Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 16

Black to play and win

White played 1 h4?? here. Why does it lose?

K Dreyer v J Van Dyk 1963

Solution

White played 1h4; why was it a losing mistake?

Fairly straightforward: examine all biffs reveals 1… Qf2+! 2 Kf2 Rf7+ 0-1

To go a bit further, this position is clearly winning for black, but maybe there are ways to mess it up, particularly because white can get his king to d4 before black's king can reach e5. However, a sample line shows it is not too hard: 4…Kf6 5 Bf3 Re7 6 Ke3 Rc7 7 Rc1 c3 8 bc bc 8 Kd4 c2 and the win is only a matter of time, one tictac being that 9 e5 is met by the zwischenschach 9…Rc4+ and then the e pawn falls.

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