Weekly Puzzles 5

This week's puzzles are more about pattern recognition than calculation. I hope you will enjoy them.

Solutions

1.Qf6!
Black has to defend against the mate on f7, but cannot take the rook because white would have a mate on h8.

You can find the solution to this exercise by looking at tactical weaknesses in white's position. The bishops are lined up on the b-file and getting the queen onto that file will win a piece.
1...Qc6!
Threatening mate in one.
2.f3 Qb5
And black wins one of the bishops.

1.Bf5! Qxf5 2.Qe7!
Black cannot defend g7 and e6 simultaneously.
2...Qg6 3.Qe6+ White wins the exchange and has a mating attack.

1...Nxd3! 2.Qxf5 Nxe1!
This threatens mate on f3 and is an important zwischenzug which makes this tactic work.
3.Kf1 Nc2+ 4.Bc1 Rxc1+ 5.Ke2 Nd4+ 6.Kd2 Nb3+ 7.Ke2 gxf5
Black needed a couple of moves but was able to take the queen back at the end of the sequence.

This is a common tactical pattern, which is important to know.
1.Nxd5! cxd5 2.Bc7
And black's queen is trapped.

Black's queen is is pinned on the a2-g8 diagonal and white can use this pin to win material.
1.Rc1! Qxb3 2.Rxc8+ Kf7 3.axb3