7 Ways to Mate From 1 Position

Recently, I was playing a game against my father (who is a very good chess player) and we have reached the following position. 

The game in the beginning was rather equal, but suddenly (which is not how it should be in chess, surprises are a clear sign that something is wrong with your chess skills. I do not consider myself a chess grandmaster, so its forgivable , although I did kick myself quite a lot afterwards) I found myself in the position above. I resigned, and I will explain the reason as to why I made such a decision.

In the position that you see above, I have personally managed to count 7 (!) ways that black can deliver forced checkmate. This does not include variations i.e. Knight on f3 takes instead of Knight on g4 and etc (with the variations include, there would be atleast 10 possibilities). But, with a bit of luck, white still had a chance to save the game. And I will show you how. 

First of all, I would like to show you 5 mate sequences that I found in this position. Another 2 are identical to the ones below, with minor differences i.e. Queen takes first instead of Rook on pre-final move and etc. You should be able to see it easily yourself. 

So simple and elegant, yet so powerful and deadly. Whatever white does, Black is going to deliver a mate. It is inevitable, if we consider that Black is not going to blunder (! This will be important). Many of you will ask "but how can you blunder in such a position? This is 100% mate!". Well, if you read carefully, at one point I wrote in the move annotations (to the third puzzle) that I would not recommend Knight from f3 taking the pawn at h2. Why? Judge for yourself below.

Similar variation 

Ofcourse, it is rather self-explanatory that in a real game, where there is time to think, even an average opponent would not commit a blunder and deliver the unstoppable mate. The educational aspect of this position is to learn how to use pieces together in synthesis. If the pieces are working together, you will be able to create such positions. And such positions are indeed the beauty of chess.

I hope you have enjoyed this positional analysis, and I am looking forward to your comments. 

Vasily Shcherbinin / Vas87thRD