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Meanwhile,…
White to move and devastate.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
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Does Traditionis Custodes Pass the Juridical Rationality Test?
by Fr. Réginald-Marie Rivoire FSVF and Fr. William Barker FSSP
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Puzzle? No one?
Frankly, I’m stumped, but my first thought is that f3-e5 will cause some mayhem. It will threaten two pawns, and keep the one on d4 from moving forward. It covers the bishop on c4 as a side benefit. Clearly that moves shows that knights need to be away from the edges.
Compare that to the knight stuck on b8. If white moves the bishop to b5, then all three of the black knight’s options are covered by that one move. Of course, the pawn on a7 could cause some problems for the bishop, so that seems less likely the best move.
Perhaps c3 takes d4. c5 would probably take d4 thereafter. Then the knight on f3 takes d4, threatening the black bishop. But what then? I suspect the black knight would move to c6, threatening the knight on d4. This line of thinking leaves out the threat to the white bishop from the black bishop which would then threaten the king’s rook. SO, what to do about the black bishop?
Back to the idea of the White bishop moving to b5. Sure, le the pawn advance to a6 and threaten. Clearly I am out of my element. I will leave it there.
I set this one up on my chessboard and have had it sitting in front of me now for a day or so. I can see a bunch of possible moves similar to what Cliff lays out, but devastate?
Okay, here’s a line:
f4-f5 Bxc4
f5xg6 Bxf1
d2-h6
I can’t see what Black can do from this point, but the whole strategy rests on suckering in Black to take those pieces.
Adam: Good for you for setting it up on a board. That helps sometimes.
Have a look at this solution and see what you think.
1. f5 (attacks the black bishop and opens the diagonal for the queen) Bxc4
2. e5 (attacks the queen) Qd7 [updated… sorry about the typo]
3. f6 Kh8 (feeble)
4. Qh6 Rg8 [please just resign?]
5. Ng5 Rg7 [updated… although it really doesn’t make a difference, even Qh3 only delays death]
6. Qxh7#
Fr Z,
You’re going to have to clarify the Black move at 2 because the queen is already on d6. Did you mean Qc6?
Also, why doesn’t Black take the rook at step 3? And you have the black rook moving to g8 twice.
But at least I got the opening move right! Happy about that.
Adam… GOOD CATCH. Yes, that was my typo. Sorry about that. I went back to my comment and corrected the move.
Adam: Also, why doesn’t Black take the rook at step 3?
For starters,
3. exd6
That e pawn was a key to the initial attack, but I’d say that taking black’s queen is adequate compensation for the loss of a rook that wasn’t doing anything.