Cordingley puzzle 102 #chess

Black to play and win (possibly)

Solution

The first move, 1…Rh3, is obvious enough, though whether it works is not at all obvious. In my initial appraisal of the position, I noted that the Qb7 is LPDO and also that if the black queen gets to f3, as well it might, the Nd5 is pinned against the loose queen. These factors are very relevant for many lines.

So, firstly 1 Ne3 is met by 1…Qg5, and little more needs to be said. Hitting the queen with 2 f4 is met by 2…Qg3 and black is better.

Second, 2 g4 does nothing, so the next line to consider is 2 gh, where I quickly landed on 2…Nf3+, based on my initial assessment of the position's features, and this move turns out to be Houdini's strong favourite, even though the move played in the game, 2…Qg5+, also wins without question- though it needs some precise and I would say hard to find rook and queen moves in some lines. But 2….Nf3+ is straightforward, and the fact that after 3 Rf3 Qf3 the white Rd1 is LPDO is decisive: white can't regroup, and Re2 will follow.

All the above is very well- Cordingley only gives one or two lines after 2…Qg5+, but what about 2 Nc7! ? Smiting the Re8, defending f3, removing the qf3-Nd5-Qb7 pin are all good features. Houdini gives the position as 0.0 but I am not sure if this is a horizon effect mistake- my intuition is that it is not, and that 2 Nc7 might be a significant problem.

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