On Monday I asked you if you would accept Black’s knight sacrifice here. There were some conflicting views in our club’s WhatsApp group.

The answer is that the sacrifice is unsound, so you should certainly accept it. Let’s take a look.

19. fxg4! f3 regains the piece, but after 20. Qe1 fxe2 21. Bxe2 Nf6 22. h3 White is a safe pawn up with plenty of pieces to defend his king. Even better is 20. g5! Bxg5 21. gxf3! Bxd2 22. Rxg7 Rxg7 23. Rxd2 with two minor pieces for a rook.

Black could also try to bring some more pieces into the attack: 19… Nf6 when White’s strongest continuation is 20. Nd4!, which Black can’t take because of the resulting pressure on the long diagonal.

To score full marks you’ll have to see all this.

Of course you want to know what actually happened in the game. This position was taken from a game I played back in 1985 against SJ Morgan in a London League match between Richmond 2 and King’s Head. I declined the sacrifice, playing 19. Qe1, when Nxf2+ would have been about equal.

My opponent was determined to give up his knight, so sacrificed again, playing 19… Nxh2, which was as ridiculous as it looked. This time I took it, and my opponent resigned a few moves later.

If you enjoy puzzles like this you’ll find a lot more in Chess Heroes Puzzles Book 2, which will be published within the next few weeks.