Cordingley puzzle 66

White to play and win

Solution

No prizes for finding the first move, nor the follow up. To that extent, it is a fairly trivial problem.

However, a few moves down, shows some subtleties. I chose the line played in the game, with Ng5 and, if Qc7, Rc1 to prevent the entry of the queen to c2; and thus enable the rook lift Re1-e3-g3.

Houdini showed me though that Ne5! is stronger. It still hits f7, and there is no Q and N mate anyway if the N moves to g5; so on e5 it makes the rook lift even stronger, coming with check. Very neat, and instructive.

Posted with Blogsy