Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 5

August 25, 2014

White to play: evaluate:

( a good exercise today)

1 gh

1 Ka1

1 Bg3

Y Aranov v D Cawdrey 2003

Solution

In practice, I would have chosen the best move, the one white played in the game; but I would have chosen it by feel rather than analysis.

There are some good lines.

1 gh

Intuitively bad, since it gives black a passer on h2. Analysis shows it loses. 1…gh 2 Rh2[] Be3

A nasty point is revealed: the threat of Bd4, skewering the king and queen, means that the LPDO Ra1 can't be taken: black wins.

1 Ka1

Similarly, this is intuitively bad, but there is a narrow path to equality.

1…gh 2 Re1? Be3! and the same threat to skewer means that black wins: either the bishop is taken, exchanges occur, and the pawn queens, or the king moves and black plays Bg1, promoting the pawn. A nasty point is that the Q can't retreat to a1 and e1, being occupied, nor to c1, being controlled by the Be3.

So 1…gh 2 Qe1[] Be3 3 Qh1[]

The best now is 3…Qg3! (defending Ph2) 4 gh (hitting it again) Bf2 (defending it again, and also blocking e1, preventing Re1) 5 Rc2 (getting to the first rank)