Exercise #9

Solution

1. Qd6!

Moving the queen off the e-file seemingly reduces the pressure on the black knight. However, this move does 2 important things:

1. It clears the way for the white rook on e1 to pin the black knight.
2. White is threatening to capture the black queen, Qxc7.

Here’s two variations that show why white is winning material:

• 1. Qd6 Qxd6 2. cxd6, followed by capturing the pinned knight on e7.
• 1. Qd6 Qd8 2. Qxd8 Rxd8 3. Rxe7+

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