Cordingley puzzle 165 #chess

White to play and win

Solution

Rather unkindly, I have crossed out 'and win' on this puzzle. The problem with having engines is that you can pretend you play better than the first World Champion.

I flunked this one: I didn't even see the first move 1 Nf4, so no points for me. I chose 1 f4, assessing it as at worst a comfortable edge, but Houdini assesses it as equal after 1…Qg8, when queens have to come off.

Houdini's preferred first move is 1 Qg3, keeping the queens on, and hoping to attack either by Pf4-f5 or Ng3-f5. In the game, white played 1 Nf4!, exclamation mark because of imagination- though, there is no reason why I shouldn't have seen it-after which Steinitz crumbled with the losing 1…Rg8. If this game had been played in 2013, viewable live on ICC or Playchess, the kibitzers would be guffawing because 1…ef is more or less equal. But the honest answer is not to blame Steinitz, since the position after 2 e5 looks very scary indeed: but the Berlin defence type central structure seems to hold, and then all three results are possible.

The disappointment for me is not even considering 1 Nf4: time and again I don't follow 'procedures', I just rush into problems, see pretty lines, see what I think are good lines, and turn to the solution. I wonder whether it is possible to follow a 'process' or 'checklist' to try to root out such errors? I wonder if the top players do this in practice?

Posted with Blogsy