The Novotny is a chess problem device that honors Antonín Novotný‘s 1854 problem, although Henry Turton created the first instance in 1851. In this technique, a piece is intentionally sacrificed on a square where two opposing pieces could capture it, but whichever piece captures it, it will obstruct the other piece’s path. The Novotny is, essentially, a Grimshaw maneuver that is accomplished by sacrificing a piece on a crucial square.
Let’s have a look at the original Novotný’s three-mover from 1854 that featured this device:
Does it look too artificial to occur in actual play? In fact, the Novotny device could have been observed in many real games, and usually resulted in a checkmate or a significant material advantage. One example came from the game between David Navara vs Anna Dergatschova-Daus in 2007: