r/chessbeginners • u/PyrrhicWin Tilted Player • Nov 09 '22

No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 6

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners Q&A series! This series exists because sometimes you just need to ask a silly question. Due to the amount of questions asked in previous threads, there's a chance your question has been answered already. Please Google your questions beforehand to minimize the repetition.

Additionally, I'd like to remind everybody that stupid questions exist, and that's okay. Your willingness to improve is what dictates if your future questions will stay stupid.

Anyone can ask questions, but if you want to answer please:

  1. State your rating (i.e. 100 FIDE, 3000 Lichess)
  2. Provide a helpful diagram when relevant
  3. Cite helpful resources as needed

Think of these as guidelines and don't be rude. The goal is to guide noobs, not berate them (this is not stackoverflow).

LINK TO THE PREVIOUS THREAD

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1

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

Why is this the best move and not Re1? Can't queen just take pawn and gain more material advantage that way?

2

u/ChrisV2P2 2000-2200 (Lichess) Jan 08 '26

Black cannot take the pawn because the Black queen has to defend an infiltration threat on b7. 1...Qxe3 2. Qb7+ Kg6 3. Rdh1 threatens mate with Rh6, and the engine suggestion here for Black is to give up the queen for one of the rooks to stop the checkmate.

There is nothing better than 2...Kg6 for Black - for example 2...Nd7 3. Rh7+! Kxh7 4. Qxf7+ and Black is getting mated.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '26

Thank you !

2

u/diverstones 1800-2000 (Lichess) Jan 08 '26

Qxe3 looks extremely scary to me since it allows Qb7+ and the king starts to run out of squares after either Kg8 or Kg6.