Cordingley puzzle 129 #chess

Black to play and win

Solution

From now on, following feedback from one of my regular readers, I am giving the solution further down the blog, to try to prevent people from seeing it when they would rather not: we've all had such occasions, as I myself had with puzzle 121 (see my blog on it).

I messed around with this one, captivated by the flashy 1…Qg2+ which I just 'knew' was the solution. It isn't.

1…Qg2+ 'only' draws, being a perpetual by best play. There are some pretty lines if white brings his king forward, trying to escape, but if he does, he is mated. So, instead, K back to the first rank, and a draw by repetition.

Instead, the fairly natural 1…Nh2+ is the move, though Houdini told me when I was checking my solution that 1…Bc4+ is equally good: but I don't think it is fully equivalent, since it gives white more options.

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