27 June 2009

Find the Best Move

Assess White's chances.

White to move


For those who wish to cheat, the position stems from Leko - Kramnik, Wijk aan Zee, 2008 and was published as Informant 102/219.


Other News

I'm playing in the Spokane City Championship Contenders Tournament today and tomorrow. The winner gets to play a match against FM David Sprenkle, the current City Champion. Last year, I won the contenders tournament and scored 1/2-2 1/2 against Sprenkle.

This year I am the third seed of six. Today, I have White against Adam Attwood, then Black against Ryan Ackerman, then White against top seed John Julian.

3 comments:

  1. Goodluck in the city championship! Lets hope you can repeat what you did last year namely winning the darn thing. :-)

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  2. This puzzle looks pretty simple (if I got it right) when you look at all the checks that white has, which by my count are only two (Nf7+ and Qg8+). Black must give up the exchange to prevent a classic smothered mate.
    1. Nf7+ if Kg8 then
    2. Nh6++ Kh8
    3. Qg8+ Rxg8
    4. Nf7#

    So, after 1. Nf7+ Rxf7
    2. Qxf7.

    With black's queen having no good squares to check from, this seems pretty safe. Also, I don't think 2... Bxf2+ presents White with any trouble he can't escape and just drops another piece.

    If I haven't blundered on this, which is altogether possible, this shows another reason that first looking at all checks is so important -- it sometimes just leads you to the correct path.

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  3. The line beginning 1.Nf7+ is correct, but 1.g4 is tempting and the reason it is wrong may be less obvious. I agree that examining forcing moves first is sensible.

    Thanks chesstiger. As today's post reveals, I did not win, but cannot complain too much about the result. I've annotated my one loss.

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