I'll submit this as a puzzle: White to move and win a piece.

The moves played for Black are the tries made by my opponent.

What I'd like to know is - could my opponent have wriggled free?

=============For those having solved the puzzle==================

What do you think?

Would Kd8 instead of Kf8 been better?

Hey you aren't that far away from me. Anyway, on the puzzle, there are quite a few "better" moves.

For instance:

2. Bf1? Why? You are giving the knights a flight path but this is a bit of a backwards move. I went with Qd2 so after taking the knight I can do Nf3 and the knight on C3 is protected by the queen. Still think that's better.

2... e5? Why not Ne5 which is wonderfully aggressive?

5. Nxc8? swapping off a useful, attacking piece, for a useless, irrelevant one. Nd5 straight away would be better.

As for kd8/kf8, kf8 is way better. After Kd8 Nd5 Qg6, it's getting ugly for black.

Cool, thanks for your reply.

Qd2 I think is a nice move which I didn't consider, thanks. I didn't like moving Bf1 but felt it was adequate since I was winning material.

Ne5 is also a nice idea - the point being that 3.bxc5 dxc5 4.Nde2 fails to Nf3# ?

I had the same thoughts on Kd8 actually, it doesn't look good but then again I thought Kf8 was bad because of 5.Nxc8. My plan was that if 5...Rxc8 6.Qxd7 wins a piece. I can't quite believe I didn't see then that Black has 6...Rxc3, guess I'm lucky my opponent didn't look that far either.

Anyway, thanks again for the analysis.