Daily Chess Puzzle #128

White to play and win

C Hoek v GA Hopkins 2004

Solution

A nice one today. White clearly has to breakthrough before black can muster his defences, but with black's restricted space he has some time. So he needs to bring all the pieces to the party. Two biffs have to be examined, and 1 Bf8!! is clearly better by comparison than 1 Rf8+ (because the latter permits, in fact forces, simplification) and after 1….Qc7 white has the nice rook lift 2 Rf6! aiming for h6 and h7. So 2…Rd8 3 Rh6 Rd7 defending h7 with equal numbers but 4 Bd6! deflects one of the defenders away.

Black could also try 1…Qg6 or 1…Qg8, both met by 2 Qf4, though 1…Qg8 can also be strongly (and better) met by the rook lift 2 Rf3!

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