Daily Puzzle Analysis 6/8/2025

Here is my analysis for today's daily puzzle!

Key Tactics: Smothered Mate, Removing the Defender, Discovered Check, Double Check, Attraction, Windmill

At the start of the puzzle:

- White is down two bishops for two pawns.

- White's e6-knight is pinned to White's queen and king by Black's rook and will likely be lost soon.

- There is tension between the queens.

- Black has an overall dominating position - active queen, g-file battery, active minor pieces.

- White has a queen and knight that can potentially attack Black's king.

- The h2-b8 diagonal, which has Black's king, is exposed.

So, I probably should look for a way to checkmate with our queen and knight.

First, I see 1. Qe5+, taking advantage of the exposed dark-squared diagonal. This also forks the king and knight, but taking the knight is out of the question because of Black's advantages. However, a familiar and iconic pattern arises - the smothered mate. This is what I visualized:

I couldn't see anything wrong with this, so I played it in the puzzle, and failed. This is because after 3. Na6+, White's queen is pinned by Black's rook to White's king, so it cannot come in and deliver mate!

So, how should I fix this problem? The answer is quite simple - capture the e8-rook with the knight before hopping to a6. I can do this because it is somewhat like a windmill - Black's king will have to shuffle between b8 and a8 (if it goes to c8, Qc7# checkmate) and White can move the knight anywhere one square away from c7.

And, I solved today's daily puzzle with one fail.

Fun puzzle by @JohanVA!

I hope this helps, and have a nice Sunday!