of confused thoughts that i can't recall now, but i was lucky to hit upon the right idea after maybe 3-5 minutes, after which i spent maybe another 5 minutes to see the 46. Kb2 cxb3+ "trick" and calculate a win (not the most forcing one) after 46. Kc4. my opponent only took two minutes to turn down the queen loss line and played Kc4, after which i simply went over my lines one more time and played Qe4+ after two more minutes of checking.

then i got up, knew i had won, looked at the position a couple of times, went a little back and forth, all while my opponent sat there nodding and shaking his head slightly. i returned to the board, sat down, and after a little more than 5 minutes my opponent simply wrote "0-1" on his score sheet, stopped the clock and offered his hand. which i remember to have found slightly disappointing, as i was eager to play out the combo.

morfishine, i posted that line earlier today - i (luckily) didn't see it during the game, though. and as i wrote, it "only" leads to an equal game for black with correct play.

<I didn't know who you were>

Black to play (45...?) "Medium/Easy", Black is down an exchange and a pawn.

This position looks familiar, but it took me a few minutes to solve it, so I didn't remember it very well, if I should have! Maybe because I was stuck on 45...Ba4+, which was probably the key in a similar puzzle. But that move doesn't work here: 45...Ba4+ 46. Kxa4 (46. Kc4?? Qe4#) Nc5+ 47. Kb5 Qe8+ 48. Kc4 and Black's attack runs out of gas.

45...Nc5+ 46. Kc4

Or 46. Kb2 bxc3+! and a knight fork wins the queen after either 47. Qxc3 Na4+ or 47. Kxc3 Ne4+.

46...Qe4+ 47. Qd4 Bf7+ 48. Kb5 Qc6#.

<TheBish> 48...Qc6+ is not a mate - 48...Qc6+, 49. Kxa5 (you overlook) Qb6# or Qa4#

Don't worry about your mistake, <TheBish> - we can figure it out that easy.