Chess: How To Spot The Winning Move

White to play and Checkmate in 3 moves

The Diagram position was reached after Black’s 20th move (20…Ng4) in the game between the first-ever Women’s World Champion Vera Menchik (playing White) and her challenger Sonja Graf Stevenson (playing Black) in their World Championship Match in 1937! It is White’s turn to play, which move would you choose?

Through this example, Let us see how a chess player comes up with a move amongst a sea of possibilities during a game:

Evaluation: This step informs us which direction to take for the next move.

After simple counting material is equal. White’s King is safe at the moment. Black threatens mate on h2 thanks to his Queen on c7 and Knight on g4, which is safely defended by the Queen on h3. Black’s King is weakened since the ‘g’ and ‘h’ pawns have been pushed ahead to g6 and h5, which means he has extended the fortress around his castle. 4 of our pieces are placed ideally to attack the Black King - The White Queen is on the important ‘h’ file, the White Knight on ‘g5’ covering the f7 and h7 squares and the Pair of Bishops on c2 and c3 eye the squares g7, h7 and h8 from the long diagonals!

The main job of defence has been delegated to the Black pawns on g6 and h5.

Find an idea: The Black King is weak and we have 4 attackers around it. This is a hint to look for Checkmate motifs. If the Checkmate ideas don’t work then we save our Knight on g5 which is currently under attack by the Bishop on e7. So the thought process is: first try to execute your own idea. If it is not working, then prevent your opponent’s main idea.

To find the Checkmate idea, a useful method is to visualise the position on the board in your mind – where you compare it to a position without the opponent’s main defenders, one by one.

The diagram position without the Black pawn on h5:

Visualisation position 1

Solution: White Checkmates with the move 1. Qh7!, as well as 1.Qh8!

The diagram position without the Black pawn on g6:

Visualisation position 2

Solution: Here White Checkmates with the move 1.Bh7!

We conclude that removing the ‘g6’ or ‘h5’ pawns will lead to an immediate Checkmate on the Black King either on h7 or h8 by White’s Queen or on h7 by White’s Bishop.

Calculation: We come up with a likely move and conclude by finding attacking ideas for ourselves and defensive ideas for the opponent.

The move that seems most likely to me in the game position (Diagram 1) is 1.Qh5!! The idea is to eliminate a defender: the pawn on h5. White threatens Qh7 Checkmate on the next move with the support of the Knight on g5. If Black picks up the Knight on g5 with his Bishop, White delivers Checkmate on h8 with the Queen with the support of the White Bishop on c3.

Many of you may think that 1.Qh5 is a Blunder as Black can simply pick up the Black Queen with the pawn on g6. But this gives way to the Checkmate on h7 with the White Bishop on c2 as the pawn on g6 is now out of it’s way.

This tactical motif is known as Deflection, where we deflect or distract the defender out of it’s current post by means of a threat or sacrifice.

So White’s first instinct in the game was probably the variation: 1.Qh5! gh 2. Bh7! Checkmate, sacrificing the Queen to deflect the ‘g6’ pawn out of the Bishop’s path.

However we realise Black can respond to 1.Qh5 with 1…Qh2 Check! After White’s forced reply 2.Qh2 Nh2 3.Kh2 Bg5, the position is once again materially equal. Also, now the Queens and Knights are off the Board, so White’s attack is subdued.

Visualisation once more: We conclude that Black’s only defence against 1.Qh5 is to play 1…Qh2. What if the Queen was not present on this diagonal? Once again we remove the Defender from the Board (in our mind!)

Solution: This thought process led White to find the move 1. Rd7!! in the game. The idea is to first Deflect the Black Queen from the h2-b8 Diagonal. When Black picks up the Rook (for free, it’s a sacrifice!) with 1…Qd7, White continued her plan to eliminate the ‘h5’ pawn and deflect the ‘g6’with 2.Qh5!! Black Resigned here. 1-0

White threatened to Checkmate Black with the same idea we had seen previously, and there was no stopping it. If Black takes 2…gh 3. Bh7!! Delivers Checkmate

A sensational game by the first Women’s World Champion Vera Menchik, showing great courage and imagination to sacrifice a Rook and a Queen to deliver Checkmate!