Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 15

Black to play and win

A good work out today: worth spending time on

J Baartman v D Morschel 1995

Solution

If your solution was other than 1…hg, well done (especially if your solution works!) Reitstein's rubric says that black discarded 1…hg for a move which won quickly, and he also asks why did black reject 1….hg.

If 1…hg wasn't your solution, consider stopping now and working out why it fails. My next blog posting will go through the actual solution.

This blog is about why 1…fails (in the sense only sufficient to draw).

Solution: the problem behind 1…hg

White has a forced draw, based on perpetual check. In the mainline, the Re1 keeps the K on the queen side, and the queen checks and checks.

First, some sacrifices, the first of which diverts the B from the a7-g1 diagonal so that white can check on a7 and d4.

1 Rb4+!!

1…Bb4 (1…Ka8?? 2 Qb7 mate; 1…Bb6 2 Rb6+ ab 3 Qb6+ Ka8[] (3…Kc8?? 4 Qc7 mate) 4 Qa6+ Kb8[] 5 Qb6+ perpetual check.

2 Bc7+! (the 'can-opener', forcing the king out)

2…Kc7[] (2…Ka8?? 3 Qc6 mate)

3 Qa7+!! 1/2 1/2 perpetual.

3 Qa7+!! is necessary. 3 Qb7+?? loses: 3…Kd6 4 Qb4+ Kc7 5 Qa5+ Kb7 and there are no more checks, since the Qf8 covers b4 and e7. After 3 Qa7+, the queen can oscillate between a7/d4 and a7/a8 dependent on where black moves his king.

This was a nice solution to find, especially Rb4 and Qa7: it is not an unprecedented solution, but hidden enough to make finding it a pleasure.

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