Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 75

White to play and win

G Michelakis v J Van den Berg 1998

Solution

This puzzle is both easy and hard. Easy to find the first move, 1 Rg5! which is practically 'forced'. It exploits the pin of the Re5 (there is a jump biff Qd6* LPDO qh2 in the initial position) but then black has many replies.

The easy one to calculate, and one which has to be calculated, is 1…Qe2, taking the bishop and threatening to take the now LPDO Rd1. But 2 Rg6+ fg[] 3 Qg6+ Kf8 4 Qf6+ and Iif 4….Ke8, 5 Qe5+ and the attack continues, or if 4…Kg8, 5 Rg1+ and mates.

Another credible defence is 1…Qf4, when again 2 Rg6+ fg[] 3 Qg6+ Kf8, and Reitstein says 4 Rh1, and wins, but Stockfish tells me 4 Rg1 is even stronger: I am not sure why, and know in such a position humans can't play as 'accurately' as engines.

I thought the toughest defence was 1…Qh8, keeping guard on the Re5, which is also followed by 2 Rg6+ fg.

Now what?

White to play and win

Solution

The natural 3 Qg6+? throws everything away: white has perhaps a slight advantage in the ending, but no more. 3 Rg1 apparently wins, but the engine line is hard to fathom after 3…g5 4 f4 Qh2! and to my mind, it is just unclear, certainly in a practical game: it is a mess. But by reversing the move order and playing 3 f4! everything falls into place. As well as biffing the Re5, the move prevents …g5, so that Rg1 comes with extra force.

There are still more lines, but I will leave them to the reader. I suspect you could spend hours on this position, dependent on black's defence, but objectively it is 1-0.

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