Cordingley puzzle 150 #chess

White to play and win

Solution

The eagle eyed will have noted that I have deleted the 'and win' because the problem is cooked. I spent a lot of time on it, including setting pieces up on the board and moving them around, trying to unearth what was escaping my grasp, to no avail. Only I had felt I had done what I could do, I checked the solution, found it somewhat wanting, and turned to Houdini.

My analyses are shown below. Whilst in practice I would have gone 'all in' with f6 and Rf6 as in the game, I would have done so out of desperation, in hope, and Houdini thinks that 1 Qe4 is slightly better, with a slight disadvantage.

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