2023/08/26: "First Things First"

There's clearly trouble on the back rank for Black.  I have a Q+B battery on the a2-g8 diagonal and Rook controlling the d file.

What if I play 1. Rd8+ and sac the Rook to deflect the Queen from the defense of f7?  Nope:  while 1. ... Qxd8  2. Qxf7+ looks scary, there is no follow-up after 2. ... Kh8 as the back rank is now defended.

As is sometimes the case, the answer is there but you have to change the order:  1. Qxf7+ Qxf7 [forced; otherwise Black loses the Queen outright] and, instead of playing the expected 2. Bxf7+ to regain the Queen, White inserts the Intermezzo/Zwischenzug ["in-between" move] 2. Rd8+.

Black cannot block with the Queen since it's pinned to the King by the Bishop.  2. ... Ne8 is the only move, which looks like it holds.  But White cuts through Black's defenses with 3. Rxe8#:  The Queen is still pinned and again, cannot capture.

This highlights a recurring theme in puzzles:  just because a move doesn't work initially [1. Rd8+] doesn't mean it can't work later. 

Also, just how dangerous an intermezzo can be:  the opponent expects you to play a certain move and is ready but you do something else first which completely changes the nature of the position.

The difficult thing about this puzzle is to A) avoid the temptation to immediately recapture but to analyze alternatives [preferably before one sacs one's Queen]; and B) to recognize that, despite the Queen being next to the Rook, it is powerless to intervene due to the all-important pin.

I only now just saw that White's Queen is en prise.  This might encourage White to play the Queen sac as a way to get away from the Rook's attack.

Finally, yes, you could argue that 1. ... Kh8 is technically superior because it avoids immediate checkmate.  This is irrelevant:  the point of the puzzle was to highlight the pin and intermezzo ideas.  If you found 1. Qxf7+ with the idea of 2. Rd8+ and 3. Rxe8#, you understood the principles involved.  What route the opponent chooses is not our concern.

https://www.chess.com/blog/EnPassantFork/no-the-puzzle-is-not-wrong