Cordingley puzzle 106 #chess

Black to play and win

Solution

A good puzzle: fairly straightforward, but a good calculating exercise. Clearly, 1…Bh3 has to be evaluated, and it is not too hard to see that white is defenceless. There are various ways white can give up his queen for the rook, and then it is a hopeless ending.

I took this puzzle seriously, by which I mean that having found one good move, I looked for another, and in fact I eventually settled on 1…Nh6 planning to sacrifice later, the precise manner depending on how white defends. It turns out that 1…Nh6 is Houdini's slight preference, though that is really an overstatement, because both it and 1…Bh3 are more than -5, and, in essence, are basically the same line.

The attached analysis also gives a few notes to show where the great Frank Marshall went wrong.

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