A puzzle for April 24th (see explanation) #chess

White to play and win

Allan Beardsworth (allanbeard) v April 24 1915, ICC 20/3/14

Solution

Not too hard, and no prizes either for working out that this position arose from my beloved (but rubbish) Morra Gambit against the Sicilian. Black is an unknown (i.e. I don't know his name) IM from Armenia.

1 Bf7+! is a little zwischenzug which seals the game. If 1…Kd7 then either 2 bc or, even better, 2 Ne5+! the main line being 2…Ne5 3 bc Nf7 4 Qb5+ and the LPDO Nf7 drops off when the king moves to the c file, since 4…Ke6?? 5 Qf5 mate.

In the game, black took the bishop, and after 2 Nh8+ Qh8 3 Qf3+ Kg6? 4 Qf5 mate. 3…K-other would have prolonged the game.

The puzzle probably isn't worth a blog, though I was pleased to have seen Bf7+! and not just done the rote recapture 1 bc. What is more interesting was that I asked black what his handle meant, and he explained that April 24th 1915 is the accepted start of the Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman government's extermination of its minority Armenian subjects from their homeland in what is now Turkey.

I presume that next April, the 100th anniversary, will be a big event in Armenia and Turkey.

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