Cordingley puzzle 177 #chess

White to play and win (if black doesn't defend well: not one to waste your time on)

Solution

Oh dear: after yesterday's pleasure, comes today's disappointment.

Having tried to solve the puzzle in my head, I decided that I needed to set the pieces out.

The only good thing to say is that I was solving this at our holiday home in Kas,Turkey, so the view is beautiful, and the environment tranquil. But the chessboard is also quite tranquil.

I looked and looked, to no avail. There is one LPDO, the Ra8, but that is unlikely to be the motif. Biffs like Ng7 are just bad, for white has his own LPDO Bb2. Nothing comes either from landing a piece on d6, either the Q or N, though there is a potential smothered mate motif Nf7 to strive for; and whilst h7 is undefended, apart from the Kh8, white can't get at it.

So, frankly, I had no ideas. In a game I would surely presume it was equal, and exchange on f6: or, I did think of being cute and playing 1 Qc1 to seek to put the Q on the long diagonal, but even if it gets there, there is a Qf6 challenge. Nor did 1 Ba3 appeal: black wouldn't need to take on a1, and can instead play 1..c5 or 1…Ne7: white might be a tad better, but no more.

I don't like giving up on problems, but eventually had to here. Basically, white just didn't seem to have enough, and I knew that I would have no more ideas. So I turned to the answer, and found that 1 Ba3 Ba1? was played: looked into it a bit more, couldn't be convinced, checked with an engine, and my doubts where confirmed.

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