What If?

Reinfeld position #562
White to move

This position looks so crushing for white that you might think it barely needs analysing, look how the major pieces control two open files against Black's naked King! This is the point of studying tactics - we want to find a clean surgical finish that will secure the win now, before Black makes something of his open c-file and barrage along h8-a1.

If the Queen at f6 wasn't there, we could play Qh8+ then Qxg7+ winning a piece on the spot. Likewise, if the Queen couldn't recapture at g7 and the Bishop at f5 could be deflected from defending h7, we could play Rxg7+ Kxg7, Qh7#, and if that's not enough, we'd still have another Rook to throw at him. What we need is control of f7 to complete the immobilisation of the King. Rxg7 Kxg7, Rg1+ Kf7, and the King is running with our loot.

Let's ask the Queen to move with 1. Nd5. The non-capture moves are 1. ... Qf7 2. Qh8# or 1. ... Qd8 losing the Bishop so 1. ... exd5 is forced. 2. Bd5+ controls f7 2. ... Be6 and the Bishop is deflected from it's defense of h7, so now we can stop the King running via f7-e8 with a check at h7. 3. Bxe6+ Qxe6 and we can force the King out into the open 4. Rxg7+ Kxg7 5. Qh7+ Kf6 6. Rh6#.

Solving this position was for me a problem of playing "what if?". What if the Bishop could pass through the e6 pawn controlling f7? What it the Queen could be overloaded and deflected or decoyed from it's defense of g7? What if those almost-mates on the h-file could be brought to bear? What if the Knight which doesn't have a role in those mates could be thrown into the fray? It costs the Knight to prove the Black Queen is immobilised, but before giving up on the notion, let's look at a few variations... if you must take, I start realising some of my "what if?" objectives.