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There is a special synergy when the queen and knight work together. The queen is the single most powerful piece, attacking in all directions. Although the knight is a weaker piece, it has a superpower in that it can leap over other pieces, and attacks squares in a pattern that are in the gaps of the queen’s range. Together, they make the perfect assassination squad against an enemy king!

I played White in this game, and we entered the Sicilian Defense: Smith-Morra Gambit, Accepted (1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4). On move 10, I blunder a move (10. bxc3). To try to defend the b-pawn, I end up blundering my rook two turns later as Black infiltrates with their queen and my rook is trapped in the corner.

At this point, I knew that I was losing, but saw an opportunity. My rook wasn’t in play before its demise, so the loss won’t be immediately felt. At the same time, Black’s very active queen is now relatively inactive on the a1 square – it’ll need a move or two to get out. More than that, I had three active pieces, queen, knight, and bishop, ready to attack Black’s king which had castled short. All of Black’s pieces were on the queenside, on the wrong side of my diagonal palisade of pawns that divided the board in two.

An immediate and aggressive attack on the Black king, even if the attack is unbalanced, can be an effective tactic. Under constant pressure, it is common to induce inaccuracies and importantly, these errors can sometimes be fatal.

Move 13, the knight plants itself forward (13. Ng5) placing pressure on the f7 and g7 squares, with an immediate checkmate threat against h7. The single good move for Black isn’t easy to find (13… f5) as it seems like an unsound weakening of the king’s defences. Black plays the second-best move, which is already a blunder (13… g6). The queen now swings around to the h-file (14. Qh5), attacking the h7 square again! Stockfish calls this move a blunder and it is of course, correct. However, in a game between (beginner-intermediate rated) humans, I felt like I was winning, and I suspect that Black was sweating. They spent longer and longer in deciding each move.

Black survived the first round of the attack. However, after a shuffle with the queen that effectively reset the positions of the Black king and rook, the second round of the attack was unstoppable. GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/62401799663

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.11.17"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Parze93"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B21"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Sicilian-Defense-Smith-Morra-Gambit-2...cxd4-3.c3"]
[UTCDate "2022.11.17"]
[UTCTime "05:30:35"]
[WhiteElo "1373"]
[BlackElo "1312"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "05:30:35"]
[EndDate "2022.11.17"]
[EndTime "06:00:10"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/62401799663"]

1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 {Sicilian Defense: Smith-Morra Gambit Accepted} 3. c3 Nc6 4. cxd4 {As Black didn't take the next pawn, capturing back gains control of the centre [+0.35]} 4... e6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ $6 {[%c_effect
b4;square;b4;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true]} 6. Bd2 Qb6 $6 {[%c_effect
b6;square;b6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true]} 7. Bc3 Nf6 8. Qd3 O-O $6 {[%c_effect g8;square;g8;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true]} 9. Be2 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 {[%c_effect c3;square;c3;type;Blunder;persistent;true] A blunder [-3.40] that results in the loss of the rook} 10... Qb2 $1 {[%c_effect
b2;square;b2;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 11. O-O Qxa1 12. e5 Nd5 13. Ng5 g6 $4 {[%c_effect g6;square;g6;type;Blunder;persistent;true]} 14. Qh3 {[%c_effect
h3;square;h3;type;Interesting;persistent;true] Technically this is a blunder, but it is difficult for Black to navigate the constant checkmate threats} 14... h5 15. Bxh5 Kg7 $4 {[%c_effect g7;square;g7;type;Blunder;persistent;true]} 16. Bf3 {[%c_effect f3;square;f3;type;Blunder;persistent;true]} 16... Rh8 $1 {[%c_effect h8;square;h8;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 17. Qg3 Qxa2 18. Bxd5 Qxd5 19. Qf4 Rf8 $4 {[%c_effect f8;square;f8;type;Blunder;persistent;true]} 20. Qf6+ {[%c_effect f6;square;f6;type;Blunder;persistent;true]} 20... Kg8 $1 {[%c_effect g8;square;g8;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 21. Qf4 Ne7 $4 {[%c_effect e7;square;e7;type;Blunder;persistent;true] Black makes a critical blunder in the attempt to bring another piece to the defense of the king [+M4]} 22. Qh4 $1 {[%c_effect
h4;square;h4;type;GreatFind;keyPressed;undefined;persistent;true,g1;square;g1;type;Winner,g8;square;g8;type;ResignBlack]
Black resigns} 1-0