Test your chess: daily chess problem #53

White to play and win

…after Black plays …Kc7 here.

D Friedgood v CC De Villiers 1975

Solution

Black could have drawn easily by playing …ba 2 Ka5 Kc7, but the change of move order, 1…Kc7 is fatal. 2 a6! squashes black: creating white square weaknesses which White is able to exploit. 2 a6 threatens to push to a7, so the pawn must be taken, or black could play Kb8, when white captures on b7. The result is the same.

White wins by gaining control of the a4-e8 diagonal, Bb5, lodging the bishop firmly on c6, and then advancing his king. Black's bishop is zugzwanged, having to defend against white's bishop hitting g6.

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