Cordingley puzzle 155 #chess

White to play and win

Solution

Silicon beats carbon yet again.

I struggled with this one. The 'move my hand wants to play' is 1 Nf7, hoping to take advantage of the pinned Rf7 and back rank after 1…Rf7 2 Re8+ Nf8; but I couldn't see what move to do.

Just before giving up, I found the 'solution', the move played in the game, 1 Re8, saw a few lines which seemed to be good for white, and checked the solution.

Alas, 1 Nf7! Is very strong indeed; as is 1 Bf7+!; and several other moves are better than 1 Re8.

The reason why 1 Nf7! is very strong is too deep for me: by which I mean I could not see how trussed up black is after the main line 1…Rf7 2 Re8+ Nf8 3 Qb4 Ng6 4 Ne4; which once you see it, and spend time on it, can be seen to be really strong; I could also not readily see why 3 Qb4! is so much better than 3 Qa3, but it is, partly since 3…c5 isn't a threat.

Chess is a really deep game. In even simple positions like this one, there can be many depths. A good, challenging, puzzle, which I flunked.

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