Forgács — Cohn

St Petersburg, 1909

• Leó Forgács (1881–1930)Hungarian master who won the second Hungarian championship (1907); he had strong results at international tournaments in the 1900s and 1910s (fifth at Ostend 1907, third at San Remo 1911) and was known as a chess journalist.
• Erich Cohn (1884–1918)German master, a repeat winner of Berlin tournaments in the 1900s and a player at the big St Petersburg international tournament of 1909; he was killed at the front in the First World War.

In the position that has arisen, the e4 square is an ideal "transfer point" for moving pieces to attacking positions:

Boards can be stepped through with the mouse wheel, a swipe, or the arrow keys — not just the buttons below them. Interactive boards

12345678abcdefgh

1. 13.
2. The queen heads for h5, where it will badly trouble the black king and from where it cannot be driven off: the e5-pawn denies the knight the important f6-square
3. 13.
4. 14.
5. 15.
6. 16.
7. 17.
8. The second piece "exploits" the e4-square
9. 17.
10. Black tries to remove one of his enemies — the knight on c3, which is ready to charge into the attack through that same square. This does little for Black, though
11. 18.
12. 19.
13. There would have followedHowever, White is in no hurry
14. 19.
15. 20.
16. 21.
17. The third piece uses the "transfer point"!
18. 21.
19. 22.
20. 23.
21. Threatening mate in two
22. 23.
24. 24.
25. Black resigned. There is no defense against the threat of 25. ♕g5 followed by ♖xh6+