Saturday, November 7, 2009

Adams-Torre, part 5 (watch your own back rank!)


After 21.Qxb7??: Black to play and win!

In the Adams-Torre game, we've seen White sacrifice his queen on three consecutive moves.  So wouldn't it be cool to sac a fourth time?  Again, if Black were to accept the sacrifice with 21...Qxb7??, then 22.Rxe8+! would lead to a back rank mate.

The problem is that Black can reply with an even cooler counter-sacrifice: 21...Qxe2!  (It's an easy move to miss: one of the commenters fell into a different version of the same trap.)



After 21...Qxe2!  White to play

Black has a forced win here, but White can try to set a trap.

If White now plays 22.Qxc8, what's is Black's winning reply?

Or if White instead plays 22.Rxe2 Rc1+ 23.Ne1 (see diagram below), how does Black force the win?



After 21.Qxb7?? Qxe2! 22.Rxe2 Rc1+ 23.Ne1: 
find the win for Black


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