Tactical Puzzle 2

Submitted by gokul009 on Tue, 07/22/2008 at 3:51am.

You are playing as White. You are a full piece and two pawns down and your opponent is threatening a mate in 2. His position looks strong, and it is except for one major flaw. You have to use that flaw to checkmate him in four moves to turn a losing position to a victory!

If you don't know the answer, check for it down.

Here is the answer:

You are well down in material and your opponent is threatening mate in 2. You can defend that easily by 1. Rc1 or 1. Qf5 but then on both moves, he plays 1... Qe6 threatening your queen and your knight. Your queen cannot move to a square on which it protects the knight, and you either have to give up your knight or exchange queens. Both loses easily, as giving up the knight only increases the material disadvaage, and the exchage of queens gives up any more chances of counterplay.

And so this is the only way to avoid defeat: