Sunday Chess Puzzle, January 2
This week's chess puzzle is about consolidating a won position. White is up the exchange, and black's king is exposed. What is the best way for white to consolidate his position? There is certainly many good moves for white. I put my thoughts on the position below.
The move that I played during the game was Ng5, moving my knight into the attack and threatening to fork three black pieces from the f7 square. However, Stockfish recommends the more provocative Ne5 for white. This move still threatens the fork on f7 and brings white's knight closer to the enemy king, while also giving it a well-defended square. Important to note, if white's knight on e5 is taken immediately by black with Nxe5, white can re-capture with dxe5, forking the black queen and black's remaining knight.