White to Play and Mate

Pete Tamburro on Sep 30, 2009

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

In this position, taken from Timoshenko-Yudasin, St. Petersburg 1996, White uncorked a mating attack here rather than just be satisfied with being up in material. If you have been following this column for a while, you probably have an idea of what the first move should be; however, can you find the whole line?

Solution:

1.Nf6+ gxf6 [1...Kh8 2.Rxf3 Bxd5 Apparently pinning the rook, but White has a surprising resource here: 3.Qxd5 Rxd5 Anything else just prolongs it a move or two. 4.Rh3#] 2.Rxf3 Bxd5 As in the first note, this just apparently pins the rook, yet again White has a solution. [2...Rxe7 3.Qh6 followed by Rg1+.] 3.Qg2+ This "unpins" the rook so it can go to h3. Don't forget the role the bishop on e7 plays in all this. Many times this pattern will emerge with the Black rook on f8, and there the knight sacrifice and use of the g- and h- files for the rooks and queen also lead to mate. A handy sacrifice of the knight to know! 3...Kh8 4.Rh3#

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.