Puzzle of the week #13

Submitted by oldadmin on

Smothered mate

Level
3-Bishop
Chess Diagram
[Event "Puzzle #13"][Date "2008.03.27"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "8/8/8/8/1N6/3N4/1ppK4/kb6 w - - 0 1"]
Vancouver Canucks of the NHL had a highly entertaining team during 2002-2003-2004 seasons when they were playing an attacking style of hockey. Phoenix Suns and our Steve Nash are also well known in the NBA for their attacking style, rarely finishing a game without scoring 100 or more points. Brasil soccer team has been known for decades for their attacking talent; when I mention this, I can still hear the Brazilian drums in the background as Socrates, Junior and Co. entertained us all during the 1982 World Cup of soccer. Chess is no different and has been blessed with attacking wizards such as Paul Morhpy, Mikhail Tal, Alexey Shirov and Kasparov, stopping short of naming quite a few highly talented GMs of today. I hope you will have the pleasure of discovering the correct attacking combination in the following position (see diagram).
White to move and win (last move was 15... Rh8xh1)
The combination is 5-6 moves long and it is worth 5 points. Those who can guess what opening has been played get an extra point; also a second extra point is available if you can name the variation. Total available points for this puzzle is 7. The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #15.

Previous Solutions
Puzzle #12 solution:
Normally a puzzle allowing multiple solutions of various number of moves is not very valuable. However in this case some mates were really nice; also I wanted to see how good the solvers are in keeping track of all solutions, as well as how creative they are! I will simply list all valid mates found and the names of those discovering them:
Mate in 3: 1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ne6 Kb6 3.Bc5# (Jacob, Frank, Karl, Jeremy, Matthew, Mark, Katerina, John D)
Mate in 4: 1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ka5 Ka8 3.a7 Kxa7 4.Kb5# (Jacob, Frank, Karl, Joanne, Matthew, Katerina, John D)
Mate in 5:
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ka5 Ka8 3.Rb4 Ka7 4.Bb8+ Ka8 5.Bc6# (Karl, Joanne, Katerina)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Kb3 Ka8 3.Rb4 Ka7 4.Bb8+ Ka8 5.Bc6# (Joanne)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Kb5 Ka8 3.Re4 Ka7 4.Re7 Ka8 5. Bc6# (Jacob, Joanne, Trevor, Katerina, John D)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ra5 Ka8 3.Rb5 Ka7 4.Bb8+ Ka8 5.Bc6# (Jacob, Jeremy, Matthew, Mark, Wilson, John D)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Bc8 Ka8 3.Nd7 Ka7 4.Bc5+ Ka8 5.Bb7# (Karl, Jeremy, John D)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Bc8 Kb6 3.Bb8 Kc6 4.Bb7+ Kb6 5.Nd7# (John D)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Bb5 Ka8 3.Nd7 Ka7 4.Bc5+ Ka8 5.Bc6# (Jacob)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Bb5 Kb6 3.Nd7+ Ka7 4.Bc5+ Ka8 5.Bc6# (Jacob)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Bc6 Kb6 3.Bb7 Ka7 4.Ne6 Kb6 5.Bc5# (Jeremy)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ne6 Ka8 3.a7 Kb7 4.a8=Q+ Kb6 5.Qc6# (Jacob, Frank, Karl, Jeremy, Matthew, John D)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ne6 Ka8 3.a7 Kb7 4.Kb5 Ka8 5.Bc6# (Jacob, Jeremy)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ne6 Ka8 3.a7 Kb7 4.Nc5+ Kb6 5.Ra6# (Karl, Katerina)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ne6 Ka8 3.a7 Kb7 4.Nc5+ Ka8 5.Bc6# (John D)
1.Nxa7 Kxa7 2.Ne6 Ka8 3.a7 Kb7 4.Nc5+ Kb6 5.a8=N# (John D)

Puzzle #11 solution:
Attacking Kf8 heads on is not good enough, as there are too many Black pieces in the way. White needs to find out the shortest route for Qe5 to deliver mate, while having the King help out; with the White King on "g6" the solution is kind of easy to spot now:
1.Qh2 Nf6 2.Qh8+ Ng8 3.Qxg7+ Ke8 4.Qxg8#
Correct solutions (perfect): Jacob, Jeremy, Karl, Joanne, Hanson, Algerd, Matthew, John D, Trevor, Katerina - 1.0 point

Puzzle #10 solution:
[Event "Puzzle #10"][Date "2008.03.13"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "3n3k/2R5/2n1P3/3N2N1/8/1p6/2r3r1/K7 w - - 0 1"]1.Rh7+ Kg8 2.Nf6+ Kf8 3.e7+ Nxe7 4.Rf7+ Nxf7 5.Ne6#

Correct solutions:
John D - 12.0 points (4+8)
Jacob - 11.0 points (4+7)
Karl - 9.0 points (4+5)
Katerina - 8.0 points (4+4)
Joanne - 7.0 points (4+3)
Matthew - 7.0 points (4+3)
Frank - 6.0 points (4+2)
Jeremy - 6.0 points
Mark - 2.0 points
Trevor - 1.0 point
Wilson - 1.0 point

Standings:
24.0 Jacob and John D
18.0 Karl and Jeremy
14.5 Joanne and Frank
13.5 Katerina
12.5 Matthew
11.0 Bryant
6.5 David
4.5 Algerd and Mark
3.5 Jakab
3.0 Karen and Trevor
2.5 Wilson
1.5 Nicholas
1.0 Jonah and Hanson
0.5 Alejandro, Vera, Kenneth and West

Comment:
Smothered mate