Cordingley puzzle 213 #chess

October 31, 2013

White to play and win

Solution

This one was interesting. At first, there didn't seem anything at all for black, the bishop is attacked and must retreat, say to d6, when it is all to play for. I looked for surprise moves like Bb3-alas, illegal, and f5 doesn't do much. So what could it be?

For some reason, I struggled, and had to put the position away, and look at it another time, and nothing appeared at first. So I tried to follow Purdy, and look at factors in the position. Firstly:

Purdy on nets, pins and ties, Fine Art, vol 2, pg 205

Some things are hooey,

and most others lies;

But forks you mustn't miss,

nor pins, nets, ties.

So, what does this position have? White's queen is in something of a net, and there is a geometrical alignment, of white's king and queen, and hence the prospect of a pin, on the e file.

Purdy on threats, In Search of Chess Perfection, pg 289

You must see all real threats. That means you must also see the unreality of real threats…. When in doubt, you can always save time by remembering it is really your move. Try then the following way of thinking:

Imagine the threat could not possibly be executed. Then what would be my best move? Try out each attractive move separately, considering each one as follows. Visualise the whole position as it would be after this move of yours, and then work out whether the opponent would gain by executing his 'threat'.

This latter piece of advice is very apposite here. If we ignore white's threat of ab, what would we like to play…and 0-0-0! comes immediately to mind. And then it can quickly all came into place. Very nice, and a good example of use of method.

There are some nice lines, including a discovered smothered mate.