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How does Qh5 not work?

Because mate is less moves. Queen is already in a position to give checkmate after Ng5. And it doesn't fend off black's Qc2. In fact i think there are probably a lot of ways black can delay checkmate by losing your tempo.

Thanks for your response. I still don't get it.

Qxh5 is check. The only defense black has is to block it with the bishop on g7, so Bishop to h6, followed by Qxh6 which should be mate in 2.

I must be missing something here, but mate in 2 seems to be about as quick as is possible from this position.

-1 (solved)

Ford, if Qh5+ the bishop doesn't need to block, the king can go to g8. With black's queen sitting on c2, there's no real threat of white giving checkmate. i.e, no Qh7 checkmate until black queen is gone.

My mistake...I was studying the problem before black's first move Qxc4, which changes everything.

Thanks for your input though.

+12

what's wrong with letting us finsh the puzzle to checkmate, have Black make a move that leaves only one option for mate.

Qh7+???? thinking it was mate but plus 1 still for 8 secs??!!

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