Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 23

White to play and win

(I) what is wrong with the move white played in the game, 1 Rh7+!;

(2) how instead should white win?

K Dreyer v AA Ponelis 1972

Solution

(1) 1 Rh7+

Alas, black has a saving resource. 1…Kh7[] 2 Qg6+ Kh8 3 Rd7 when 3…Rd1+! 4 Kh2 Qd6+ and the queens come off, 0-1.

In fact, as Reitstein says in his solution, white could still have saved the game: 2 Qe4+ is perpetual.

(2) how to win

There are two equivalent ways: 1 Qe4, and if say 1…Qh6 or 1…Qg8, 2 Qe5+; or 1 Rcc7, and if either of the same queen moves, 2 Qf5.

I would not be surprised if Dreyer were in time trouble, and thus preferred the easily seen, flashy Rh7+: with more time, the safer ways would have been apparent.

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