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A Chess puzzle is always fun to solve, more so when it’s a part of an actual game. Today, I was lucky to be at the right end of a naturally formed puzzle. Now, I can brag about it.
After some 23 moves into this game, I was two pawns down, staring at another loss due to my silly opening ideas. The board looked like this, with my opponent to play.
To protect his rook, he moved his Queen out of the safe zone and into d4, threatening an exchange that would leave him two pawns up. It also attacked my knight which was quietly sleeping in that corner h4 square. After some thinking, I accidentally came across this gem of a puzzle on the board. So yea, go ahead and solve the board below for black.
In puzzle speak, that’s ‘Black to play and (at least ensure a) Win’.
Black to Play & Win
See the sequences? No?
Black goes ahead with Rxg2+. This catches white unawares, as taking that out with the rook would lead to Nxf3+ and the loss of the Queen. The King has to move, then. Qxh2# threatens on his right, so he moves to his left. This turn of events has generated a few options for black now. Next, I went with Rxf2+. The key piece for black here is that Knight sleeping at h4 – though it is teamwork and all of those pieces are quite important.
Let’s look at White’s options in detail. The king can’t move to his right, again because of Qxh2#. He can’t move to his left, again because of Nxf3+ and the fork on the royal pair. So, he goes with Kxf2. This has given Black an advantage now. The f3 pawn is ready to be gobbled up by the rook, but let’s save it for later. I went with Qxh2+. The King has two options, e1 and f1. The e1 option again leads to the knight fork on the royal pair. My opponent resigned then.
Good Knight, Ye White Queen.
The f1 option is not cool, either, as it only leads to Rxf3+ forcing Ke1 and the Black Queen going on a rampage from there. You see what a knight can do at the right position? It was awesome. So, what did we learn today?
Grammar doesn't matter.
The entire game, riddled especially with my mistakes, can be found here.
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