The infamous, although not yet established Decorah Chess Club, will be getting together informally on Wednesday, 12/1/2021, beginning at 6:30pm at Pulpit Rock Brewing Company. With our wide range of skill level, we will match up and play a few games with each other, sharing some interesting positions.
Come to learn, play, or observe! All who have an interest in chess are welcome.
Stealing the Queen
The 11/26/2021 puzzle, “Aquiring Material” on chess.com was quite challenging. I could not get it without hints. In the end, you get the queen.
After looking at this puzzle extensively, you may see that Qg5 would be a great attack for white if it were not for the black queen resting on e5. It would be quite bold to sacrifice the rook with Rf5 without working out the rest of the moves, but this seems like an odd, yet interesting candidate move.
If the rook moves to f5, the black queen is under attack. The only reasonable move for black here is to take the rook with the pawn on e6. This, however, creates the barrier needed to play 1. Qg5.
If black tries to defend with 1. … g6, then 2. Qh6 will follow and pose a dangerous enough threat that the black queen would be forced to take white’s pawn on f6 and then lose her to our knight. Thus, black’s response must be 1. … Kf8.
Now, we strike very carefully. 2. Qxg7+ Ke8 follows. This lines black’s king up with black’s queen. By checking the king with the knight, we pin the queen because of the rook and can then take the queen on the next move. 3. Nd6+ Kd7 is the way to black’s queen! Yes, we will have to sacrifice the knight to do so, but in the end, white gains a queen and a pawn (10pts) for a rook and knight (8pts). We close it out with 4. Rxe5 Kxd6.
Decorah Sjakklubb 