Cordingley puzzle 160 #chess

White to play and win

Solution

Fairly straightforward in a way: but difficult enough as to not be trivial.

The choice is between which piece to take on g5. I liked the idea of 1 Bg5 hg 3 Ng5 which threatens in some lines Nh7+!- though in fact, in very few if any lines, because after N*h7 Qg7+ if black can go Ke8, then the Nh7 covers f8: so Nh7+! only works if black retreats his Q to e8 (after being biffed by f4). I quickly decided that black's queen can't be pushed to a bad square- f4 Qb2+ and if Rb1 Qa3, protecting f8.

So, instead, it has to be 1 Ng5 hg 2 Bg5 and this is where I more or less stopped precise calculation- it all depends on black's response, of which he has several, but in each case white's pieces and pawns will roll forward.

In fact, the solution is very similar to number 135- extremely and oddly similar, in fact.

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