Tactics Laboratory #10

Famous Position – if you’ve seen this before then don’t spoil it! 😉

Black to play and win!

5 Comments

  1. Hello, I was trying not to even look at this so that others could try but I have to say I have never seen this before. With that said my solution is 1. …Re3+ 2. Kg4 f5+ 3. Kg5 Kg7 4. Nd5 Rh3
    5. gh3 h6+ 6. Kh4 Bf2 mate.
    Peace,
    Kimani

  2. Man Kimani… you’re baaaad! 😀

    I saw this position in the movie, “The Luzhin Defence.” The move 4…Rh3!! was a beauty. In the movie, Alexander Luzhin found the move as he was riding in a car. Great chess movie!

  3. Difficult features include:

    1) The apparent symmetry of Black playing f5 and h5, which is broken by the move f5 by white if black plays h5.

    2) Rh3 as a lever to continue the assault on the dark squares
    around White’s King.

    Simple chess perspective of this problem:

    Black is down a piece and has access to light squares with his pawns, dark squares with his King and Bishop. The Rook power
    is needed for coordination, and direct threats must be sought
    quickly if Black doesn’t want to suffer from being down a piece.

    Peace…

  4. This was similar to the previous tactics problems which is why I chose it.

    In the movie “The Luzhin Defence,” after Luzhin sacrificed the piece on f4, the spectators were only talking about him getting the piece back after 1…Re3+ and presumably 2…Bb4. However, that position is still lost. In the movie, they did not see the combination and Luzhin would never get a chance to play it. He committed suicide and his wife played the combination posthumously when she found the moves written on a piece of paper in his coat.

    Note that black also threatened 4…Be7 mate after 3…Kg7

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