Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 116

Black to play: evaluate 1…Ra8

A Van der Walt v L Reitstein 1974

Solution

Not too hard, but pretty: 1 Qb5[] Qc2 2 Qf5[] (else white is just a piece down) Qg2+! and the combination ends with white being a piece down nevertheless.

I should add that strangely (to my eyes) Stockfish prefers winning the exchange by 2…Ne3 3 Qh3 Nf1, giving -10 compared to -6 for taking queens off: I haven't spent time trying to understand why: maybe there is a near forced mate if queens are retained, but simplification is far more human. Equally, the machine suggests 2 Qd5+, though not with much hope (its plan is to then play Qd2, and struggle on a piece down) and after 2..Kh8 3 Qf5, it then does prefer 3…Qg2+: I suspect these lines are of no consequence.

Posted with Blogsy