Saturday, February 11, 2012

10 second chess tactic


White to move. Can you find the most precise continuation in 10 seconds or less?

Source: ChessToday.net
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10 comments:

Richard Schwartz said...

It took me a little more than 10 seconds to see the general idea, and a minute or so to verify all the lines.

1. Qe8!

Due to the threat of 2. Rh3#, Black must keep his Queen on the h3-c8 diagonal. But no matter what Black does, White will either force the Queen off the diagonal or win decisive material (with mate quickly following)

If 1. ... Qd7 2. Qxd7 Rxd7 3 Rh3#
If 1. ... Rf6 2. Qxe6 Rxe6 3 Rh3#
If 1. ... Re2 2. Qxe2 Rxe2 3 Rh3# (2... Qc1,Qh4#)
If 1. ... Qf5 2. Rg5 Qxg5 3 fxg5+ Kh5 4. Qxf6

Anonymous said...

Q-e8

Anonymous said...

How about 1. Qe8 to deflect the queen from guarding h3?

Anonymous said...

Qe1 is black's kiss of death

Cortex said...

1.Qe8 is a pretty move!

Anonymous said...

1.Rg8!! followed by Re8 will put pressure on the weak pawn on e4.

aam@fics said...

1. Qd8 Qf5 (else 2. Rh3#)
2. Qxf7
1-0

taking the queen leads to Rh3#
not taking it means black is a rook down, and the same mate threat harassment persists (along with Qg7+ and other mates).

Anonymous said...

Qe8 with the idea of Ra3 mating immediately suggests itself. For example if Re7 then Qxe7 or if Qf5 then Qxf7. etc.

Anonymous said...

Queen e8

Anonymous said...

After 1- Qe8; Qf5 (black's best reply as far as I can determine), Qxf7 is just not sufficient for white (2... Qxf7 3-Rh3+ Qh5 4-Rxh5+; Kxh5, the threats are defused and material is almost equal).

So here's my line:

1- Qe8; Qf5
2- Qg8! and the black queen is now overburdened, having to defend against two different mate threats (Rh3 and Qg5)

I'll admit, it took me quite a bit longer than 10 seconds to get there.