On Tuesday our C team consisting of Dave Hair, Dennis white, Phil Jackson and Ray Garside opened the league season with a home match against Forest Hall Squirrels. Dave Hair quickly went a couple of pawns up and closed out smoothly despite being short of time. Dennis’s game was very close all the way through, but his opponent managed to infiltrate his position and win the point to level the match. Phil lost a piece early on and although he battled hard he was unable to overcome this disadvantage, so we were 2-1 down with only Ray's games to finish. Playing white against his opponent's Dutch defence Ray had given up a knight for some pawns and an attack and they reached the position below.

Here Ray played the testing Bh7+ and white had only 2 moves which didn’t lose the queen - Kg7 or Kf8. He played Kf8 and quick as a flash Ray played Rf1 winning the queen. After Qf1+, Kf1 Ba6+, Kf2 Ray won comfortably with the powerful Queen Bishop combination and the match was halved. Can you see the win if his opponent had played Kg7? Solution below

Solution

1.Bh7+ Kg7 2.Qg4+ Kxh7 3.Rd3 Qg6 4.Qh3+ Qh6 5.Qf5+ Qg6 6.Rh3+ Kg7 7.Rg3