Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Solution to Problem # 50


Additional commentary about this game and about back rank mates can be found at this Chessville article by IM Igor Khmelnitsky.

White wins with the dramatic 1.Nf5. Khmelnitsky writes:
"After 1…exf5 2.Qxc8+ Nxc8 and, suddenly, the Rook on e1 has its path to e8 cleared – like magic, all three pieces (Ne3,Pe6,Ne7) have vanished and the defender (Rc8) is gone as well! 3.Re8#. All other Black responses would lead to losing a ton of material."

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Solution to Problem # 49


This position is taken from the game Penrose-Popov 1963, in the ChessBase DVD PowerPlay3: Pawn Storm, by GM Daniel King.

Although the game did not follow this course, King shows the following beautiful win for White:

1.Rxg7! Kxg7 2.Qg4+ Kh8 3.Qh4 f5 4.exf6 Rf7 5.Qxh6+ Kg8 6.Bh7+ Rxh7 7.Qg6+ Kf8 (7...Kh8 8.Qe8+ with mate to follow) 8.Qxh7+-