I guess my chess new years resolution is to try to do tactics every single day at the bare minimum...
Today, I spent a few hours on tactics and quite a bit of time on this puzzle
I'll share my thought process while calculating this puzzle and maybe hopefully get some constructive criticism...
1. ... Rc7 is obviously forced, there's no other forcing moves that's really as good. I decided to try to calculate all the lines in my head to the end to train my visualisation skill, even though it's probably not that practical or time effective to do so...
I quickly eliminated
2. Qb6, as after Rc6 we win their bishop, and threaten to penetrate via a2, but maybe I should do deeper in the line because it's still a game.
3. Qa8 is probably the best move for white and both 3. ... dxe4 and 3. ...d4 looks like good option, but the game is still quite complicated. Stockfish actually consider the position equal, so the puzzle isn't a good puzzle afterall.
Now, the
2. Qxc7 Qxa6+lines require some concrete deep calculations and these were the lines I managed to calculate in my head either to a satisfactorily winning position or even mate.
3. Rd3 Qxa2+ 4. Kd1 Qb1+ 5. Ke2 Qc2+ 6. Kf1 Qxd3+ 7. Kf2
Qd2+ 8. Kg3 Qg2#
or 8. Kf1 Qd1 9. Kf2 Bh4+ (thought it was mate already but forgot about 10. Ke3 d4#)
3. Kf2 Qxa2+ 4. Kf1 Qg2+ 5. Ke1 Bh4#
3. Ke1 Bh4+ 4. Kd2 Qxa2+ 5. Ke3 Bg5+ 6. f4 Bxf4+ 7. Kf3 Qg2#
3. Ke1 Bh4+ 4. Kd2 Qxa2+ 5. Kd3 Qc4+ apparently there's a mate in eight when I checked stockfish, but at the time I was quite tired and there were at least two branches of forced variations to calculate
I had the most trouble here:
3. Ke1 Bh4+ 4. Kd2 Qxa2+ 5. Kc1 Bg5+ 6. Rd2 Qxd2+ 7. Kb1 Qxb4+apparently this wasn't the best line, even though it was winning.
Apparently 6. ... Bxd2 was the best line, but after 7. Kd1 I didn't calculate deep enough to realise Qd6+ doesnt actually lead to perpetual because of 7. Bf4 Qd6+ 8. Kd8 Qb8+ 9. Bc8 Qd6+ 10. Ke8 Qc6+ 11. Bd7 and no more checks This was an issue of laziness and not trusting my own calculations to keep going deeper...
So still alot more work to put into my calculations and tactics.