Cordingley puzzle 126 #chess

White to play and win

Solution

My first thought was 1 Nh4, to hit g6, but I more immediately realised that it might well be necessary to be more brutal, and and sacrifice with 1 Ne5: a quick look made me realise this had to be the line to look at.

Capturing the rook is mandatory, and on e6 the queen is LPDO, so the Nf6 is pinned once the queen gets to g6 or h6. The white knight is itself pinned, with white's rook being LPDO, but it is not too hard to decide that (after Qg6+ and Qh6+, the rook lift Re3 is the move: black is helpless, and just a modicum of care is needed. There is a nice mate, Nf7, which caused me to smile, in one of the lines below: one of the joys of chess are such surprise happy mates.

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