Chess.com Daily Puzzle #4: The Queen Saves the Day

We're back with another daily puzzle from Chess.com and this time it's not an attacking type of position so we will not look for mates. Instead we are going for a hardcore defense tactic. It's Black's turn and it looks pretty scary with White's pieces surrounding the weakened king. However, Black is not without options. Thankfully, Black's pieces are just placed perfectly to rebuff White's attack.

If White had one extra tempo in this position, Black would be completely lost. But that's not the case. And though one would be tempted to go for a move like Ne5, White has a clever reply in Qh5 which will end the game in two moves. So given that the threat White has is Qh5, it will only be logical for Black to defend against that. There is only one move that does that well and that is Qh4.

With this move, Black attacks the White bishop and prevents the White queen from delivering a fatal mating net. Black's response, Rf5, tries to press further with the attack. The threat now is to swing the rook over to the h-file attacking the queen and blocking its defense of the h-file. But another piece swoops in just in time. Ne7 forks the queen and rook, and after Rh5, Nxg6, and Bxg6, Black has survived the worst.

In order for you to visualize the sequence of moves properly, you may check them out on the simulation below: