| Mar-05-25 | | BxChess: Great Wednesday puzzle 35...?. I got almost all of the game line but it took me a while. Well-picked yesterday: <Teyss:...According to CG's self-improvement policy (?), expect a solid, decent, well-calibrated and maybe even aesthetical POTD tomorrow.> |
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Mar-05-25
 | | takebackok: Hello queen sac Wednesday, 35...Qxg4+ if 36. fxg4 Rg2+ 37. Kh1 Rg3+ etc. however, white does have 36. Bg3 then black has to be better how to win it not sure. |
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Mar-05-25
 | | perfidious: <takebackok.... white does have 36. Bg3 then black has to be better how to win it not sure.> Taking your analysis a step further, Black can play 36....Qh3, which leaves nothing better than 37.Rf2 Rxf2, followed by 38....Qf5. |
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| Mar-05-25 | | mel gibson: I didn't consider the Queen sac.
Stockfish 17 chooses the same ply but the Queen is declined:35. .. Qxg4+
(35. .. Qxg4+ (1. ... Qxg4+ 2.Bg3 Qh3 3.Rf2 Rc8 4.Rf1 Bd5 5.Bd6 Kf7 6.Qf2 Qf5 7.Bc5 g4 8.f4 h5 9.Re1 Bxa2 10.Rc1 Bd5 11.Qc2 Kg6 12.Qxf5+ Kxf5 13.Ra1 Ra8 14.Bb4 h4 ) +4.81/38 229) score for Black +4.81 depth 38.
If I force SF to accept the Queen:
36. fxg4 Rg2+
(36. .. Rg2+ (1. ... Rg2+ 2.Kh1 Rg3+ 3.Qf3 Bxf3+ 4.Rxf3 Rxf3 5.Bb4 Rf1+ 6.Kg2 Rb1 7.b3 Rb2+ 8.Kf3 Rxh2 9.Bc5 Rxa2 10.Ke4 Rc2 11.b4 Rc3 12.Bd6 Kf7 13.Bb8 Rb3 14.Bd6 Rh3 ) +8.04/42 168) score for Black +8.04 depth 42. |
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Mar-05-25
 | | Korora: "Take my wife--please!" |
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| Mar-05-25 | | Allderdice83: Yet ANOTHER White (or Black) to play and lose puzzle. Is that the theme for the week? Just 36. Bg3. Black's surely better but is going to have to work for the win. |
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| Mar-05-25 | | saturn2: 38...Rxf3 wins the queen who has no place to escape the discovered check.
36.Bg3 defends better but h5 and I prefer black a lot |
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Mar-05-25
 | | Teyss: <BxChess: Well-picked yesterday: <Teyss:...According to CG's self-improvement policy (?), expect a solid, decent, well-calibrated and maybe even aesthetical POTD tomorrow.>> Thanks but as said if White declines the Queen sac it's not a trivial Wednesday. Although if he accepts it the puzzle is aesthetic enough. Let's check again tomorrow. |
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| Mar-05-25 | | Lambda: White having 36.Bg3 is not in any way a problem for the puzzle today. We're still finding the best move in the position, which is a (temporary) sacrifice, and after 36.Bg3 we can say "we've won a pawn, we can threaten mate in one next move, if that's white's best we've clearly made a good choice" and concentrate on making sure we win after 36.fxg4. |
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Mar-05-25
 | | chrisowen: I warms its bud its v got its chop q fenk its july its Qxg4+ its arrive its oi cc imbibe its bah its Qxg4+ faith; |
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| Mar-05-25 | | TheaN: This week seems to follow the pattern of "fire a combination and the opponent chooses the worst reply". In this case however, Black does improve the position by quite a bit after <35....Qxg4+!>, if 36.fxg4 Black has a windmill leading to an exchange up: 36....Rg2+ 37.Kh1 Rg3+ 38.Rf3 Bxf3+ 39.Qxf3 Rxf3 -+ and this endgame is very trivial, Black may as well give back the exchange right away. If instead <36.Bg3>, Black can mount the pressure for one more move putting the queen on a favorable square, but after <36....Qh3 37.Rf2 Rc8 -+> the attack's stopped, for now, with Black calling the shots. <Lambda: White having 36.Bg3 is not in any way a problem for the puzzle today. We're still finding the best move in the position (...)> It's a bit of stretch that doesn't count for Monday and Tuesday. On Monday Rxd4 was the best move but a draw the likely result, on Tuesday Nf6 wasn't the best move but a fair side-grade allowing Black to slip up which he did. Here it's clear Black's improving though, making it slightly better. Of course, the discussion is a bit moot if you consider that these positions come from actual games and the best lines may not always reflect the 'puzzle line'. However, it's the best lines that need to be taken into account for difficulty, and it that sense the week's been reverted so far. |
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| Mar-05-25 | | Lambda: <However, it's the best lines that need to be taken into account for difficulty, and it that sense the week's been reverted so far.> I don't see what's so special about the best line, in regards to your opponent's choices. The goal is to establish the best move for us, so surely you have to calculate all potentially relevant replies, but only up until the point where the evaluation becomes clear, and the difficulty is based on doing this for all of them combined. In this case, evaluating Kh1 as better for us is trivial, Bg3 is pretty obvious too, and fxg4 requires concrete calculations, so the latter dominates difficulty. If white had ten different plausible responses which needed to be considered, this would increase the difficulty even if none of them was any more complicated. |
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| Mar-05-25 | | King.Arthur.Brazil: The king thinks this time is really easy: 5...Qxg4+ 36. fxg4 Rg2+ 37. Kh1 Rg3+ 38. Rf3 Bxf3+ 39. Qxf3 Rxf3 with a quality to the end game. |
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Mar-12-25
| | takebackok: Rinse Repeat deja vu all over again? Wednesday, see my 3/5 posting. Think it still good. |
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| Mar-12-25 | | Mayankk: I didn't solve this puzzle last week. And so was happy to see the game line quite easily. After 35... Qxg4+ 36 fxg4 Rg2+, it is all forced. And the windmill is a thing of beauty. I didn't analyze 35... Qxg4+ 36 Bg3 Qh3 much. And I doubt I would have been able to make it an easy win from there. Would have been a long slog. |
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| Mar-12-25 | | Allderdice83: <Allderdice83: Yet ANOTHER White (or Black) to play and lose puzzle. Is that the theme for the week? Just 36. Bg3. Black's surely better but is going to have to work for the win.> Actually, after 36. Bg3, Black has 36 ... Rxb2, and White still can't take the queen (it's even worse now since the white bishop falls). White has nothing better than 37. Rf2 Rb1+ 38. Rf1 Rxf1+ 39. Kxf1 Qxf3+ forcing a queen trade with an easy win for Black. Bishops are opposites, but Black has 3 extra pawns and majorities on both sides of the board. If instead, 37. Rc1, just 37 ... Qh3, and on 38. Rc7+ Kh6, the bishop can't be taken due to 39 .... Qg2#. White would have to give up Q for R with 39. Qf2 Rxf2 40. Kxf2 Bd5. |
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Mar-12-25
| | Korora: "Take my wife--Please!" |
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Mar-12-25
| | perfidious: How many times do you insist on repeating that tag line? |
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| Mar-12-25 | | saturn2: There is a cartoon in which a man is told the same joke on consecutive l days. The first day he laughs loud. The second not so loud. Next week he gets angry. And on hearing it finally again in the third week he pulls out a gun and shoots the perplex joke teller who thought he tells him a new joke. |
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| Mar-12-25 | | mel gibson: Repeated from 1 week ago.
See my solution March 5th 2025. |
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| Mar-12-25 | | Mayankk: Maybe <Korora> is a bot account placed by the admins to confirm if anyone is really paying attention to the kibitzes. |
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| Mar-12-25 | | TheaN: Le sigh. At this point I don't know what's going on. <CG> if you need help with puzzles or whatnot, do actually have some time to assist looking for appropriate games etc. Recently it's becoming less fun as solver because of these issues. |
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Mar-12-25
| | chrisowen: I wag its phd q fury its ven lu Qxg4+ arrive its oi duh axiom juggle its bug Qxg4+ faith x |
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Mar-12-25
 | | eternaloptimist: I noticed that we’re having repeat puzzles from last week. I guess the puzzle picker(s) are busy this week. I solved it last week & I must admit that it's a good puzzle. I met IM Donaldson @ a tournament in Denver back in ‘03. He did a Q & A session there & it was definitely informative. I posted a link that shows the results of that tournament in my profile here on CG. That was so long ago that Naka became a GM that year lol! Both of them are nice guys and I consider it an honor to have talked to both of them. A lot of well known players played @ that tournament |
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Kibitzing
sac: 35...Qxg4+