Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 31

White to play and win

W Kobese v R Van Tonder 2002

Solution

This is a case of 'see where the checks get to' and since the line is more or less linear, it is not too hard to see that white mates.

1 Rd6+ ed (1…Kc7 2 Rc8+! Kc8[] 3 Qf8+ Kc7[] 4 Qd8 mate)

2 Qg7+ Kc6 (2…Ke6 3 Re8 mate)

3 Rc8+ Kb6[] 4 Qc7+ Ka7 5 Qa5 mate.

In fact he doesn't mate: the above was my line, and I thought (when imagining the problem in my head) that 4…Ka6 5 Ra8+ was mate, but it isn't, black can interpose his Q, 5…Qa7. The game is still lost, white picks up the d6 pawn and the Ba2, but it also shows why Stockfish prefers 2 Qh7+, gobbling up one more pawn, giving white a passed g pawn. In fact, this line reveals one of my common failings: I typically prefer a closer queen check, here g7, to a further one, here h7. I suspect this could be a common human failing.

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