Cordingley puzzle 111 #chess

Black to play and win

Solution

I enjoyed solving this one, almost by method. The natural move is of course to move the Bb6, say to c7, and that certainly would be a natural bullet or blitz move: but clearly not the solution to a puzzle. ( I do suspect that this position is one which is far easier to solve knowing it is a puzzle, than it would be to spot in a game).

So, first thing noted is the Qd3 is LPDO. Next, the f2 pawn is pinned twice: once on the a7-g1 diagonal, so Qg3 is possible (not saying it is good, only that if Qg3, fg3 is impossible); and the pawn is also pinned because if it were to move, Qg2 would be mate; and the g2 pawn is also pinned, so that if …h3, gh3 is impossible.

These factors made me fairly quickly land on 1…Be3!; if the bishop takes the bishop, then 2…h3 and mates, noting that white has no spite- or rescue- checks. If 2 Qe2, black's queen overpowers whites remaining pieces.

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