What's impressive about this problem, is that White saw an incredible combination, very hard to see. I guess he thought his position was so huge that there most likely was something forcing to do, but he definitely had to search deep to find it. And White is not even some kind of top GM -- just a "regular" grandmaster, rated 2518 (around 2510 at the time of the game).
The following position arose:
White played the incredibly strong 1. Nxc6!! Nxc6. Black didn't have much choices there: not only would he have lost a whole lot of material had he not captured, but he'd still have to deal with a very strong attack. Chessmaster XI gives White a minimum advantage of the equivalent of 6 pawns (+6.00), no matter how Black responds.
Can you see why Maksimenko sacrificed his Knight?
Maksimenko - Nielsen, 2003
White to move
To see the solution, just highlight the hidden text below.
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Solution:
2. Qxh7+! Kxh7 (2. ...Kf8 3. Qxg7+ 4. Ke7 Qxf7#) 3. Rh3+ Kg8 4. Ng6!, and Black will get mated with Rh8#.
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1 comment:
I presume you found this Maksimenko problem by reading Soltis' book "rethinking the chess pieces", page 68; right?. If so, are you supposed to mention and credit that source?
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