Once more a player has allowed his rooks to become loose and aligned on an open diagonal and so has found them skewered, this time by Black’s queen on c7. Can White interpose anything? No. Can he give check with one of the rooks? No. So what else is there? A mate threat. Remembering not to panic and to take the time to study the enemy king and the pressures he exerts against it, White sees that he has his queen aimed at h7. If one of White’s rooks were aimed at that square, White would threaten Qxh7#. So he plays Rh3, this time moving the rear rook rather than the middle one. After Black puts out the fire, White moves his other rook to safety.

Another idea for White would be Qe3, adding a guard to the rook on e5; since it’s no longer loose, White doesn’t have to fear that Black will play QxR. But this is not such a good idea for two reasons. The first is that Black wins the game immediately with Qxc2# (White’s queen was doing important defensive work on d3!). But even if that weren’t an issue (imagine that the rook on c8 instead were on b8), Black would have another response of his own: Bd6, adding another attacker against the e5 rook. White can't save it.