This puzzle is a classic!

This is an epic chess study from Leopold Mitrofanov from the year 1967. Or actually, it's only the end part of that study which you can find in it's full here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold...
White to move and the goal is to first get out of that check and then secure a victory.
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[@aaaaa5272]

I was not even near a solution. Amazing puzzle...

[@rogerkearns8094]

Me neither.

[@brendanward2991]

Brilliant. I spotted the first move, but the full analysis was beyond me.

[@frankcoverjr.-jz3ne]

Same here!😊

[@RamKumar-gy9nb]

Excellent puzzle... you are just brilliant

[@redzepp7881]

One of the better puzzles

[@lajos-berenyi]

I have seen this puzzle before. I didn't remember the whole position, but the motive and the queen sacrifice in the first move. And from then I could calculate the rest, but I agree, in a real game very hard to spot such a first move. Though I wouldn't consider it impossible, that a GM could find it in a classical game, if he is not in time trouble, because he can calculate, that all king moves lead to a draw, and due to the checkmate pattern with the pawns - what is not too difficult to spot, even most probable in the game it would be already in the radar - even this queen sacrifice could come to the mind, to avoid queen checks and get the necessary one tempo to threaten with this checkmate and the rest calculation is not so difficult.

[@mstalcup]

I figured out the solution from the thumbnail within 20 seconds. I could see that black was close to being checkmated and that the mating net has time to unfold once the black queen is drawn to g5 when it cannot check white's king once it moves to a6.

[@stkosta2482]

If it wasn't a puzzle i wouldn't have found it, but i immediately saw it coming on this one.

[@MrGyges]

A charming classic. Bet Tal would’ve spotted this Queen sacrifice.

[@psychohist]

I suspect Magnus would too. If I can spot it in a puzzle, he can certainly spot it in a game.

[@igorxyz8682]

@@psychohist I am not sure. Tal was looking for complications, Magnus for long endings and his knowledge

[@psychohist]

@@igorxyz8682 To be clear, I think Magnus would spot it in a game; I am trusting MrGyges regarding Tal. But the idea of displacing the black queen to a black square to take it off the white diagonal is the kind of idea that grandmasters tend to see intuitively, so it may be that any grandmaster would see this in a game. The pawn checkmates I think would be obvious to them.

[@igorxyz8682]

@@psychohist I agree what you what said for many grandmasters diagonal two pawns ....I wanted to say not to stress Magnus-this is not his direction, Tal Anand ... that is different story

[@petersiegfriedkrug]

The Mitrofanov study is quite famous. In the study the white rook sacrifice on e1, so due the knight on e1 Black only can give check with the promoted black queen on h5. This study also is called "Qg5 - study". The original Mitrofanov -study with the black knight on f3 is cooked. But the version with black knight on g2 is correct.

[@broniuszibaitis7246]

Really amazing!!

[@tykemorris]

I solved it fully. I saw Ka6 was threatening checkmate but black could chase me out with Qe2. The sacrifice seemed obvious at that point, to get the Black Queen off the diagonal. The only way to stop checkmate was black Ba7, but then white pushes Pc7 threatening both a checkmate and a promotion. Black can't stop both.

[@LiamWakefield]

I honestly thought, given the other puzzles you've shown, that the queen was going to sacrifice, but had no idea how that would help. This was very instructive on how to limit moves and gain tempo by giving away a piece.

[@JohnWilliams-yw9wu]

Very very brilliant

[@christiandobler5235]

This puzzle is really amazing

[@calvinnickel9995]

I found the Queen sacrifice. I wasn’t quite sure how to end it though after bishop takes.

[@LJLMETAL]

That is a great puzzle

[@ghandheysaood2645]

amazing tricky one this is so creative

[@DonJC49]

Having seen this great puzzle before, I must recuse myself from offering the solution.

[@stephenspreckley8219]

Love it!

[@zerotms5145]

It's called Mitrafanov's Deflection, and if I hadn't seen it before I'd never think to do the move that wins. Not in a million years, because until the point is explained to you, it looks totally bonkers. XD

[@fantomghost6213]

Yep, great puzzle!

[@Olegarh_23]

I think at the position of 7:20 the bishop can go to the B8. Then white can promote the pawn at C8 or take the bishop and promote. In the first case there will not be a check and black queen can go to D5 covering the B7 field. It could be a draw for white. The second case is loosing for white.

[@shyamsundardharmadhikari4010]

b7# is immediate checkmate bc

[@peacefulwarrior9518]

Its one of those puzzles where the solution isnt too hard to gind because you know the answer has to be the crazy option. But i would NEVER find it in a game

[@xenaguy01]

1) Qg5 (get Black Queen off white squares) ... QxQ, 2) Ka6 (no safe check for Black) ...

[@user-zm1lx9uq9s]

Didnt get to the solution. Wow!

[@mmehul1]

Great 👍

[@giovannicorno1247]

I saw Qg5 and also, after Bxa7, c7 but I was not able to analyze everything till final solution. Let's say more or less solved😏

[@user-pl4lh5oe8q]

What about if black queen goes to D5?

[@yes-tp5lz]

still promote to a queen and it’s still a checkmate

[@slavisavukosavljevic3131]

8:26 i immediately have seen the point, but this is a draw.if the black takes on a7 it's not clear whether the white can win. The rook against the knight is usually a draw

[@shyamsundardharmadhikari4010]

White doesn't need to take rook. It can take a queen. Because black has a knight to move and it is not a stalemate bc

[@slavisavukosavljevic3131]

@@shyamsundardharmadhikari4010 OMG, yes, thank you.

[@fredmilne3936]

Difficult