Cordingley puzzle 12

White to play and win

Blackburne-Price, Birmingham 1906

Hint: find the pretty line which was played; there are other, long winded ways to win, given the material position, but there is one nice variation to be found.

Solution

I spent too much time on this puzzle, not trying to solve it, but trying to find robust solutions to all lines. In other words, this puzzle would not have been included in a modern puzzle book, or I doubt it would be.

Since I am dealing with a puzzle book, I look for convincing wins. A simple pawn count, and a check that the knight isn't hanging, quickly convinced me that there was a prosaic win, and checking with Stockfish confirms that the simple 1 Qe4 doesn't hang anything, and has a winning advantage; and the slightly cuter 1Rd4 also protects the b5 pawn (because Bb5 would lead to Nd6+, winning the exchange, and there is no perpetual or worse for black). But neither of these moves would merit inclusion by Cordingley, so I had to look elsewhere: and clearly it had to be the black squares, and in particular the h2-b8 diagonal, and in particular c7…

So 1 b6! was the move played. All I had to do was understand how to defeat 1…Qc4, and I quickly came upon 1 ba! Qa4 (Qa2 is the same) and now 2 Ra6!! prevents any checking of white's queen but at the same time sets up mate on the h2-b8 diagonal, but on b8, not c7. Pretty, and the solution sought. Blackburne actually played 2 Rc6+ and 3 ba, which also wins, but drags the game out. What spoils the problem is that 1…a6 or 1…Rhf8 then require prosaic wins.

Posted with Blogsy