Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 92

White to play and win

Two questions today:

1) white actually played 1 Rg2: with what response?

2) what else should he have done?

The answer to one of these questions is easy, the other hard.

N Van der Nat v S Bhawoodien 1998

Solution

This is one of those types of positions which is far easier to solve in the comfort of your own home, absent the pressure of a ticking clock, than at the board. I can well imagine any white player buckling under the tactics, as happened in the game.

The answer to my first question is easy: 1…Nf4! biffs the Q, but also biffs the LPDO Rf1. The other important point is that if 2 Bf4 then 2….Qf1+ can't be met (but it is white's only move) by 3 Rg1 because the Bb6 looks at g1, so that 3…Qg1 is mate. So 1 Rg2 is ??

When I looked at the book six years ago, after I acquired it, I looked at puzzles at random, just ones which took my fancy, and this was one of them. I marked the puzzle with a question mark, and made a note to wonder if 1 a4 won, rather than the ’solution', 1 f4. Six years ago I didn't check things with engines. It turns out that 1 a4 does win, or at least does no harm. 1f4, 1 Qg4, also win. Happily, this time round, I chose the engine's first choice, 1 Qh4! which has the advantage of looking both at e4, centralising the queen and pressurising the Nd3, and f2. All white must avoid is 1 Rg2 and 1 h4 (which is also met by 1…Nf4).

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