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| Feb-06-09 | | solskytz: It took me something like 90 seconds to get out of a hazy kind-of state of mind and actually look at the position and see its features. A piano lesson was going on with my wife as the teacher, and my little daughter was jumping and chattering about... after my mind settled it took me maybe some 15-30 seconds to find moves 20-25 (but not 26) and the win. In my mind I inverted the moves 21-22 but nevertheless saw that the rook penetration on g7 will be a decisive blow, well worth the effort. The reason that I was so quick to spot this (usually I couldn't care less. I spend 1-2 minutes on problems, no matter what day of the week. This is successful Mon through Wed, I get some Thursday and generally never Friday or later) was that I sprung a strikingly similar combination on an unsuspecting victim some years ago in a tournament game in Israel. There it started with a bishop sacrifice at h7. If he takes it, I give check with the queen on the c file and win a hanging piece on that file winning a pawn. As he didnt, I could spring 'a quiet move' N from f3 to h4 on him, with a queen check at h5 and a knight landing on g6 with very similar circumstances to the game. Familiarity with the theme sure makes you faster |
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| Feb-06-09 | | carelessfills: <cu8sfan: What happens after 26...xf8? Do you have to satisfy yourself with having won the exchange?> White's Rooks are coordinated, and soon both will be on the eighth Rank going anywhere they please to wreack havok on Black's Pawns. White has nothing to fear from Black's Knight, and Blacks Rook is completely inactive and has few prospects for improving or helping with the defence. His King and Rook will also get in each others way while the King is contained by the Whites Rooks on the eigth rank and/or g-file. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | whiteshark: I took the right piece but the wrong pawn. :(
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| Feb-06-09 | | YetAnotherAmateur: The move I had to consider for a while was Nxe6. Unfortunately, while that can lead to a nice attack (if Rxe6, Rxg7+), there's no way to land a decisive blow with that approach. After rejecting that, Nxh7 popped out as the logical play in this position. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | richard littlewood: doesnt 21 ... Nxe5 save black?
then 22 f xe5 K x h7
23 Q h3+ K g8
and black is a knight up |
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| Feb-06-09 | | zenpharaohs: abstraction: "OTB I would have played 20. Nxh7 without hesitation and without working out concrete lines : the 'look' of the position instantly demands it. It's the next move that required some thought -- whether to bring the Queen over to the h-file immediately or play the text." I had this exact same thought.
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| Feb-06-09 | | JG27Pyth: I saw Nxh7 immediately but was seduced by Nxe6 which seemed equally strong... both moves appeared strong to me... so I burned myself out calculating the many variations that arise from Ne6... and when I got back to Nxh7, mentally pooped, it seemed equally complicated... so I was left going: "I'm pretty sure I've got it down to one of these two moves here..." <There's an Informator symbol for that, right?> ... might have gotten this one on my best day, but that wasn't today :( I haven't read the other kibitzers closely yet... is Ng6 Qh3+ completely tranposable or is there some compelling difference? It seems to me with either move order Black must defend against the Nxe7+ fork. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | JG27Pyth: Speaking of no Bishops but all other material remaining... my 4 mil+ database found 10,000~ matches, but by move 21 it had dropped to 2,000~ games. Here's the game in my DB that went deepest without bishops but with no other material removed form the board. Reaching the following extraordinary position at move 66 -- Bogdanovski vs. Stojanovic 1/2-1/2 1.26.2002
click for larger viewI've never seen a Kingside, or an h-file, quite like that. The PGN is below for anyone who cares to look at this curiosity... it's not in the CG database (at least not with the spellings I searched). [Event "Bijeljina Dvorovi"]
[Site "Bijeljina Dvorovi"]
[Date "2002.01.26"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Bogdanovski, Vlatko"]
[Black "Stojanovic, Dalibor"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2435"]
[BlackElo "2433"]
[ECO "A57"]
[EventDate "2002.01.26"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Nf3 Bb7 5.a4 b4 6.Nbd2 d6 7.e4 g6 8.g3 Bg7 9.
Bg2 O-O 10.O-O e5 11.Ne1 Nh5 12.Nb3 Nd7 13.Bh3 Bc8 14.Nd3 a5 15.Be3 Nb6
16.Bxc8 Qxc8 17.Nd2 Qe8 18.g4 Nf6 19.f3 Nfd7 20.b3 Qe7 21.Kh1 Bf6 22.Rg1
Bg5 23.Nf1 Kh8 24.Ra2 Nc8 25.Rag2 Bxe3 26.Nxe3 Qg5 27.Qe1 Ne7 28.Nf2 f6
29.Rg3 Qh6 30.R1g2 Rf7 31.Nh3 Qg7 32.Rf2 Re8 33.Qf1 Ng8 34.Qg1 Ne7 35.Rfg2
Rg8 36.Nf2 Qh6 37.Qe1 Qf8 38.Nd3 Qh6 39.Qf2 Rgf8 40.Qg1 Rg8 41.Qe1 Rgf8
42.Nf2 Re8 43.Nh3 Qg7 44.Ng1 Rg8 45.Ne2 Qh6 46.Qf2 Re8 47.f4 Qf8 48.f5 g5
49.h4 h6 50.Rh3 Ng8 51.Ng3 Rh7 52.Nh5 Ree7 53.Rgh2 Ref7 54.Ng2 Qe7 55.Ne1
Qd8 56.Nf3 Qe7 57.Kg2 Qd8 58.Kf1 Qe7 59.Rh1 Qd8 60.Qe3 Qe7 61.Ke2 Nf8 62.
Kd3 Rfg7 63.Qd2 Qf7 64.R1h2 Qe7 65.Qc1 Qf7 66.Qh1 Qe7 67.hxg5 hxg5 68.Nxg7
Qxg7 69.Rh5 Rxh5 70.Rxh5+ Nh7 71.Ke2 Qe7 72.Kf2 Qg7 73.Kg2 Qe7 74.Nd2 Qf7
75.Nf1 Qg7 76.Ng3 Qf7 77.Kf3 Qg7 78.Qh2 Qf7 79.Rh6 Nxh6 80.Qxh6 Kg8 81.Nh5
Qe7 82.Qg6+ Kf8 83.Qh6+ Kg8 1/2-1/2
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| Feb-06-09 | | Patriot: At first I wanted to play 20.Nxe6 Rxe6 21.Rxg7+ winning, but it's best not to go too deep without briefly investigating other possible candidates like 20...Nxf2+ and the g2 rook gets distracted. 20.Qh3 can simply be met with 20...Nxg5 21.Rxg5 and white's attack seems diminished. I then looked at 20.Nxe4 with some sac ideas but to no use. Next was 20.Nxh7 Kxh7 21.Qh3+ Kg8 22.Ng6. This seemed to be a nice attack with Qh8+ coming next, along with Nxf8 and Rxg7+ possibilities. I didn't calculate any further because it seemed to be one of those "must" try positions with iniative vs. material. My move order was different from the main line (21.Qh3+ instead of 21.Ng6) and I'm not sure what the difference is. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | FabrikaLaHun: I didn't spend enough time on this puzzle to see it the whole way through but I did find the initial move...20. Nxh7. Looking for possible candidate moves, I found that if the other knight can move to g6, he can fork both rooks (as <Once> has already pointed out. Also, if the knight is then allowed to reach e7, there is the royal fork. So how do we get the knight safely to g6? By first removing the pawn from h7. By this point, black isn't FORCED to take retake at h7. However, even if he sees the upcoming fork, there is little he can do to prevent it. the f8 rook can't move to f7 or f6 because if 20...Rf8 then 21 Nxf6+ with tempo and 20...Rf7 is followed by 21. Nxf7 winning the exchange. There may be better lines than above but again, this was my 2 minute patzer analysis. Enough for me to know that I liked 20. Nxh7. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | TheChessGuy: This was an interesting break from this week's theme of queen sacs. I saw the position, looked at it, nervously adjusted my glasses, and... boom! 20.Nxh7!! In terms of just solving a puzzle, the sac looked good. Over the board, I could find it, but I would spend at least 15-20 minutes on it, to double and triple check all the variations. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | TheTamale: Wow! Fun ending. Typical puzzle in which the initial move is easy to me but where a hack like me can't figure out the follow through. Or maybe I could if I tried harder. I do most of these at work. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | Once: <JG27Pyth> Now that is one weird position! Thanks for finding it; it made me smile. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | YouRang: Well, I got the general idea. Not seeing any good immediate attack, I decided that I needed to get my queen involved, and I saw a good way to do that forcefully with <20.Nxh7!>, after which I assume <20...Kxh7>. For my knight, I've eaten a key defensive pawn and exposed black's king. Now my queen comes in *with check*: <21.Qh3+ Kg8>. Here I went with the fairly obvious <22.Qh6> putting a lot of heat on Pg7. What can black do? 22...Rff7 looks losing (23.Nxf7 Kxf7 24.Rxf7+ Ke8 25.Rg8+ Nf8 26.Qxf7 ~#), so I think he needs to sac a knight back to remove an attacker: <22...Nxf2+ 23.Rxf2>. At this point, I've recovered my material, and I have a tremendous attack underway, so already I'm pleased with 20.Nxh7. It's not perfectly clear what black should do. I'm threating to either bring my rook back from f2 to g2, or bring a rook to the h-file (e.g. Rf3 & Rh3). So, I think he better exchange off another attacker via <23...Nxe5 24.fxe5>, which also clears the 7th rank for black's queen to help out defensively. Now what? ...Board vision fading...
I'm guessing <24...Qc7> (support Pg7) <25.Rf3> (threat: Rh3 to support Q down h-file). But who cares, I'm happy with the position and I'm pretty sure I'm winning. :-) |
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| Feb-06-09 | | Ladolcevita: Its hard to say why i cant watch the game from the eternal "Java Icon".....But i feel whether i miss it or not,i'm a stupid patzer in the endless world of chess. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | fouard: 20 Nxe6 seems promising. Black can't just let the pawn go, nor ignore White's threats, so I believe 20...Rxe6 has to be played. To this White responds 21 Rxg7+, forcing 21...Kh8. Now comes 22 Rxd7. Black can't keep White's other rook out of g7, and if he tries 22...Rh6 or Nf6, White wins an exchange with Nf7+. White is up enough material to win, even if Qh3 weren't looming at this point. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | Once: <Ladolcevita: Its hard to say why i cant watch the game from the eternal "Java Icon".....> I get the same problem from time to time, even having the latest version of Java installed. I find it helps if I quit IE and come back again. Sometimes. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | positionalgenius: I got it right! |
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Feb-06-09
 | | benveniste: Puzzles like this one prove to me once again why I'm a wood pusher. I convinced myself that 20. ♘xh7 followed by 21. ♕h3 was the right answer, but I couldn't visualize the whole sequence. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | Patriot: <fouard: 20 Nxe6 seems promising. Black can't just let the pawn go, nor ignore White's threats, so I believe 20...Rxe6 has to be played.> I also wanted to play 20.Nxe6 at first, but saw that black has the zwischenzug 20...Nxf2+ 21.Rxf2 Rxe6. But if your line occurred, it's enough to see that 22.Rxd7 is good for white even though 22.Rg8+ Rxg8 23.Nf7 is mate. At first I didn't see the mate in that line and just decided that 22.Rxd7 is convincing enough and stopped analyzing, but then noticed 20...Nxf2+ refutes everything from the start. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | fouard: Patriot: Good point. A nasty rebuttal Nxf2+ is. Thanx! |
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| Feb-06-09 | | Primoman: chris1clark - After 2...hxg6 3.Qh3,nef6 and white is neutralized and down a piece. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | SamAtoms1980: Darn. I weighed the two knight sacrifice candidates and finally went with 20 Nxe6 with a view to 20 ... Rxe6 21 Rxg7+ Kh8 22 Qh3 and the roller is on. Stupid zwischenzugs. I turned down 20 Nxh7 because after 20 ... Kxh7 21 Qh3+ Kg8 22 Ng6 Kf7 23 Qh5 Ndf6 and the bomb defuses (24 Nxe7+ Nxh5), missing the fact that 21 Ng6 attacks an undefended rook. That allows White to gain a move and keeps the Black king from running away. On these problems with two attractive starting move candidates, I may have to get out my lucky dime. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | SamAtoms1980: <richard littlewood: doesnt 20 ... Nxe5 save black?
then 21 f xe5 K x h7
22 Q h3+ K g8
and black is a knight up>
I fixed the move numbers because I presume that's what you mean. After 20 Nxh7 Nxe5 21 Nxf8! and Black has lost the exchange for nada. If 21 ... Qxf8 22 fxe5. Black's hanging knight does have one target and he can try to keep things interesting and extend its brief term as a desperado with: 21 ... Ng4 22 Ng6 Nexf2+ 23 Rxf2 Nxf2+ 24 Kg2 - - but now the rebel knight is lost - - because White threatens 25 Nxe7+ forking King and Queen. |
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| Feb-06-09 | | eatitorbeatit: Even though my tactics were sloppish finally after half an hour (it seemed like) the white king was captured by the queen which had been left with nothing to do. Qh6+,Kgh! |
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Kibitzing
sac: 20.Nxh7