Many serious chess players are more than familiar with the accompanying diagram. It is from a famous game, Zukertort-Blackburne, London 1883, and White continued with 31.Bxe5+ and Black resigned in a few moves in a dismal position. In the 1950s, Edgard Tchelebi, from Beirut, wrote to British Chess Magazine that he had found a forced mate in seven! Son of a gun! He was right! See if you can find what he found. It's all done with checks, checks, checks!

Solution

This famous game is worth playing over, not only for the brilliance of the attack, but because the Zukertort system with the bishops on d3 and b2 has undergone a resurgence in recent years. Here's the game and solution:

Zukertort,Johannes Hermann - Blackburne,Joseph Henry, London, 1883

1.c4 e6 2.e3 Nf6 3.Nf3 b6 4.Be2 Bb7 5.0–0 d5 6.d4 Bd6 7.Nc3 0–0 8.b3 Nbd7 9.Bb2 Qe7 10.Nb5 Ne4 11.Nxd6 cxd6 12.Nd2 Ndf6 13.f3 Nxd2 14.Qxd2 dxc4 15.Bxc4 d5 16.Bd3 Rfc8 17.Rae1 Rc7 18.e4 Rac8 19.e5 Ne8 20.f4 g6 21.Re3 f5 22.exf6 Nxf6 23.f5 Ne4 24.Bxe4 dxe4 25.fxg6 Rc2 26.gxh7+ Kh8 27.d5+ e5 28.Qb4 R8c5 29.Rf8+!! Kxh7 [White's brilliant rook sacrifice can't be defended against by the queen capture either because it takes the defense away from the pawn on e5: 29...Qxf8 30.Bxe5+ Kxh7 31.Qxe4+ Kg8 32.Qg6+ Qg7 33.Qxg7#] 30.Qxe4+ Kg7

And now the solution ...

31.Rg8+ [The game continued 31.Bxe5+ Kxf8 32.Bg7+ Kg8 33.Qxe7 and Black resigned.] 31...Kxg8 [31...Kf7 32.Qg6#] 32.Qg6+ Qg7 [32...Kh8 33.Bxe5+ Qxe5 34.Rh3+ Qh5 35.Rxh5#; 32...Kf8 33.Rf3+ Qf6 34.Rxf6+ Ke7 35.Qg7+ Kd8 36.Rf8#] 33.Qe8+ Qf8 [33...Kh7 34.Rh3+ Qh6 35.Qf7+ Kh8 36.Bxe5# (36.Rxh6#) ] 34.Rg3+ Kh7 35.Qg6+ Kh8 36.Rh3+ Qh6 37.Rxh6# A great lesson on how to use long range pieces!

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