Cordingley puzzle 31

White to play and win

Solution

I was disappointed with myself here. First I looked at a8(Q), quickly rejecting it; then Nf5; and then landed on Be6+, which I then focussed on. Checking my solution with Houdini, it too prefers 1 Be6+, so my analysis was right, but the disappointing thing was my rejection of queening. The game continuation was pretty spectacular: I should have realised that queening distracts the Re8 from controlling e6, and looked at it further.

I should add that 1 Rh6+ gets Houdini's top evaluation, +19 for the first minute or so of its ruminations; then replaced by a8(Q) at +22, and Be6+ at +23- all ridiculously high assessments of course. The machine shows a sense of humour in also pointing out 1 a8(R).

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