Friday, October 3, 2008

Simple But Beautiful



I love this position (number 165 in Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book). It's white to move - what would you play?

Highlight between the brackets for the solution.
[ 1.Bg5! And black resigned. He can't take the bishop with the h pawn, as Qh5 will be mate. If black's queen takes the bishop, white wins with Qg8# ]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a beautiful tactic!

I think I've seen a similar position in Chessimo/PCT, though I don't recall the extra "insult added to injury" of the discovered attack by White's rook against the Black bishop on a1!

Best regards,
Hank

Chessaholic said...

Thanks Hank. This is not the most difficult tactic, but I like it because of its aesthetic simplicity :)

From the patzer said...

I first looked at Bxh6 since i would regain the bishop after Rxa1 but that was too easy so i looked further.

Once i saw it was mate if the h-pawn is away with Qh5 the solution was clear to me, Bg5.

I dont know if i will see such things in a real game i play but here one searches until one find a solution.

Chessaholic said...

chesstiger: yeah, that's the same old problem with many puzzles - you know there is something to look for so it's easier to see than in an actual game.