Daily Puzzle Analysis 5/26/2024
Very tough and epic Sunday puzzle to end the week! Here is my thought process and an explanation for the puzzle.
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At the start of the puzzle, I noticed that all of Black's pieces are blocked off from Black's king. Meanwhile, our pieces are very active (with the exception of the knight on h1). A quick material count shows that Black is up a piece.
There are three checks in the position: 1. Qd5+, 1. Qe6+, and 1. Qxg6+. The most natural check is 1. Qd5+, but this simply allows 1... Kf8, and there isn't any good follow-up. 1. Qxg6+ also doesn't seem like a good option, since Black will simply play 1... hxg6 and nothing would have changed (except our queen would be gone). This leaves the final check, 1. Qe6+.
This move (1. Qe6+) does give up our queen, but it does drive Black's king out of its fort. After Black captures the queen (I didn't consider the possibility of Black moving back to f8, but that also leads to us winning after 2. Bd5, with unstoppable checkmate), the next "natural" move is 2. Bd5+, not allowing Black's king to escape and dragging it out into the open. However, after the king takes the bishop, I couldn't find a good continuation for a while.
However, after a bit, I saw the move 3. f5. This move removes the critical e6-square from Black's king, so it cannot retreat, and we can deliver checkmate with either rook moving to the d-file. This seemed very promising, so I played it through on the puzzle interface. I got the first two sacs correct, but the third move (3. f5) was wrong.
Later, using Analysis, I realized that I didn't consider the space left behind by the f-pawn: it used to guard the e5-square, but as it moves forward, it no longer guards it, giving the Black king a safe haven to rest and escape our attack.
At this moment, I unwisely tried many other moves that don't work into the puzzle interface, since that is what I usually do when I fail a rated puzzle (solving it after failing a move results in no rating change). However, I recollected myself and decided to solve the puzzle from there.
I asked myself, which other moves can control the e6-square besides 3. f5? There is only one move that accomplishes this goal: 3. Re4. This move leaves the king with no moves (besides capturing the rook), and if Black does nothing, we can deliver checkmate with 4. Rd3+ Kxe4 5. Nf2. (Actually, I didn't see this initially, but this move just seemed very promising). Also, in the case that Black's king captures our rook, it is gone even further into our territory. I probably should have calculated what to do after the rook sac, but I instantly played it and got it correct.
After looking at the resulting position, I asked the same question: which moves can take away Black's escape square on d5? 4. Rc5 does that, but the rook will promptly be taken by the d-pawn. The only other move that accomplishes this task is 4. Rd3, a move very similar to the previous move, since it takes away the only escape square, sacrifices a rook for the king to go even further into White territory, and threatens a checkmate (this time the direct 5. Nf2#).
Therefore, I ended the puzzle by playing 4. Rd3, and after the king takes our rook, we deliver checkmate with 5. Nf2#.
I overall enjoyed the theme of this puzzle: a bunch of sacrifices. The first two were not too hard to spot, but I liked the last two sacrifices since they were pretty sneaky, and I also liked how similar they were. I also liked the fact that at the end, we only have a king, a knight, and pawns, and we checkmate Black's king, who has munched his way to his demise. It is also rather interesting that the h1-knight, which seems very insignificant, ends up being the piece that delivers checkmate.
Overall, very good puzzle, chess.com!
And yes, I am aware that this position is illegal, since the stacking of the pawns don't match up with the amount of pieces captured. However, this doesn't really matter since the goal of a puzzle is to teach chess players a tactic (in this case, attraction) and apply it into their own games.
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Here is an explanation for this puzzle, in case anyone is confused about this puzzle (which some people are).
Oh, and if you are ever confused on why a move doesn't work/why a move was played, you can always use the Analysis feature yourself; just tap on the magnifying glass button next to the retry button!
I hope this helps, and have a nice Sunday! 
