Cordingley puzzle 234 #chess

White to play and win

(Worth spending time on, even though it is cooked: it is still a useful exercise).

Solution

I enjoyed this one spending considerable time on it. My thinking technique was not great, though. The obvious moves are 1 Bh7+! Kh8[] ( 1…Kf8? 2 Ne6+ Re6 3 Rd5 +-) 2 Rd5! Bd5 [] but then what? I tidied various moves, non were sufficient, so went back to move one, tried alternatives (none are any good), went back to 1 Bh7+ 2 Rd5, again saw nothing, wondered whether to give up, decided I mustn't, left it a while, tried 1 Bh7+ 2 Rd5 again, and then decided to set the pieces out of the board, set a clock running, and try to solve it.

Eventually I saw that after Kh8, the Ph6 is LPDO- the g7 pawn is pinned, and rather than try to attack g7, as I had been doing, I should instead try to get Qh6+! in: but how?

I found 3 Bg6!, which is cute, but insufficient (it is level) as is the prosaic 3 Bd3, eventually settling on the slightly more forcing 3 Be4!.

Several moves here lose for black, but the 'obvious' exchange sac 3…Re4! holds the balance. Once my time was up, I looked at the solution, and found that Steinitz played 3…f6? losing: Cordingley gives 3…Re4! as better, so he too knew the problem was cooked. Disappointing.

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