While doing tactic puzzles I came across this one.
Black to move and win.
Can you solve it, and at the same time enjoy the beauty of the solution ?
(I'll add the solution in the coming days).
Did just see one of the two second moves. Nice tactic. Also not an uncommon motif i bet. So good to know it.
nice puzzle not too hard not too easy !
Thank you for sharing, it was a good refresher! This is how I approached the puzzle:
If it’s white to move, they at minimum have a draw with Qe5+ followed by Qc7+, if Kb5, Qd7+ Ka6 and Qa7+ draw. With this established, black basically has to play forcing moves.
1) 1. Qc3+ Kc1 Qa1#
2) 1. Qc3+ Kb1 2. Nd2+ Kc1 3. Nb3+ Kb1 4. Qa1#. Thus, Kc1 is out of the picture for white.
3) 1. Qc3+ Kb1 2. Nd2+ Ka2 3. Bb3+ cxb3 and white escapes.. so Nd2+ doesn’t work.
4) 1. Qc3+ Kb1 2. Bxc2+ Bxc2 and now Nd2 leads to mate in all variations under that line. Therefore, Kb1 has to be scraped.
5) Testing only other defense for white:
1. Qc3+ Ka2 and now 2. Bb3+ cxb3 and it is variation, the d2 square is vacant for the queen compared to 3) where the Knight was occupying it! 3. Qd2+ and mate ensues, so bxb3 does not work for black, we are getting close!
6) 1. Qc3+ Ka2 2. Bb3+ Kb1 and 3. Bxc2 again and we transpose into 4).
7) Now all variations are exhausted and lead to mate.
Hope some found this useful :)