Spot Magic Move in Kosteniuk-Yanjindulam at 40th Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012
Yes, 33.Rd7 is the magic move in the position. The Queen cannot take the Rook because Ne5 forks the Black Queen and King!
So, naturally, Black played 33….Nd4 with the intention of “White takes Queen on c7 with Rook” and “Black takes White Queen on b3 with Knight”. That’s what happened in the game and here’s your position after 33.Rd7 Nd4 34.Rxc7 34.NxQb3
What should White play now? Can you spot the checkmating combination after 34.NxQb3? White to play and checkmate in four!
You can replay the game in the Chess King applet below.
Kosteniuk, Alexandra (2489) – Yanjindulam, Dulamsuren (2232)
[…] 1.e4 e5 2.¤f3 ¤c6 3.¥b5 a6 4.¥a4 ¤f6 5.O-O ¥e7 6.¦e1 b5 7.¥b3 d6 8.c3 O-O 9.h3 ¤b8 10.d4 ¤bd7 11.¤bd2 ¥b7 12.¥c2 ¦e8 13.¤f1 ¥f8 14.¤g3 g6 15.a4 ¥g7 16.¥d3 c6 17.¥e3 ¤f8 18.dxe5 dxe5 19.c4 b4 20.c5 ¤6d7 21.£b3 ¤e6 22.£xb4 ¤dxc5 23.¥c4 a5 24.£a3 £e7 25.¦ed1 h6 26.¦ac1 ¤a6 27.£c3 £c7 28.h4 ¢h7 29.h5 ¦ac8 30.£b3 c5 31.hxg6+ ¢xg6 32.¤f5 ¥f8 33.¦d7 ¤d4 34.¦xc7 ¤xb3 35.¤3h4+ ¢f6
36….
35.Nf3h4 is the checkmating move. Black King gets checkmated (see Houdini analysis in Chess King applet above) for each of the three escape squares of f6, h7, and h5! In the game, Black played 35….Kf6 and resigned because it’s checkmate with Rf7 immediately.
wow………what a game!!! Congrates Kosteniuk…
Hermosa partida. Nosotros la seguíamos en vivo; en 27) no sabíamos como blancas ganaban, pero jugada genial 28) h4 y 29)h5, gana en todas la variantes y aplaudimos la genialidad.
Fantastic play
i understand saving queen to qb8 not a viable option as same Nh4 mating patter follows wow you calculate that far – awesome!
You are brilliant player !