Size up White’s offensive resources as they bear on the Black king's position: a battery of rooks on the d-file; a queen on the sixth rank; and a bishop on b2 aimed down the long diagonal. How can this be turned into a mating attack? It would help White to get his queen over nearer to the Black king, so that its pressure on that side of the board could be coupled with pressure from the rooks to put the king in a bind. That would be one way to get at the idea here; another would be to see that if Black’s king could be pushed or drawn onto h8, White’s bishop would pin the pawn on g7, creating a safe square for his queen on h6. Still another route would be just to consider every check and its consequences. To 1. Rd8+ Black replies 1. …Kh7. Now comes the standard rook sacrifice: 2. Rh8+, KxR, drawing the king into the corner.

With the pawn on g7 pinned, White takes advantage in familiar fashion: he plants his queen on a square the pawn is supposed to protect: 3. Qxh6+. The king is driven back to g8 where it began, but this time White has trapped it on the back rank by putting pressure down the h-file. He plays 4. Rd8+ and mates a move later, as the king has nowhere to go (after 4. ..Re8, 5. RxR#).