Never Give Up! Brilliant Moves (2b)
Welcome back chesskid kids! This is the second half of the puzzle that we started last time. Click on the link to go back if you need to! White might feel superior with her extra queen. But do you remember the move black played to win the game? By, Mrs Jessica E Prescott (aka BoundingOwl).
Right! That strangely brilliant rook sacrifice totally traps the queen! Did you think she could escape? Let's look carefully at our options.
If she stays on the back rank, the rook will just capture her. If she captures the rook, Bc6 skewers the king to the queen. C2 loses, d3 she gets skewered, e4 pinned, f5 skewered, g6 captured,...that leaves Qh7 and one more choice!
Well there is no trick in one move. Somehow black has to make it so that the queen and king are lined up again, as they were in the previous positions. When the king and queen are in the same rank, file, or diagonal, they will get skewered or pinned! Everyone line up for ice cream!
You can make a forcing move to make it to happen! It's another sac...(Hint: it is NOT a check. But forcing moves can be checks, threats or captures.)
Awesome! And that means if the queen tries to retreat to any of the other squares, we STILL have tricks on her. There remains one move to try. Do you know it? How about Qa2? Is the queen safe amongst her pawns, or could you bring her out into the open?
Great work you guys! After ...Rh1 there really is no escape for the queen. Brilliant move!
If you would like to practice more skewers, click here! And remember, never give up! See you next week!