Another challenging one. White appears to be overmatched; he is down a piece. But he still has his queen, which we know can do wonders on an open board like this. Skewers are especially suited for such positions because they take advantage of pieces that may be aligned but far apart on the board with nothing between them. White has a check with his g3 pawn that lacks a good follow up, but three others he can give with his queen. The safe one is Qe8+. Black’s only reply is Kg5 (notice the crucial work White's pawns do in sealing off flight squares). What next? With imagination an objective comes into view: get the king onto the long, dark-squared diagonal with its queen, then skewer them. Checks from behind with White’s queen tend to force the king south toward White’s pawns, which doesn’t help. So now use one of those pawns to do the checking: f3-f4. This gives Black two choices: he can move his king to f6 or g4. If Kf6, the kernel of the skewer is made; White plays Qh8 and wins the queen a move later. If Kg4, what should White do? The obvious: keep asking what checks he then could give. One of them is Qe2—mate, surprisingly enough.

Pawns near the enemy king can be easy to overlook when you are busy focusing on your attacking pieces; but pawns, too, can play a key role not only in cutting off flight squares but in delivering checks.