5/16/2012 - Challenging Mate in 2

If this forum a bit more regulated by the moderator, then the one who say "first" or "Second" or so on, should be banned for a week. Then, I believe no one will want to say first, second and so on. LOL :)

"Challenging"? Okay, it does a good queen sac illustration though. The title implies a forced mate. Besides, you can see the needed coverage for the rook. More like a Monday puzz than a Wednesday puzz.

I found the Queen Sacrifice solution only because I knew it was to be a mate-in-two, and I diligently searched until I found it.

In a game I would probably have captured the rook at h8 with my queen, expecting:1. ... Qh6+2. Kb1 Qxe6 (or ... Nd7)

As the board opens up to us, Black is up a knight, but White is poised to capture the knight at d5 with his pawn (at this point he has six pawns to black's 3) or trade his remainging knight for Black's h-rook. Either way, White should win.

I doubt that in a game I would have had the mind set to look for a queen sacrifice forced checkmate. I would have been too focused on equalizing the material pieces while keeping my pawns advantage for the endgame, and keeping the positional advantage of the "bottled up" pieces in the upper left corner.