Test your chess: Reitstein problem 84

White to play and win

J Tsalicolgou v WS Mackie 1973

Solution

Intuitively, the Qd3-Kg6 is 'obvious': if it weren't obvious, then Purdy's jump-check concept would help a player spot it. The question is, how to exploit it?

I looked first at 1 e5, but, try as I might, I couldn't make it work. I then looked at all the N moves, getting the knight out of the way, eventually (but not very quickly, alas) landing on 1 Nd6! As soon as I saw it, I knew that it won. Black's best is to lose the exchange and block e5, but in the game he played 1…cd 2 e5 f5 3 e6 and black is mated or suffers ruinous loss: 3…Re6 4 Qf5 mate, for instance.

Posted with Blogsy