Chess puzzle, can you solve it?
After feeling inspired by @jaki01's recent post, I thought I'd share a puzzle I thought was interesting.
It is white to move and eventual checkmate.
It's a sneaky puzzle but the moves should be very forceful to make black move the way white wants him to. I would not worry about that g2 pawn, it's not so intimidating.
Comment if you know the solution!
Yes! That's the combination, nice job!
Did this position and the nice 'smothered mate' arose in one of your blitz games?
It actually did not, I use a chess tactic stimulator to help with tactics and I thought this was was interesting to share considering it took me some time to solve. I do have some games that I have played which I can post that have some interesting sacrifices.
Nice, I am looking forward to see your attacks. :)
Did you already notice my other chess problems? This was number 31 already (all positions stem either from own games, self-made artificial chess problems or chess software test games).
Great! Yes I hope to incorporate some games I have played or previous games I have studied from others. Paul Morphy is a great example and I love examining his games. I believe I saw your previous problems and found them intriguing! That's great, do you play via chess.com? or in tournaments?
I am jasuly at chess.com , but nowadays I play chess for fun only (as it is very time consuming to play it in a professional way). Some years ago I still took part in chess opens and also played in the second league of Germany.
I have an account on chess.com. I used to play in the United States and have traveled the country to play in tournaments but now I teach students the game. That's awesome you played in the second league! The players in Europe are a powerful force.
H5, f6 check edit
Are you sure you meant g6?
Made the change😁
Black queen captures f6 and even though it's a sacrifice, black escapes the checkmate
Eventually black will lose without a queen..
That may be so but there's a more forceful way white can win in a set of about 5 moves and end the game. This tactic can also help when you are on a time crunch against the clock.
Got you....thinking🤔
Take your time, it sure took me a bit
H5 to g2
While this is not the winning move I would prefer it . Having the opponent surrender is much more demoralizing which is important specially in amateur chess. They might even drag the lost game along for a bit. If there was ever a place where you don't want to be psychologically it is fighting the lost cause.
I've even had advanced player get angry because I didn't check mate them when I could. I consider that the beginning of winning the next game. (evil laughter)
H6 to F6?
Not quite, white isn't looking to trade here but checkmate, the queen is part of the checkmate combination so she's going to be needed.