Daily Puzzle Analysis 12/31/2023
Nice and tough Sunday puzzle to end the year of 2023! Here is my thought process, as well as an explanation for those who are confused.
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First, I read the title, which told me that I had to create mating nets (which I would have found out very soon anyway).
Then, I did a material count. Black is currently up three points of material (up a bishop). Yes, we can fork rooks with Nc6 or capture Black's bishop with fxg5. However, Black has a pawn on c2 about to promote.
Now, time to analyze the real issue: the mating net. Currently, Black's king is rather trapped by our forces, with two escape squares: f6 and e4. We don't really care if Black's king moves to f6 (right now), since Rxf7 would be checkmate. However, if Black's king moves to e4, it's a different story, since although the king is boxed in, there is no clear way to checkmate the king.
This led me to consider the move 1. Kf3. This move not only stops the king from moving to e4, but also unblocks our g-pawn, creating the dual threats of g4+ and Rxf7+, both leading to checkmate. However, Black can simply defend the pawn with Rf8 or Rb7, when both of our threats have been stopped. Now, Black's escape square on f6 is actually a problem, since the king will escape to e7, and our mating attack falls.
However, how can we take away this escape square? I saw the move 2. Rh6, and after 2... Bxh6 3. Rxh6, the simple threat is g5, and I stopped my calculations there (which I probably shouldn't have). This line just seemed too promising, so I played it and got the first three move correct.
Black defended with 3... Rg8, a move that I didn't see, since I stop calculating too early. Now, this was a hurdle in my puzzle-solving, since our threat of g4# is stopped. There is Rh5+, but Black's king will simply escape to f6, since our rook left the sixth rank. We can win a rook with 4. g4+ Rxg4 5. Rh5+ followed by Kxg4, but Black simply has a pawn that will promote next move. (Looking back at it, it was kind of stupid for me to not see the solution, 5. Nxg4, since it also wins a rook but also contains an unstoppable checkmate threat. I also didn't consider 4. Nd7, which almost works if not for 4... Rg3+).
Then, I thought about playing 4. Rh7, threatening Rxf7#, and 4... Kf6 doesn't work because of the same checkmate 5. Rxf7#. I also saw that if Black goes back to f8 with 4... Rgf8, I could play 5. Rg7, threatening Rg5# (however, I found out later that this was not even checkmate). Since this line seemed the most promising, I played it and got my first mistake of the puzzle.
I realized that Black can defend by moving the other rook to defend f7 (either by 4... Rbf8 or 4... Rb7). I also found out in my post-puzzle analysis that Black has 4... Rg3+, which dismantles the mating net.
I decided to think some more here, but I still didn't find the solution. Eventually, I tried some of the moves I considered earlier: 4. Rh5+ (which was wrong) and 4. g4+ (which was correct). Now, I had to solve the puzzle from this point.
After 4... Rxg4, I thought for a little bit, and found 5. Nxg4, a move that I missed earlier, creating the unstoppable threat of Rf6#. I played this and got it correct. The puzzle continued with 5... c1=Q, and I solved the puzzle with 6. Rf6.
Nice puzzle, chess.com!
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If you want to follow my thought process on a board, or simply want an explanation for the puzzle if you are confused, here you go!
I hope this helps, and have a nice Sunday and New Year's Eve! 
