Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Chess Puzzle 1 - Solution!

White to move


This position arose from on off my blitz game. Black seems to gain a material advantage because he is threatening to capture my rook on h6 whereas i only have the knight as a compensation after capturing it at f4. The obvious continution seems to be 1. exf4 and after 1...Qxh6 black will should be winning. But if we take a deeper looks at the position, we will noticed that the en prise white rook on h6 is attacking the black queen but it can capture the queen immediately because his king is being check by black knight on f4. If white move his king from being check let say at f1, he will lose the rook on h6 because it was not protected by his teammate. If white want to save the position, he has to find a way - (i) to release his king from being check and (ii) at the same time protecting his rook. So the answer is

1....Qxf4 !

Yes. White is doing all he need to do in one move. Protecting his rook on h6 and releasing his king from being check and the important thing is he is still winning!!!. If black capture with 1...exf4 white will capture the queen with 2. Rxf6 winning material. If he play 1....Qxf4 white will simply take the queen with 2. exf4 - winning a knight where as if black answer with 1...Qxh6 white will simply reply by 2. Qxh6 .

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