hi all !
its amazing how crazy chess positions can become.
Here are a few examples, after we ask the silicon engines if we missed something in our games.
here's the first position which happened in one of my games. can you solve it ?
Position 1, White to play !
.....
My rook is attacked, so I looked for a suitable square.
I played 1 Rd3 and my opponent countered Rad8 and I lost the game.
But there were far better options for White in this seamingly normal position
Both moves I displayed above have a crazy tactical idea exploiting the weak black king.
My favorite move here is 1 Qh5!!
on that move, if Black takes the rook on d5, we will play Qh7+ and Qh8#. Easy enough.
But the key question is, aren't we just hanging our queen ? the solution is given as a quiz.
now you may say, doesnt have a Black a defense ? well 1 Qh5 Qf6!? has to be checked
please note that in the initial position, 1 Rf5!? is also a cool idea as 1..gxf5 is met by 2 Ne6+!!
A missed brilliancy and in the end I lost this game.
but I need to live up to the thumbnail....
lets bring up a crazy position which occured in a real GM game featuring Fabiano Caruana and V. Murzin at the world blitz 2025 edition
GM Fabiano Caruana at the World Rapid and Blitz, playing Murzin the winner of world rapid 2024 edition
GM Murzin
Now the 2nd position of this blog
White to play !
I asked Stockfish to assess the kind of position this is ( in Chessbase)
and here the description
the position is indeed crazy, so many pieces hanging including our own queen, material imbalance. White's king is in serious danger but so is the Black king !! chaotic to say the least.
Here's the solution given as a puzzle/quiz first
We can display on a diagram the only and briliant way to finish on top with White. Congrats if you solved it, very very hard to find as this is so counterintuitive at first but all variations check in !
1.Qh4!! what a move !!
Black is hopeless, as Rg8+ and R1g7 is checkmate if Black takes our queen. our bishop controls h6 which is a critical detail. Insane combination !
Here's how the game (super interesting play by both players) went
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You may ask what is the link between the two positions ? clearly the second one was more complicated but the motif is similar. In both cases, we place voluntarily our queen on a square where it can be taken. in both cases, accepting the free queen is a deadly proposition !
Hope you enjoyed the tactics !
GM Murzin 
