Cordingley puzzle 50

White to play and win

Solution

For a while, this stumped me.

Since it s number 50, the position is in FEN notation in my Cordingley book (as a recap, every fifth puzzle is in FEN, to save wartime paper). So I had to set it up on my board, and chose to set it up on me of my favourite chess sets, the one Jane bought me for my fortieth:

My scan of the position clearly showed the possibility of a capture on h7; that the knights were both hitting f7; and black had no LPDO.

I first tried both 1 Bh7+ and 1 Nh7, which come to the same thing. I think black has at least a draw after this: the Nd5 comes back to f6, and sometimes to h7. So I needed to find something else.

Next I exchanged twice on f7, and then played Bh7: I felt this might be better for white but it is not decisive: the game still goes on. In looking at this, I noticed (and had I followed CJS Purdy' advice to look for jump checks) that the Qf3 also eyed f7: and then the solution became apparent. Quite pretty, really.

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