Daily Chess Puzzle: Alphazero moment

Today’s problem is from a blitz game of mine, where  I played the QGD in the way show by Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan in their excellent book Game Changer.

Namely: advance the h pawn, advance the g-pawn, create threats to counter White’s play on the q-side; and, hopefully, mate.

As is my custom, I only say which side is to play: and not giving an idea if the move wins or otherwise, unless on occasion I think signposting would be helpful. Instead, the problems are posed with the instruction to decide what you would play, as in a game.

Black to play

“blazing banana” vs Allan Beardsworth, Chess.com 3-0, 18/5/19

Solution

1…Qb1+ 2 Kh2[] Nd2 3 Qd5 Nf1+ 4 Kg1 Ng3+ 5 Kh2 Qh1 mate.

The pawn on h4 did its job, protecting the Ng3.

FEN

8/3R1prk/2Q5/p1Np1qp1/P1nP3p/4P2P/5PP1/6K1 b – – 0 41