Temposchlucker: Chain of logic

 In the comments of the previous post, I mentioned the PoPLoAFun system to be a single branch idea. It is a line from attacker to target. The mnemonics describe the different elements you can encounter along the way.

The study of Vukovic had learned me that the PoPLoAFun system is especially suited for a description of the kingside attack. Where the end of the line of attack is the king, and an invasion square is a point of pressure.

But I’m not sure whether it is the most adequate way to describe all other tactics. Let’s have another look at this diagram.

White to move

2rr1bk1/p1nq1p1p/1p1N2p1/3QP3/8/6B1/PP3PPP/2R2RK1 w – – 1 1
[solution]

What is the chain of logic here?

• First of all, The white Queen is under attack. So it seems logical to save the Queen with an additional punch.
• The white Knight attacks the rook on c8, which is the defender of the Knight on c7
• So it is logical to place the white Queen somewhere where it attacks the black knight too
• Hence Qc4 and Qb7 spring to mind
• The rook on c8 cannot move, so black must look for a way to remove the attacker of Rc8
• Hence Bxd6 springs to mind, removing the attacker of c8
• If you started the branch with 1.Qc4 (which I did not), here the branch ends. You have to prune the branch and go further with 1.Qb7
• Qb7 pins the black knight against the black Queen
• The black Queen itself is not in danger, which is a subtlety of this specific pin
• But it makes Rd8 overloaded
• Hence Rc8 is under defended

It is not rocket science. First of all you must SEE all the salient cues easy. Without that, you must calculate everything, which goes easy astray. Besides that, you must be able to reason logically and consequent.

Only when I fiddled around with the pieces, I was able to make the story  complete.