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2025/11/29 DPA: "Long Distance Relationships"

2025/11/29 DPA: "Long Distance Relationships"

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EnPassantFork
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White to move:

.

Black's King is in a corner:  a7 is covered by the Bishop [doesn't matter that the Bishop is pinned].

1. Rg8 would be checkmate but the Queen covers that square.

But I see a tactic along the h1-a8 diagonal:  1. Rg8+ Qxg8. 2. Bxb7+ Kxb7. 3. Qxa6+ Kc7 and there are no checks on dark squares [the Bishop can't move to play 4. Bb6+].

Oh, but 4. Qb6+ Kd7. 5. Ra7+ Ke6 and Black is getting away.

Rearrange the move order:  1. Qxa6+ bxa6. 2. Rg8+ Kb7. 3. Bxd5+ Kc7 but how to continue?

1. Qxa6+ bxa6  2. Rxa6+ Kb7  

1. Rg8+ Qxg8. 2. Qxa6+ Kb8. 3. Qxb7#.

Wait:  3. Qxb7+ is met with 3. ... Rxb7.

3. Qa8+ Kc7. 4. Qxg8 only evens out the material gap.

Don't forget White has the LSB on h1, hitting b7 and c6.

Oh, and Qa7+ is out as the b5 Knight guards that square.

1. Rg8+ Qxg8. 2. Qxa6 Kb8. 3. Qa8+ Kc7. 4. Qxb7+ [protected by the remote Bishop] Kd8. 5. Ra8#.

That was it:

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A bit tricky, as I went down several false paths and even down the correct one but then didn't visualize correctly.

The keys were:

  • Recognizing the potential of the LSB hiding in the corner [no RBBS here]
  • Getting the move order correct
  • Seeing, but discarding, the Queen sac as too slow as the Black Queen is still on d5, blocking the LSB
  • Being aware of the remote Rook on h7, preventing 3. Qxb7
  • Being able to visualize 4. Qxb7+, supported by the Bishop
  • The criticality of the d6 pawn, blocking a key dark escape square [White has only limited control over the dark squares]

1. Rg8+ simultaneously delivers check and encourages the Queen to capture [Black can block with Bishop and/or Rook but those are pointless], which frees up the LSB along the long diagonal.  Now the b pawn is pinned.

2. Qxa6+ exploits the pinned pawn

3. Qa8+ forces the King to c7

4. Qxb7+ ignores the hanging Queen because White calculates checkmate

5. Ra8#; traditional Ladder Mate

I also made a curious error:  I saw White's LSB in order to think 3. Qxb7 would be checkmate [it wasn't due to the Black Rook on h7] but I did not initially see it when the King was on c7 and White needed to play 4. Qxb7+.  I had to recalculate before "seeing" it.

If one solves move-by-move, if one got the Rook sac, everything else flows fairly naturally.