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5/9/2025 DPA

5/9/2025 DPA

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Zune7326
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Here's what we can see from this puzzle:

1. We have 4 pieces either attacking or easily able to attack whites king

2. Our queen and rook are being forked and our queen is being attacked by whites dark-squared bishop

3. The pawn on g2 is pinned

4. We are down a pawn

The only way to save both our queen and rook is to take whites knight with check. We can do that by playing Nxf3+. White can't take back with the pawn since it is pinned. If white moves their king then they lose immediately to Rxh2#. So whites only option is to take with the queen.

Now, we still have 3 pieces attacking whites king, so we need to attack before white has the chance to defend. We only have 3 attacking moves here. Qxg2+ loses since white can simply take and we're down a queen. Rxh2 loses since its not a check and white can take our queen. So we're left with Bxh2+, attacking with check and forcing whites king into the corner.

Now, this position is really similar to another common position that can pop up, but what position?

OK, but what's the difference between these positions? The 2 main ones are: 1. Our bishop is still blocking the rook and queens path and 2. Whites queen is on the 3rd rank, not 4th (Yes, technically its the 5th rank in the puzzle, but thats because it was from whites perspective). So, we need to move our bishop, but if we move it just anywhere white can block with their queen and we don't have an attack anymore.

So, how do we fix that problem? We can play Bg3^, blocking whites queen from blocking our rook. From there, its back to a similar position as the puzzle above, so why not play it similar? We can play it the same way, only being careful not to play Qh5+ after sacrificing our rook (As it would trade the queens, not something we want to do).