Daily Puzzle Analysis 4/17/2025

Here is my analysis for today's daily puzzle!

Key Tactics: Mating Attack, Mating Net

At the start of the puzzle:

- White is up a rook.

- Black's b8-knight is hanging.

- White's h1-rook is hanging.

- White's d5-knight is pinned to White's queen.

- Black has an attack on White's king: very strong queen on e4, b4-bishop patrolling the dark-square, and d7-bishop ready to jump to a4.

This shows that we should probably find a way to checkmate White's king.

There are two reasonable checks in the position: 1. ... Qd3+ and 1. ... Ba4+. However, which one is the winning check (or none at all)?

1. ... Qd3+ seems quite strong, but after 2. Kc1, Black doesn't have any other reasonable check. Black has the quite interesting try 2. ... Ba4 to threaten mate on c2, and if 3. a3, there is 3. ... Ba3# using the newly opened a3-square. However, White has the amazing defense 3. Qxb8+ Nd8 4. Qb5+(!!), sacrificing the queen to either lure Black's queen or a4-bishop away from the attack. And, after all the dust settles in this line, White will have an advantage.

What if we change the move order with 1. ... Ba4+? Now, this is a check, so White has no time to play Qxb8+. White can play 2. Kc1, which results in 2. ... Qc2# and a mate by Black. White can also play 2. b3, blocking the check. However, just like earlier, this opens up the a3-square for White's b4-bishop, so Black can checkmate White with 2. ... Qd3+ 3. Kc1 Ba3#, and the puzzle is solved!

Nice puzzle, chess.com!

I hope this helps, and have a nice Thursday!