Solution to yesterday’s tactic
gm Venkatesh M.R
gm Karthikeyan Murali
India Ch, Trivarur, 2015.11.17 Position before Black’s 37th move. I asked the reader to find the best continuation for Black (in the game Black prematurely exchanged his Bishop for the Knight, and then found himself in difficulties, even losing the game in time trouble)
SOLUTION:
The solution is surprising, and has several critical moves, requiring accurate play from both sides. Let us start with the first move…
37…Bf3!!
The idea of this move is to try to pick up the undefended Rook on d2 with …Qe1+. If now 38.Rxf3?! Qe1+ 39.Kh2 Qxd2 and White has little or no compensation for the exchange. Note that 40.Nxg7? loses immediately to 40… Rg6! So White must move his attacked Queen to g3 to cover the e1 square. (38.Qh4? g5! wins)
38.Qg3! Rg6!
39.Qh4?!
Now there is no …g5 to annoy White.
—————————————–
READER TAKE NOTE:
The best defence for White (instead of 39.Qh4) is 39.RxB! RxQ 40.NxR (diagram)
Despite having only a Rook and Knight for the Queen, White has a compact position with no weaknesses. I would think that White has reasonable chances of holding out with some fortress type of idea….
——————————————-
39…Qa1+! 40.Kh2!
40…Bxg2!!
Even stronger than 40…Rxg2+ ,with the same idea. If now 41.Rxg2 Rxg2+ 42.Kxg2 g5! wins.
41.Rg4!?
Relatively best, given that Black was threatening mate in one. Die-hards will have noticed that the ‘brilliant’ 41.Qxh7+ does not work.
41…Qh1+ 42.Kg3 Qe1+
A picturesque position!
43.Rf2 Bc6!!
