I was playing blitz yesterday and got a position, where I delivered mate in 3 moves. Afterwards I ran the game through Fritz and Fritz said that my opponent didn’t chose the best continuation ( I knew that) , anyway there was a mate in 8 ( I didn’t know that). I found it interesting and made a calculation training exercise out of it. I almost solved it, it was a wrong order of moves on the end. I offer you to try it, the answer is in the first comment. White to move:
September 16, 2009 at 11:27 am
31. Qd8+ Kg7 32. Ne8+ (my opponent played 32. … Kh6?? and 33. Qh4# followed) 32. … Kg7 34. Qg8+ Kh6 35. h4! Qb6+ 36. Kh2 Qg1+ 37. Kxg1 Nxc3 38. Qxh7#
September 16, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Was it blundercheck that found the mate in 8?
September 16, 2009 at 9:19 pm
chessx – yes, it was blundercheck. Sometimes it says something like #14 or #20
.
September 17, 2009 at 2:05 pm
You said mate in 8, so I was looking for one that looked more like that.
31.Qd8+ Kg7 32.Ne8+ Kf8 33.Nf6+ Kg7 34.Qg8+ Kh6 35.Qf8+ Kg5 36. Nd4+ Kf4 37.Ng3, and now Black has one move to stop the Qh6 mate threat, and Kxe Qd6 is also mate, but I did not see that Qb6+ stops all of this, probably because I thought it was supposed to be there (e5 pawn cannot otherwise be held), and then looked up the answer. Yes, the h4 idea is the way to go.
September 17, 2009 at 2:11 pm
No Qh6+ mate threat, only Qd6+ mate threat which was easily repelled by Qb6+. At first I only saw Kf5, then looked at Kf4 (no Ng3+), but by then I wanted to see if it was right.
September 17, 2009 at 10:11 pm
It’s not that easy as it looks. I thought 31. Qd8+ Kg7 32. Ne8+ Kg7 34. Qg8+ Kh6 35. Qxh7 Kg5 36. h4+ and after 36. … Kf4 couldn’t find any continuation. 35. Qxh7 is not bad actually, since Black eventually loses queen after 36. Ne4+.
September 18, 2009 at 2:19 am
“35. Qxh7 is not bad actually, since Black eventually loses queen after 36. Ne4+.”
Show variation or it didn’t happen.
September 18, 2009 at 10:26 am
Ne4+ actually didn’t happen, it’s just Fritz’s imagination
:
31. Qd8+ Kg7 32. Ne8+ Kg8 33. Nf6+ Kg7 34. Qg8+ Kh6 35. Qxh7 Kg5 36. Ne4+ Kf4 37. Qh4+ Kxe5 38. Qf6+ Kd5 39. c4+
September 18, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Wow, that is impressive! I am complimenting a computer engine, but then again, human or computer it’s just chess.