Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 45

Black to play and win

S Bhawoodien v G Michelakis 2003

Solution

This is one of those unbalanced positions where the engine is king. I fell for perhaps the same mistake as Black did, and feared ghosts, since White has nothing after 1…Rc7!. Shame on me, since I thought 2 Qg8+ was then getting nasty, but it is of course a howler, dropping the queen: the Ba2 can move backwards. So 2 Qf5! (threatening Qf8 mate) 2…Bc3+! (actually not an essential zwischenschach, but it is helpful, worsening the positon of white's king) 3 Ke3 Bg7! defending everything. Then if say 4 Qf4, Rc3+! (made possible by the zwischenschach) gives luft for the king, so is followed by 5…Kc7 and everything is in order for black. Stockfish gives various alternatives, but the line given is most human.

As said, I feared ghosts, and found the move played in the game, which is also winning, but maybe less convincingly: 1…Rc2+! the point being that 2 Kc2?? b1(Q)+ skewers the king and queen. Also, if 2 Qc2, either 2..b1(Q) or 2…Bf4+ first win: the checks fizzle out, though of course in practice anything can happen in such positions. So after 1…Rc2+ white plays 2 Ke3 when now 2…Rc7 with similar to the engine's preferred line. Black again controls everything by a timely Bg7.

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