Cordingley puzzle 108 #chess
Black to play and win
Warning: you could spend the rest of your life analysing this position to the end: there is a thicket of variations to uncover.
Solution
This is a famous position, and I sort of 'knew' that the solution was 1…Rf3, and had merely to work out why: it turns out that it is not actually the best move, but it was the move played.
I got only so far on this puzzle. I spent most of time on 2 Kf3 Rf8+ 3 Kg3 Qe4, and (without moving the pieces) couldn't see everything, but felt that black probably had enough. One factor is that the white Queen is in LPDO position and is vulnerable to a discovered attack with a check from the knight. I didn't doesn't much time on 2 Qc8 nor 3 Kg2, both of which are better moves. In particular, 3 Kg2 seems to be only a draw after best play.
The attached game file contains both Chessbase's annotations (from Megabase 2012) and my additional notes. I suspect that more analysis would alter some of the conclusions, but it does seem that inserting 1…a3!! Is important, weakening c3, a fact that is important in the otherwise drawing line after 3 Kg3. But to see such nuances is the stuff of dreams, or certainly not in my ability range.
Posted with Blogsy
allanbeardsworth 