In the late 1880s and early 1890s, Queen Min of Korea pushed back against Japanese influence and made overtures to Russia. In 1895 in retaliation, Japanese assassins sneaked into the Korean Palace in Seoul and killed the Royal Guards en route to murder the queen.
In this week’s position white removes the royal guard. With this hint in mind please try to find white’s best move.
Black’s queen is guarded by its knight on c6. Inspired by the Japanese, white’s bishop takes the knight, removing the royal guard (see next diagram).
The black queen seemingly finds a life raft with queen takes queen. But white’s bishop next takes the white rook with check. The black king takes the bishop and white’s bishop mops up black's queen. The result is white is up a rook, and white wins easily (see next diagram).
The lesson this week is that as powerful as the queen is, she still must be guarded, because in chess assassins lurk in the squares.
Reach Eric Morrow at ericmorrowlaw@gmail.com or (505) 327-7121.
