Cordingley puzzle 230 #chess

White to play and win

(One not to spend much time on: it is cooked)

Solution

I spent a good while on this one, trying to make 1 Bh7+ work, but failing, then trying to make 1 f4 work, but finding nothing convincing.

In a game I met give up and play 1 Nf3 and think I was worse. In fact, Houdini surprises me by suggesting white is somewhat better- if black advances f6-f5, Houdini isn't worried (I wish I had his nerves of silicon) and in one or two trial lines I worked on, Houdini manages to exploit the weakness on e5.

However, knowing it is a puzzle, I plumped for 1 f4, which isn't bad, but in fact black can defend better than in the game. One of the stark lessons from all these Cordingley exercises is that defence is so often imperfect- I knew this anyway, but this series of exercises has confirmed that.

A fairly forced line gets to the position below, where 1…d4! holds the balance: it frees black's queen up from defending c3, by preventing Qc3+.

I should also add that black isn't compelled to take the knight on his first move. Instead, the surprising but nice 1…Nf5! forces simplication to a defendable endgame.

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