Kenilworth Kibitzer

 

I have been looking at Raymond Keene's Nigel Short: World Chess Challenger (Holt 1992) and came upon the diagram above from Short - Miles, British Championship 1984. This fascinating position was given as a quiz back in 2005 at Chessgames.com (follow the link above for the game and the "answer") but it is worth trying to figure out on your own -- and worth noting that Short did not see the winning move (or else rejected it because Black's most challenging reply just looks too good).  

I think it's even worthwhile to take the hint that White's best is a Knight move that wins at least the Exchange and Black's most challenging response is a Knight move that threatens mate in two ways--but then White has a triple-exclam shot that wins anyway.  An incredible series of moves once you see it.  

I am really enjoying Short's games, by the way, and recommend them to you.  I think too many people think of Short as a World Championship "also-ran," but he created some real masterpieces, including two games I annotated as part of my consideration of the Mad Dog response to the Pirc and his "immortal King walk" in Short - Timman, Tilburg 1991.  And he continues to play some great chess: witness Short - Kasimdzhanov, Wijk aan Zee 2009.