While skimming through my newly acquired tactics book this puzzle was presented and explained. I had never heard of a windmill before but once it was explained I was blown away, I had heard of all the common tactics such as pinning and skewering etc, but never of 'windmills' and 'x-rays'. Well anyway this puzzle is from Torre-Em. Emanuel Lasker in Moscow 1925 and it is white to move.

It's hard to believe someone like Lasker could get caught in such a pickle, but anything is possible.

Nice!

Moscow 1925 was organized by the dark figure Nikolai Krylenko.
The tournament was held in Nov. & Dec.
There is a silent movie "Chess Fever" (Shakhmatnaya goryachka (1925))which was filmed during the tournament. Capablanca, Yates, and other made appearances in the movie. I do not recall Lasker appearing in the movie.
See the movie at Shakhmatnaya goryachka

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence I think in this case. The puzzle presented from the game came from the book 'Winning Chess Tactics' by Yasser Seirawan whom is reputable author. The passages that explain the game do not specifically indicate it was played in the tournament, which means it could have been played anywhere in Moscow. But aside from all that it is a fine example of a not so often seen tactic.

This same position appears in Murray Chandler's "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess". He's got a few other "windmill" tactics (I think he calls the tactic a "see saw", though), and I think this is presented as an example of someone going out of their way to set up the tactic.

--Fromper

Alas proof, it was indeed a real game played by Lasker. Carlos Torre-Repetto vs Emanuel Lasker (1925) "Seventh Seal"

The above game appears in many chess books. It was an example of Torre playing the Torre Attack.
In this case Lasker was the victim.
It appears the game was Torre's most famous.
He defeated Sam Reshevsky the year before in Detroit.
File:Capablanca-Lasker 1925.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Shouldn't a tactic called a windmill---resemble the movements of a windmill. this tactic doesnt look like a windmill to me. Now x-rays and pins and skewers have some logic to them but where do they come up with windmill? Does anyone see a windmill?

I'll provide an excerpt on the part of the 'windmill' tactic from 'Winning Chess Tactics' by Yasser Sierawan.
"The windmill, an extremely potent but rare tactic, consists of a discovered check followed by a normal check, followed by a discovered check, and so forth. It ends only when the attacker gets what he wants out of the situation. In this diagram we see how the windmill tactic enabled White to Win everything."

So the repetition of the types of checks seem to fit the word 'windmill'.

But a windmill only spins in one direction, but this tactic is based on the rook going back and forth instead of smoothly moving in one direction. So I prefer Chandler's term, "See-Saw", since it has a similar back and forth motion.

And I just looked it up - the position in "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess" is the same one as the first post of the thread, but he doesn't site where it came from, which is typical of this book.

--Fromper