Cordingley puzzle 158 #chess

White to play and win

Solution

Another cooked one, or at least half cooked. After a short look round and finding nothing else, I decided 1 Ng7 had to be tried, and after 1…Kg7 2 Re7+ there might be something.

The choice is between 1…Kg8, which has the demerit of being on the open g file, so Qc3-g3 might be something, or 1…Kh8, when the Rf6 is pinned by 2 Qd4, and Rf7 follows. I found neither line easy to compute, but felt that Kh8 was the weaker, and then checked the solution: there is only so much depth I can go into.

Then, with Houdini on, it says Kg8 is more or less level, whilst Kh8 does indeed lose.

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