Positiions from Feb 7

1. Shanmuka from Friendly Hills has just played Nd4 attacking Ssoren's queen. What's Soren;s only good move?
In the actual game he played Qe3??
What should Shanmuka do?

2. In that same game Shanmuka reached this position. What's Black's bet move?

3. Here Boomer from Heritage playing black carefully avoided checkmate and now has a chance to gain material. How?

Answers:
#1) a) Nxd4 ?? results in Bxe2 losing the queen
      b) Qd3 ?? results in Nxc2+ lsoing the queen
      c) Qf1 ?? results in Nxc2+ losing the rook
      d) Qd2 ?? results in Bxf3 losing the knight (Soren can't take back lest Nxf3+ forking the queen
      e) Qe1 is the only move that doen't lose material.
In the actual game, Soren played Qe3, but Shanmuka missed the opportunity to get his queen and played Bxf3 which is a good move and wins the knight. However, Soren could castle and save his queen, but he played gxf3 allowing Shanmuka one more chance to get the queen and that time Shanmuka played Nxc2+ followed by Nxe3.

#2. White's biggest assets are his rook and his passed pawn on the f-file. Black can eliminate one with Nh5 forking both. The game might have continued: 1. ... Nh5 2 Re3 Nxf4+ 3.Kkd2 Nxh3

#3. 1. ... Qa5+ 2. c3  Bxd6