Daily Puzzle Analysis 6/12/2025

Here is my analysis for today's daily puzzle!

Key Tactics: Fork, Pin

At the start of the puzzle:

- Material is equal.

- There is tension between Black's d5-knight and White's c3-knight.

- Black has a queen-bishop battery on the g1-a7 diagonal pinning White's f2-pawn.

- Because of this pin, White's knight on g3 is loose.

There isn't any checkmate opportunities, so I should probably find a way to win material.

After seeing the loose knight on g3, a potential idea came to my mind - a queen forking minor pieces. Then, I saw the idea of 1. ... Qc7 to attack White's c3-knight and g3-knight. My bishop on a7 still pins White's f2-pawn, so White's knight is still loose. However, this doesn't work:

So, that doesn't work because White can capture our d5-knight. However, what if we get rid of that resource with 1. ... Nxc3 and then followed up with 2. ... Qc7? Now, White doesn't seem to have any good way to defend both pieces besides 3. Ne4, which fails to 3. ... Bxe4. So, this works!

And, the puzzle is solved! Excellent puzzle by @JohanVA!

I hope this helps, and have a nice Thursday!