Test your chess: Reitstein problem 121

White to play and win

R Breedt v A Nel 1986

Solution

I was pleased with this one. Reitstein's rubric said that white found a beautiful move, and 1 Qd8+! is fairly obvious, or at least it is a try you have to look at, and after 1…Kd8[] 2 Rd8+ Kd8[] 3 fg+ Kc7 (3…f6 is no different) 4 Qh8 white is a piece up. A key point is that then if 4…Qg2, 5 Qe5+ defends both bishops with tempo, so that white keeps his piece.

However, I decided to look further (when you see a good move, look for a better one), and found 1 Bf3!! exploiting the LPDO Qc6 and the LPDO Ra8: the key point being that if 1…Qf3 2 Qa4+! wins the queen. Also, if 1…Qc7 2 Qa4+ Bd7 then 3 Rd7! wins, since 3…Qd7 4 Bc6 mate.

Reitstein only gives the game continuation, 1 Qd8+, but 1 Bf3 is better, but only in the sense that +10 is better than +7: in reality, or human reality, 1 Qd8+! is both prettier and more straightforward.

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