2025/06/07 DPA: "Yes, You Can Get There From Here"

White to move.

The only feasible plan appears to be to checkmate on g7.

But if White immediately plays 1. Qh6, Black can counter with 1. ... Qxf6 and the critical anchor is gone.

So how does White get the Black Queen off of the a1-h8 diagonal long enough to be able to play Qh6?

1. Rgc1 looks promising:

• If 1. ... Qxc1  2. Qh6 and nothing can stop 3. Qg7#.
• If 1. ... Qxd2  2. Qh6 Qxf4+  3. Qxf4 Kf8  4. Re1 [preventing Black from escaping to the e file]
• If 1. ... b2  2. Rxc3 b1(=Q)  3. Qh6 and again, Qg7# is inevitable

The puzzle surprised me with 1. ... h6, forcing me to find 2. Qh4, which maintains defense of the f6 pawn.  Now Black has no more tricks.  If 2. ... h5, blocking 3. Qh6, then 3. Qg5 and we're back to the position after White's first move.

Black takes the Rooks, which gives White the time needed to get to h6 and then g7.

.

The only way to delay the game is to take the d2 Rook so Black could then play ... Qxf4+ but that doesn't prevent checkmate.

The key was recognizing that the goal was checkmate on g7 [I don't read titles] and in order to do that, the Solver had to get the Black Queen off of the a1-h8 diagonal in order to safely play Qh6 without the threat of ... Qxf6.

1. Rgc1 was the only way to do that.  But 1. ... h6 was a twist that forced the Solver to find 2. Qh4.  After that, it was easy.