Friday, October 16, 2015

Chess960 puzzle no.17

Should white be freaked out by white's attack here? I found myself ruminating over this question during a game. I realise that this does not even look like a Chess960 problem any more but when you think about it, how else could black's knight have reached d6 without it being Chess960? The point is that Chess960 does throw up different versions of classic chess mid-game themes.

It turns out to be a nice puzzle because it can be broken down into individual problems that can  be independently analysed to arrive at a solution. The threat is black can aim all his big pieces down the f-h files in tandem with opening up the kings's safety - a standard hack attack.


SP076 Black to play - does black have a serious attack on white's king?

Answer bottom left hand corner of this page







Solution:
Break the problem down into manageable chunks.
A) If ...f5 white plays e4 with a strong attack
B) if ...g5 white has the defense Bh4! followed by g3
C) if ...h5-h6 white has g3 stopping black's progress

A+B+C means white can safely proceed with a queen-side (c-side) attack
Answer: no!


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