Sacking on the H File

Today Mrs Jessica E Prescott (aka BoundingOwl) will give you the opportunity to throw away pieces for checkmate!  Fun!  Of course material is not as important as the king.  BUT what if the king is hiding in his castle?  Destroy!

(Make sure you have back up before saying bye-bye to your friendly little pieces.)

You could sac anywhere you like, I guess.  F, g, and h are all good candidates.  But today we will look at sacs along the h file, right where the king is relaxing with a slurpee watching reality tv.  Silly king.  

I will do the first one for you.  Each move is forcing (look for checks).  This one involves a discovered check (remember those?  Click here for some Discovered  Thanksgiving Attacks.)  It takes 8 moves, but it's really simple.  All we're doing is making checks, the most forcing checks that leave the king with only one response:  Turn OFF the tv!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one for you.  White to move.  It's mate in 4 and every move is check.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice what both those puzzles have in common:

1.  Rooks already along the h files, just waiting for it to be completely open.

2.  Other pieces ready to help.

3.  A limited number of squares for the opposite king to run to.

4.  A hole in the castle walls.

 

See if you can do this one for black.  Here's a hint:  You would like to play Ng3 and you want white's pawn to take, so you could get mate next move.  How can you sacrifice something else so that white's pawn MUST capture on g3?

 

 

 

 

 

 

(note:  if you saw that white did not have to capture the queen back, congratulations!  It's true!  But still, black would be winning, right?  )

 

Great work!  Keep on sacking on the H File!