Perfect, Save for One

As part of the Book Challenge I am currently working on the first of the ten volume Yusupov series.

I managed a perfect score on the first test save for this one position with Black to move.

Here I correctly found the first move, but then after White’s reply I missed the best continuation.

The game is listed between N.N. – Morphy so I’m assuming it’s likely from a simul or was some sort of odds game.  The position was not in my database, but I don’t have Megabase.

Highlight the text between the brackets for the solution.

[ 1…Ng3 is the first move, which I saw.  My thought process was that the knight can’t be taken since White’s queen would hang, and if White takes Black’s queen with 2.Qxh7 then 2…Nde2 mates.  However, what I missed was that after 2.Qxd4 Ne2+ 3.Kh1 the correct move is not to take the Queen with 3…Nxd4 but rather for Black to sac his queen with 3…Qxh7+ 4.Kxh7 Rh8+ ]

I’m still please with the first test’s overall results, but I will continue to strive for perfection.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

2 thoughts on “Perfect, Save for One”

  1. I forgot what’s name this mate has with Ne2+ and then Q-sac on h2 and then rook mate. It’s a classical mate one should know by heart. Not a critic, I dont know all those mates either, but those that I have seen I try (and usually can for a period of time) to remember but I always forget the names.

  2. When I took the test, a little after the book came out, I got it wrong, too. I was 1600-ish at the time. I remember that Morphy had the black pieces, and thought to myself, “this book is supposed to be geared toward moving 1500’s to the 1800’s, or something like that, and they give a mate like this in the first chapter!?” I’ve seen the position one other time in a tactics app, and I got it; so I think positions like this are very memorable, even if insanely difficult to find on the first shot. I kept stopping calculation at Ng3, and halting short in a calculation remains a problem for me.

    As to Johan’s question, I don’t think the mate has a name, does it?

    Nice post. Thanks for sharing.

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