Cordingley puzzle 145 #chess

White to play and win

Solution

The first move is obvious, and it is really a question of seeing 'does it work'? So, 1 Nf7 Kf7 2 Qh7 Nf8 and all would be over except for 3 Bg6+! Ng6 4 f5!: once you see that, and it didn't take me more than a few moments, then you know you have the solution. It then became a question of checking and delving.

Of the main line, I couldn't see it all: all I could tell was that white had enough momentum, an open black king, that there should be a win, and even if there wasn't, white had enough pawns and a central majority. Of the minor lines, and in fact 2…Nef6 is shown to be the best defence, again I felt I had enough. When checking this with Houdini, it shows that most lines are at least +1 for white, but the line showed in the attached, with Ne3, is +3: this is one of those times when I certainly can't see my way through the thicket of variations, but can see that white has an overwhelming practical advantage.

Posted with Blogsy