Mandla's Mating Magic

[Trent Parker]

Blair Mandla is white in this position

White to play and mate
1r2kb1r/p4ppp/8/1p1PNn2/1p6/1P2B3/P3QPqP/2R1K2R w - - 0 1

EDIT

Actually I think there is one line where it is not forced mate but Black loses lots of material.....

[Kevin Bonham]

Actually I think there is one line where it is not forced mate but Black loses lots of material.....

Yes, his queen and then some. (After which it must be a forced mate eventually anyway.)

It's a nice position because it is so sharp - white has a crushing forced win leading to mate or massive win of material, but if white doesn't see it and plays something else then he may well have a difficult or even lost position.

Very good real-game example.

[Brian_Jones]

I think slightly more precise is:

1. Rc8+ Rxc8
2. Qxb5+ Ke7
3. Qd7+ Kf6
4. Qxf7+ Kxe5
5. Qe6 mate

[Trent Parker]

Ok Brian what if 1...Ke7
?

[Brian_Jones]

2. Bg5+

[Trent Parker]

Yep. :D you probably saw it at one stage at the rapidplay did you?

[Kevin Bonham]

Yes, those were the lines I was looking at. In the ...Ke7 2.Bg5+ line there is no quick mate but massive gain of material.