Last week I asked you to analyse this position from a game played at Richmond Junior Club in 1993. Eamon Rashid-Farokhi was white and Andrew Bamford black.
The move I wanted you to look at was 1. Bd4 (Qd4 is also strong, but this is even better) when Black has to defend g7.
1… Rg8 is met by 2. Qg2 when Black has no defence to the beautiful threat of 3. Qg6+, forcing mate.
1… Bf6 loses to 2. Bxf6 gxf6 when 3. h6 and Qd4 both win, but the prettiest move is 3. Qf4 when there’s no sensible answer to the threats of Qxf6 and Rg6, this time sacrificing a rook on the same square as the queen sac in the previous variation. For example, 3… f5 4. Rg6 fxg6 5. hxg6+ Kxg6 6. Rh6+ when I’ll leave it to you to work out the mates.
1… f6 enables White to sacrifice on g7 rather than g6: 2. Rxg7+ Kxg7 3. Qg5+ is White’s quickest win.
Congratulations to Mike Healey who was the first reader to provide the full answer I required.