White to move and win February 3, 2009
Posted by dorigo in Art, books, chess, games, internet, personal.Tags: chess, chess combinations, internet chess club
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Minutes ago I logged on the Internet Chess Club for some evening fun, after an evening spent playing with my kids, feeding them, and reading them a chapter of the first book of the Harry Potter saga (which, I hate to say, is excellently written). And here is the position I worked out with a similarly rated player (I am white):
White to move. Can you spot the move I played ? Mind you, I did not analyze with a chess engine the position yet, and I just spent a minute looking at it post-mortem, so I do not claim that my move is the best one in this position. It might even be flawed. But I am darn proud of it… The game ended two moves later. I will leave this little riddle on for tonight, and will give the solution tomorrow. In the meantime, do write below what you’d have played. But beware: this was a 5′ blitz game, and I had less than two minutes left for all my moves – investing more than 30 seconds of thought on the position would cost you the game in most situations.
g6. I think it’s a good move!
I would go g6. He has to eat that pawn, and will do that with his horse, and then H7!!
I stopped playing chess thirty years ago, and I should leave it that way. I wasn’t even that good back then, and I have wasted far too much time looking at this position, but I don’t see any easy win after g7,Rxg7;Nxg7,fg.
By the way, I am on tenterhooks waiting to hear what the ghost candidates are.
Best to you and the kids.
Hi Jim, all,
it is true that after 1.g6 Rxg6! 2.Nxg6 fxg6 3.f7 Re7 (Qxh4?? fxe8 ) white still has a lot of homework. However, g6 is still a very pleasant move to play, to a square defended fivefold.
The other variations are all easily winning: besides the obvious 1….Nxg6 2.Qxh7 mate there is 1….fxg6 2.f7! winning a rook.
In the game, my opponent thought 20 seconds and played 1….Nf5 (defending from 2.g7 mate) and ran into 2.Qxh7+!Nxh7 3.Rxh7 mate.
Cheers,
T.
My instinct was g6, but I’m a duffer. On the other hand, Fritz 7 and 90 seconds on my laptop says g6 gives white an advantage of +1.63, while the next best move, Re1, is only +0.53. So Fritz agrees.
Strangely, Fritz likes the continuation fxg6 (1.62) better than Rxg6 (2.03). The continuations:
Best:
1.) g6 fxg6
2.) f7 Re7
3.) fxg8Q+ Kxg8
4.) Re1 Rf7
Best Rxg6:
1.) g6 Rxg6
2.) Nxg6+ Qxg6
3.) Rg1 Nf5
4.) Qf4 Qxf6
5.) Rh5 Ng6
6.) Rxf5 Nxf4
Best Rxg6, fxg6:
1.) g6 Rxg6
2.) Nxg6+ fxg6?
3.) f7 Kg7
4.) fxe8Q
Note the last move is because otherwise, Qxh7++.
Ah Carl, that’s right! The last variation is the definitive confirmation of the soundness of 1.g6!
I did see that 1.g6 Rxg6 2.Nxg6+ Qxg6 is bad in view of 3.Rg1 (kind of obvious), but I failed to see the Queen sacrifice in the last var.
Nice position indeed.
Cheers,
T.
g6 game over!!