Chess Strategy

Sooner or later, every chess student becomes familiar with Richard Reti’s famous decoy combination - a Queen sacrifice for double discovered check and mate on the next move.

Richard Reti - Savielly Tartakower
Wien, 1910
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Qd3 e5 6. dxe5 Qa5+ 7. Bd2 Qxe5 8. O-O-O Nxe4

9. Qd8+!! Kxd8 10. Bg5+ Kc7 11. Bd8# 1-0

Some players are fortunate enough to apply this beautiful motif to win their own games. GM Jonathan Tisdall included a sample in his masterpiece “Improve Your Chess Now”. I couldn’t find this game in the database. Try to solve it

Tisdall - Lee, London 1981 (White to move)

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Finally, some players (or better, World Champions) are fortunate to win more than once with the exactly same decoy sacrifice - a Queen check on h8!

Tigran Petrosian - Vladimir Simagin
Moscow, 1956
44. Qa8+ Kg7 (44…Ke7 is met by 45. Qxa7+) 45. Bxe5+! (A necessary first step, adding deadly force to White’s next move.) Qxe5 46. Qh8+!

Now it is clear how important was Bxe5+. Without the pin on Qe5, Black King would simply move to g6. 46…Kxh8 47. Nxf7+ Kg7 48. Nxe5 1-0

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Exactly 10 years later, Petrosian gets a chance to use the same combination again, in no less than World Championship match! The entire game is beautiful, as White sacrificed both exchanges, but we will focus on the final part.

Tigran Petrosian - Boris Spassky
Moscow, 1966
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. O-O Nc6 6. Nc3 d6 7. d4 a6 8. d5 Na5 9. Nd2 c5 10. Qc2 e5 11. b3 Ng4 12. e4 f5 13. exf5 gxf5 14. Nd1 b5 15. f3 e4 16. Bb2 exf3 17. Bxf3 Bxb2 18. Qxb2 Ne5 19. Be2 f4 20. gxf4 Bh3 21. Ne3 Bxf1 22. Rxf1 Ng6 23. Bg4 Nxf4 24. Rxf4 Rxf4 25. Be6+ Rf7 26. Ne4 Qh4 27. Nxd6 Qg5+ 28. Kh1 Ra7

29. Bxf7+ Rxf7 (There is no escape as on 29…Kf8 follows 30. Qh8+ with 31. Nef5+ and checkmate soon) 30. Qh8+ 1-0

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