Nepomniachtchi – Jobava: another tough puzzle

By chance, two of the puzzles which I had with me today were victories by Ian Nepomniachtchi.

White to play and win

Solution

The first move wasn't what made me cut out and keep the puzzle: and if it weren't an obvious move, then the very same first move as in the previous puzzle is also the solution.

Black must take the knight, so 1 Nf7 Nf7, but then what? It didn't take me too long to find 2 f5, but then there were lots of lines to calculate, of which the main ones are 2 …Ne1 (3 fg +-), 2…Qg5 and 2…Qa6.

I tried the latter first, seeing as it defends the now LPDO Bd3. But it wasn't too hard to find 3 Bf7+ Kf7 when 4 Qh5+ followed by f6 is murderous: probably f7 and e6 follow. After 2…Qg5, white exchanges of f7, to draw the king out, and then takes the Bd3, restoring material parity: but black's king is far top open.

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