Cordingley puzzle 74

White to play and win

Solution

I enjoyed this one; it took me a while, but I got there in the end.

In my initial scan, of course I tried for back rank mates, but couldn't find any. And the black Rb8 is LPDO, but I couldn't find a move which exploited this with a double attack. I also looked at Qh3; Qh5, and even Nh7, all came to nought.

I then looked at 'improving my worst placed piece' and thought that something like 1 Rc2-e2 or 1 Re1 and Rce1 might be a move I would play in practice; in this 'worst placed piece' process I also wondered if the Ba2 should be re-routed to the b1-h7 diagonal.

Then, inspiration struck: I looked for smites, even crazy ones, and came up with 1 Na6! from which I saw 2 Rc6! and it is game over. I didn't find it by looking at black's weaknesses, or how to undermine his lynch-pin piece, his Nd5: had I, I might have seen that the Nc5 can be sacrificed as a desperado. Similarly, whilst I looked at 1 Nce6, I immediately disregarded it, though it now undermines the Nd5.

Checking with Houdini, I was surprised to see that 1 Nce6 was played, but pleased to see that Houdini agrees that 1 Na6! is far stronger.

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