Chess School Quiz Challenge #19

Challenge

German national team player Dmitrij Kollars has sacrificed an entire rook. Now he has to show that it was worth it. What next for White?

Solution

If you want to successfully attack the opponent's king (and that's the only reason to play with a rook less here), you have to involve as many pieces as possible in the attack. In this case, a queen alone does not make an attack. 

Ergo: White must bring in troops as quickly as possible to help the queen. 

To achieve this, there is only one move, and it is associated with a maneuver that should not be missing from any chess school because it occurs so often in practice: the rook lift.

Actually, as pattern recognizers, we chess players are programmed to find open lines (vertically) for our rooks. But sometimes it's about finding an open row (horizontal) on which the rook can swing into the fray. Like here. 

Dmitrij Kollars moved 24.Ra1-a3!, the only move that keeps White on the ball. Whether the move wins or not doesn't matter, it represents the only way for White to make progress. 

In fact, and this is not easy to see, 24.Ra1-a3 wins the game no matter how Black defends himself. Although White is a rook down, he can use his three forces so effectively against the black king that Black is left defenseless. The rook on f3 will often invade on f7, the white bishop will often go to c4 via f1, sometimes (after h3-h4) it will also move to d7. 

Try it out: Defend the position with Black against your Millennium Chess computer. You won't succeed.

Photo Kollars: Sandra Schmidt