Black just gave a check with 35… Bf8-c5+. What’s the best move for white and why? Scroll down for the answer.

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In the game white played 36. Kh1? This is wrong. At first glance it looks easy. White has to choose between

• 36. Kh1 and
• 36. Kh2

36. Kh1 seems like the safest option at first sight, so I can imagine White chose that move. After all, it’s a rapid game, and you often don’t have much time left. The thought was probably something like:

“Go ahead and checkmate me if you can. And if you can’t, then you’ll get mated yourself.”

Well, that last part isn’t true. But I can understand the idea. Because in the position after 36. Kh1, I was also messing things up quite a bit. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, because the puzzle has a fairly high rating of 2359.

Scroll down for the answer.

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The first move is obvious. 36… Qd1+. But after this I started to get a bit confused. I looked at several options, but it took me some time to figure out the best (and only) way to victory.

37. Kh2 Qg1+ 38. Kg3 and now the move I overlooked initially

38… Qf2+

Mate or serious loss of material is unavoidable. See:

39. Kh2 Bd6+ 40. Kh1 (or 40. Qe5 Bxe5-+) Qf1#

You can also play the moves in the viewer…

In hindsight the puzzle wasn’t very difficult. But isn’t that always after one has seen “the light”? 😂🤣