gwhitehou...If white didn't make that first move, black's rook could of taken the f2 pawn before white could mate. Good puzzle!

hard

I got it easy....nice maneuvering

Well, it takes guts to pull off that trick. Even though it's pretty unlikely to happen, it's a beautiful checkmate.

I like your reasoning and your ability to see that kind of thing. I would have undoubtedly screwed it up.

Good maneuvering.

 

nothing elegant about those moves, the only impressive thing about this is how in the world the black king got trapped behind those pawns, if you have the king trapped like that, checkmate mate is easy. So, nothing interesting or special about the rook work there.

good first tactical move. it resticts black to just one possible reply. then white just continues with the original plan and pounces!

Nice,surprising

I loved the first Rook move.

Good one

To gwhitehou:  

The idea of 1. Ra8 to force the Black 1. ... Rh6 (if 1. ... Rb7 then 2. Rh8+ with mate).

If the White's first move is 1.Ra1 then 1. ... Rb7 2. Rg1 Rb2 and White cannot

play 3.Rg3 because 3. ... Rxf2+ .

What was the tactical point of white's first move?