2024/09/12 DPA: "Remote Bishops, A Dark Horse, And Her Majesty Leads The Charge"
Black to move.
White has light square weaknesses.
Black has a light-squared Bishop on b7 aiming straight into the White camp. Same with the dark-squared Bishop but it's currently blocked by the g pawn, supported by both the f and h pawns. But it still might be a factor.
1. ... Qh3 threatens 2. ... Qg2#. White can defend multiple ways: 2. f3, e4, Be4, or Ne4. All block the Bishop's control of g2.
But Black can follow up the jab with a hook: 2. ... Ng4, threatening 3. ... Qxh2#.
White has a stronger defense: 1. ... Qh3 2. Ne4 Ng4 3. f3, which opens up the 2nd rank for the Queen to defend g2 and h2.
3. ... Nxe3 [threatening the Queen] 4. Qe2 Bxc5 and I don't see a knockout blow.
It's possible that White doesn't choose this defense. But it seems optimal.
Does Black have any better first moves? His Bishop is en prise and White would also probably like to eliminate the Knight with Bxf6.
1. ... Ng4 is bad because it allows 2. h4, which shuts the Queen out of the action.
Or is it?
2. ... Qxh4 3. gxh4 Bh2#.
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I didn't anticipate 3. Bxh7+ but when it came, obviously Black should not capture with the Queen as then White can exchange Queens and eliminate the checkmate threat.
Nice Queen sac and unexpected, as I thought there would be some sort of tactical resolution in the center of the board which would allow Black to checkmate with the Queen.
The first key was calculating that the seemingly optimal 1. ... Qh3 doesn't work due to 2. Ne4 and 3. f3, allowing the White Queen to participate in the defense.
The second key was not dismissing 1. ... Ng4 2. h4, which I initially did [ie "Well, 1. ... Ng4 must not be correct as it allows White time to play 2. h4 and block my Queen from entry."].
To have solved this all up-front, you had to see the Queen sac after 2. h4 or else you wouldn't have played 1. ... Ng4.
One of my early statements about the dark-squared Bishop turned out to be prophetic: "But it still might be a factor."
Also, I noted that this Bishop was blocked by the g pawn, which was supported by both f and h pawns. We were able to get rid of the h pawn guard by getting it to move to h4. And we solved the 2nd problem not by capturing the g or f pawn but by also getting the g pawn to move [in this case, capture the Queen], thus exposing h2.
This was not something I had anticipated at the outset but it shows the value of being flexible in thought and being open to following ideas where they lead rather than discarding them because they don't conform to our expectations.
Hopefully no one suffered from RBBS [Remote Bishop Blindness Syndrome] and saw not one but both Bishops.
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Finally, White did not blunder, which turns a win into a draw or loss. Black still won, just more quickly than if White had played optimally, which would have led to a -M6 [checkmate in 6 for Black] vs -M2 as in the solution.
In an actual game, you'd expect White to play optimally. But this is a puzzle, which is designed to showcase an idea and the creator likely thought the idea would be diluted if optimal play was used. This is not uncommon in puzzles.
Also, there is a practical consideration: optimal play requires -M8. Even though each move is intuitive by itself, how many could have solved an eight move sequence?
Bottom line: the puzzle is not "wrong" or "cooked", White did not blunder, and puzzles are not position analyses, where optimal play is given for both sides [like engine output].
https://www.chess.com/blog/EnPassantFork/no-the-puzzle-is-not-wrong