The solution the app with Stockfish reported for the puzzle below left me puzzled. I am curious what others might deem as the best tactic, especially without consulting a chess engine. It is black's turn.
My initial thought is f5 attacking the h4 pawn with the queen. The white king is in trouble and clearing attack lines looks best.
Sorry for posting the board upside down for black's play. Below I have it flipped. Stockfish deems the solution to be 1. ... f5 2. g3 f4.
Evidently the depth of my analysis falls short. Is pawn to f5 an apparent offer of exchange to break the pawn chain? If accepted, the move would put pressure on black's knight. And wouldn't pawn to f4 (trapping black's bishop) be undesirable?
F5 is my best bet with looking at it for not to long but I didn’t put it in a engine
f5 threatens checkmate.
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Ah yep^^
I see. But I doubt many players would take the poisoned pawn.
Sorry for posting the board upside down for black's play. Below I have it flipped. Stockfish deems the solution to be 1. ... f5 2. g3 f4.
Evidently the depth of my analysis falls short. Is pawn to f5 an apparent offer of exchange to break the pawn chain? If accepted, the move would put pressure on black's knight. And wouldn't pawn to f4 (trapping black's bishop) be undesirable?
Trapping the bishop on e3 is neither here nor there since the attack has primacy and the bishop is well placed to aid in said attack. The goal of f4 is to undermine the h4 pawn by attacking its companion on g3. Hope this helps.
I see. But I doubt many players would take the poisoned pawn.
It doesn't matter if white takes it or not, there's no good way to deal with the threat of Qxh4.
For example 1... f5 2. g3 f4 3. Kg2 fxg3 4. Rh1 Nxh4+
With almost any puzzle, you look for big threats (like checkmate) and then calculate to see whether the opponent can adequately defend. When they can defend, you should try calculating different move orders and looking for different threats.
It is strange to ask people not to use an engine if you want to understand a puzzle. When looking for knowledge all means are legitimate. Barring some of them indicates you want to challenge us as puzzle solvers not as a quest for finding truth. And SF-analysis reveals a quite obvious strategy which most >2000 players would find.
The solution the app with Stockfish reported for the puzzle below left me puzzled. I am curious what others might deem as the best tactic, especially without consulting a chess engine. It is black's turn.