After years of collecting post-mortem conundrums I looked at some of them. And you know, it wasn't so bad! Rather than feeling inundated by the amount, which is around 200 positions, I just looked at a few for the sake of looking at a few. I suppose that this collection no longer seems like an impossible encumbrance, just more chess problems that I can improve on :-).

Here's a tough position I wanted to share. I'm curious what people think about what they would play in the above position, and let's say you are playing a slow game and have plenty of time.

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Back when I played this I thought, "I don't see forced mate so the clearest idea is ...Qg6, threatening a back rank check and double attack on the b2 Rook. I see the pin I have is helpful, but not exactly winning."

While ...Qg6 is completely winning, I never even looked at ...Rf8. That threatens ...Rxf2+ 38. Kxf2 Qf5+ 39. Ke1 Rg1+ 40. Kd2 Qd3#. The threat is so strong it practically forces White to exchange his Queen for the f8 Rook. Pretty cool, huh?

Fritz also has ...Qe4 as a nearly equal threat to ...Rf8, so kudos if you saw that one.

Posted at 1:38 PM. Click to see this post's 1 comment(s).