Cordingley puzzle 13

White to play and win

Solution

Quite satisfying to solve, if not too hard. It is clearly not wrong to start of by exchanging 1hg hg (though black's best defence, when there is still a game to be had, is 1…h5). I first looked at 2 Nf4?, noting that 2…Qf4 loses to the tactic 3 Rg6+ Kf7 4 Qf4; but then noted 2…Rg5!, and the pressure on f3 means the position is two-sided (I haven't looked at it further). So, a simple switch around, 2 Qf4!, is the key, with the same point that after Qf4, Rg6+, the king move to f7 is forced, and N*f4 projects the Rg6.

Checking this on Houdini, it suggests 2 Rh6! as being even stronger: not sure why, and the theme is the same, the dropping off of the f4 pawn: maybe Rh6 just first places white's pieces in better positions.

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