My first try at a chess puzzle

White to play.
Find white's strongest move.

e6

Reveal Hidden Content

Hmm...how do you post that hover icon with the answer?
It's pretty useful as a non-spoiler.

Anyway, since I cannot find it I ll just write it normally.

Indeed. Sometimes the strongest move is not to knockout yourself.

The correct move is f3 which either wins the bishop or dislodges the bishop and wins the Queen

Yeah.. i'd like to know too how you post that icon.. seems pretty cool 🙂

@Anthem
I do not see how BxQ can lead to a checkmate for Black with bishop and rook. After black's BxB, if white moves c3 the checkmate is not imminent or even not a possibility.

@vzo
I do not think black's losing queen has anything to do with troubling the bishop or the f3 move. Moreover, if black moves Bg6, white's Qxh5 is a distant possibility. The only way the black's queen can be captured is by the e6+ move. To me this is the best move at this point.

smartarin - The c-pawn is pinned to the king by the light sq. bish

vzografos - I still don't see it. If the bishop retreats to g6, then does it not still pin the c-pawn?

edit: if you want to hide an answer use the [hidden] tag. note though that you can't hide multiple lines and for some reason if you use any apostrophes in a hidden text it won't show up. To find out how anything is done on this forum, just hit "reply & quote" on a post that uses the trick you're trying to copy and look at how its done in the quoted text.

Hi guys I ll give you the full lines later today.

But e4+ followed by queen capture is definitely mate for black

Ok so first of all this exercise was designed to show that sometimes a seemingly strong move (i.e. e6+ followed by discovered attack on the queen and taking the queen) although it seems VERY appealing can be a blunder.

So the mate line is:

e6+ Kxe6
Bxg7 Bxg7
Irrelevant move by white but say Qa6 Rxa6
Irrelevant move by white (say b4) Ra1#


Now, if white plays f3 and say bishop retreats to g6

f3 Bg6
e6+ Kxe6
Qb5 (threatens to fork King and rook) Kf7
and then, either the rook will have to leave the a-file which means the queen is gone or move between a5 and a8 which means the black pawns are gone with an eventual
Qc6 Ra5
Qxb6 Ra8
Qc6 Ra5
Qxd5+ e6
Qb7+ and the black queen is gone

So for black it is best to sacrifice the Bishop after
f3 Bxc2+
Kxc2 and moves the blac queen out of harms way with a check

or
f3 Bf5
e4 (black moves queen out of the way but loses bishop)


So in conclusion, the stronger move for white, (assuming perfect play from black) is to win the bishop. After that of course the game is even easier for white.


Anyway, so that was a first attempt at an chess puzzle. I guess it was a bit out of the ordinary (mate in n moves or find the ! move). Of course white could play many ok moves (since he was in better position) and eventually win, but the best one to win material is the short run is f3.


I'll try again with a more conventional puzzle in the future 🙂

What if black plays Kg8 instead of Kxe6?

This loses material faster for black

f3 Bg6
e6+ Kg8
g4 and the queen, king and bishop are on the same file. They cannot be defended.

Originally posted by vzografos
Hmm...how do you post that hover icon with the answer?
It's pretty useful as a non-spoiler.

Anyway, since I cannot find it I ll just write it normally.

Indeed. Sometimes the strongest move is not to knockout yourself.

The correct move is f3 which either wins the bishop or dislodges the bishop and wins the Queen

Reveal Hidden Content

Originally posted by vzografos
Ok so first of all this exercise was designed to show that sometimes a seemingly strong move (i.e. e6+ followed by discovered attack on the queen and taking the queen) although it seems VERY appealing can be a blunder.

So the mate line is:

e6+ Kxe6
Bxg7 Bxg7
Irrelevant move by white but say Qa6 Rxa6
Irrelevant move by white (say b4) Ra1#


Now ...[text shortened]... l is the short run is f3.


I'll try again with a more conventional puzzle in the future 🙂

Originally posted by SwissGambit
Doesn't 1.e6+ Kxe6 2.Qb5 work too? The threat of Qc6+ wins easily.

[pgn]
[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "?"]
[Round "-"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
[FEN "r4b2/4pkq1/1p6/2ppP2p/4b2P/1P2P1P1/1BP1QP2/1KR3R1 w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
1. e6+ Kxe6 2. Qb5 d4 3. exd4 cxd4 4. Rce1 Qe5 5. Qe2
[/pgn]

This line was found by my engine...

e6+ kxe6
Bxg7 Bxg7
white trades pawn and bishop
for black's Queen

Originally posted by ROWDYSTANZ
e6+ kxe6
Bxg7 Bxg7
white trades pawn and bishop
for black's Queen