Cordingley puzzle 104 #chess

Black to play and win

Solution

In some ways, not the hardest of problems. The first move of the solution, 1…c3, comes to mind more or less instantly. Then it is only two questions: can white stop the pawns?; does white have a perpetual (or, worse, a mate) with his queen and knight.

In my calculations, I could see that a pawn will queen: it was more judgement, than calculation to the end, that made me settle that the Q+N can't mate, and I felt I could wriggle out of any perpetual. In the attached, Houdini shows how to do so with precision- Kh8-gh7-h6 – but more or less any way is sufficient.

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