Sunday Chess Problem

I have something a little different for you this week. Normally I show you composed positions in my Sunday Chess Problem posts. But this week I'd like to show you two shocking moves that occurred in actual games. The first comes from another of Aviv Friedman's videos. He did not mention the players in the following position, but he did mention that it is black to move:

Probably the first thing you notice is that black has sacrificed an exchange. He certainly has compensation in the form of more active pieces and white's exposed king, but there does not seem to be any immediate breakthrough. If white is given a few moves to consolidate, black's initiative could easily fade.

Then you might get excited about the possibility of trapping white's queen with 1. ... Bg4, but what does black have after 2. Qh4? White will just drop his queen back to g3 on the next move and black has accomplished nothing. Attacking the queen with 1. ... g6 is even worse, since white just plays 2. Qxh6+. So much for that.

Probably most of us would play 1. ... Bc6 or 1. ... Re8, which are both reasonable, if not entirely convincing moves. But now suppose I told you that the position is actually black to play and win. Black has a shot that ends the game immediately. He really does.

Black wins with 1. ... Rh8!! It's hard to imagine a more counter-intuitive move. Black moves his rook from an active central post into the corner, right at the moment when we are looking for a way of increasing the pressure against white's king.

The point of the move, however, is that the black pawn on h6 is now indirectly guarded. So what is white to do about the threat of 2. ... g6? After 3. Qxh6+ Kg8 the queen is trapped. White is just completely helpless after this move. He has no defense against the threat. For what it's worth, the computer gives 2. g6+ fxg6 3. Qxe5 as white's best option.

Aviv introduced this position by saying it's the sort of thing that will remind you of why you love chess. I agree!

Here's another position for you to consider. I found this in the book The Joys of Chess by Christian Hesse. It comes from a game between two players whose names I did not recognize. Since white is in check, we know that it is his move.

I suspect our first thought is that white has twice as many queens as black does. But then our excitement fades when we notice that it sure looks like black has perpetual check. For example: 1. Kg5 Qf4+ and the white king is forced back to h5. No better is 1. Kg4 Qg2+ 2. Kf5 Qf3+ 3. Kg5 Qf4+ 4. Kh5, and we are again back where we started.

So is it time to call it a draw? Hardly! Critical to black's survival is the move Qf4+. Without that move, the white king would have been able to escape up to e7. This suggests the incredible deflection move 1. Qh3!!. After 1. ... Qxh3+ 2. Kg5 Qg3+ 3. Kf6 Qf3+ 4. Ke7:

black is just finished. White's king is completely safe, while black's king is off in the wilderness. If black tries 4. ... Qxe4, then white just wins easily with 5. Kxd6 followed by picking off the pawn on e5. If instead black tries 4. ... Qxb3, then white gives checkmate with 5. Qh5+ Kg7 6. Qg4+ Kh7 7. Kf7, and black has no useful checks.

Basically, if black keeps his queen close to his king, then white is just going to pick off pawns and win easily. But if the black queen goes foraging for pawns of her own, then white will give checkmate. Time for black to resign.

See you next week!