Cordingley puzzle 206 #chess

White to play and win

Solution

Fairly straightforward, though with two twists.

I instantly focussed on 1 Rb7, and quickly checked that it wins, either if black captures, when 2 Nd6+ followed by 3 Qc6, or if black doesn't capture, and tries to grovel out.

The first twist? When I switched on Houdini, it preferred 1 Nd6! with its point being that 1…Bd6 2 Qc6! is apparently forced mate, though to be honest, I am not sure that +12 (1 Nd6) is actually better than +10 (1 Rb7).

The second twist? Chessbase's game moves differ slightly from Cordingley's. Either could be correct.

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