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| Nov-04-08 | | nimzo knight: <alfa> "sac" stand for sacrifice. Often a player lets his piece being captured (sacrifice) without any immediate return. A "successful or sound sacrifice" is one where the player gets back more than he lost in subsequent moves. |
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Nov-04-08
 | | kevin86: This one was easier than yesterday,though the conclusion was longer. When a queen and knight attack-a smothered mate is in the air. If the pieces can be deployed on the right squares,the said smothered mate can fly-as it is here. |
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Nov-04-08
 | | playground player: Aargh! Smothered mate! For some reason, I always have a very hard time seeing that pattern. Damn, it's the kind of thing you should be able to spot at a glance... |
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| Nov-04-08 | | AlaskaksalA: Ng5+ is the immediately obvious move, so I was suspicious of some type of trickery. My second favorite pattern/position after the rook + bishop windmill (although that is more like a wrecking ball, and this is more like *a way to win the game*). No matter who is president, my kings can be found on a checkered board. |
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| Nov-04-08 | | YouRang: Beautiful! My attention was drawn to the knight, because it appeared to be blocking the f1 rook. While looking for good places to move the knight, the most obvious was 16.Ng5+ (better than Ne5+ which blocks the Q). Pretty soon, though, I realized that unblocking the rook really wasn't the point -- the knight itself is the strongman here. Clearly, black must move his king, to f8 or g8. His first idea might be ...f8 to avoid Qe6+, but it loses to the K+Q knight fork: Ne6+. So black's only hope is to weather the storm with 16...Kg8. But those of us who have seen enough puzzles where the Q+N work together vs. a cornered king will soon see what comes next: 17.Qe6+ Kh8 (...Kf8 18.Qf7#) 18.Nf7+ Kg8 19.Nh6++ Kh8, and now, the pretty smother-mate: 20.Qg8+! Rxg8 21.Nf7# |
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| Nov-04-08 | | beginner64: <dzhafner, TheaN: ..Nf6 is pinned...>Indeed - my bad. |
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| Nov-04-08 | | beginner64: <Nostrils, JoshOvi: ..11. Rfe8 is the losing move..>Excellent analysis both of you. I played the game step by step from top, and had no idea till move 13 that black was already lost. I agree with your assessment that 11. Rfe8 seems to be the losing move, which would be VERY strange. That part of the puzzle seems to be more instructive than the Ng5 move itself. |
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| Nov-04-08 | | beginner64: Did someone else note that the last 7 moves are check moves. All in all, black was under check on 9 out of 21 moves. Hope its not too harsh to say that black got smothered. |
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| Nov-04-08 | | mworld: so nice to see these so quickly exactly as played in their continuation (although in my head i saw blacks last move as the recapture with the rook rather than the knight - not that it matters for the outcome) |
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| Nov-04-08 | | jhoban: The theme of today is LANDSLIDE. White's deft coordination between queen and knight creates a landslide victory that is impossible to stop. Good prevails. The key for me was recognizing the potential fork. |
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| Nov-04-08 | | ChessGeezer: <dzechiel - Back in high school (by this I mean the '60's) we would start the chess club up each new year with an announcement in the morning bulletin, "We will study mating positions at the first meeting of the chess club this afternoon in room...".> I'll bet that was one popular meeting for the chess club! :) |
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Nov-04-08
 | | Eggman: Things are pretty darn ugly after 12.e5, but Black could at least try 12...Nd5 and if 13.e6 then 13...Nf8. Then Black is still fighting, n'est pas? |
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| Nov-04-08 | | MiCrooks: This smothered mate is something that needs to be in every chess player's arsenal! Typically it just wins an exchange as often there is a Rook on f8 that has the chance to sacrifice itself for the cause. Double check leads to some of the prettiest positions in chess. Especially when both pieces are hanging! |
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| Nov-04-08 | | Suji: I solved the puzzle with the smothered mate, but I think that anyone who "solved" the puzzle with Ne6+ solved the puzzle too. It also leads to a winning position with white. |
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Nov-04-08
| | Eggman: There are variations on smothered mate that one should be familiar with. At the 1987 Ontario Junior, for example, both players missed this mate in three:
click for larger view
<Sathiamoorthy-Burgess, 1987>, Black to play After 1...Ng4 2.Bg2 (nothing better: 2.Bb4 Rxd1+ 3.Qxd1 Qxh2#) Black overlooked 2...Qg1+ 3.Rxg1 Nf2# |
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| Nov-04-08 | | Patriot: One of the first things to notice is that black is weak on the light squares around his king--e6 and f7. 16.Ng5+ and black is limited in choices. 16...Kg8 17.Qe6+ Kh8 (Kf8 18.Qf7#) 18.Nf7+ Kg8 19.Nh6+ Kh8 20.Qg8+ Nxg8 (or Rxg8) 21.Nf7# is all standard technique. If 16...Kf8, yes 17.Ne6+ wins the queen and eventually the game. But 17.Qe6 has to be much stronger since how does black defend against mate on f7? At this point I looked for any counterplay black may have and saw nothing. <Microbe:I really need to study mating positions a LOT. Anyone have some books they could recommend on the subject?> Microbe, I would suggest "Winning Chess Tactics" by Sierawan because if I'm not mistaken it has a chapter devoted to checkmate patterns but also demonstrates tactical patterns in general which come up more often than checkmate patterns. Or you can try "Complete Book of Chess Strategy" by Silman, which devotes some time to common checkmate patterns. And if you are looking for much more, Lazlo Polgar's "CHESS: 5,334 Problems, Combinations, and Games" should keep you busy for a while with it's hundreds of mate in one's...two's...three's...etc. |
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| Nov-04-08 | | Oregon104: I worked on this puzzle for about 30 minutes going over the first 3 and 4 moves of this combo, then finally saw the Queen sac and smothered mate idea... pretty long combo for a Tuesday it seems like, but I guess the first 2 moves at least jump out at you and all the moves are forcing so it evens out. |
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Nov-04-08
| | Eggman: <<Oregon>> I think it's the familiarity of Philidor's Legacy (the name for the particular combo seen here that leads to smothered mate) that makes this puzzle easy and therefore suitable for a Tuesday - but if Philidor's Legacy is unfamiliar, then the puzzle is quite tricky. |
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Nov-04-08
 | | OBIT: After 16...Kf8, I'd consider 17. Ne6+ to be a minor error, even if it does win queen for knight. Best is 17. Qe6! and mates next move. There is no defense to 18. Qf7mate. |
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| Nov-04-08 | | gazzawhite: <OBIT> As many other kibitzers have already mentioned, 16. Ng5+ Kf8, 17. Qe6 isn't mate next move, but mate in 2, because 17...Qxh2+ prolongs the mate :) |
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| Nov-05-08 | | Mendrys: Interesting indeed. This game can be a study in pattern recognition. I got this one rather quickly simply because I recognized how weak white was on the white squares and the smothered mate is something I've played in actual games so once I saw the pattern it just clicked. Monday took me longer to find then todays' puzzle but I think this one ranks about a wednesday anyway. I love pawn moves like 12. e5 that either win a pawn or demolish his opponents kings defences, or both. |
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| Nov-05-08 | | ILoveCrazyhouse: Why is this horrible game in the database? |
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| Nov-05-08 | | alfa.vimapa: thanks a lot NimzoKnight! |
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Nov-05-08
 | | gawain: This was not difficult but it was fun! The action unfolds very nicely indeed. |
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Nov-07-08
| | Eggman: <<Why is this horrible game in the database?>> Surely this game is not "horrible" - it simply looks like a 1700-1900 player is playing black against someone rated over 1900. If you think this is "horrible" then I can't imagine what adjectives you'd use to describe certain other inclusions! |
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Kibitzing
sac: 20.Qg8+