Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 157

White to play and win

…after black plays 1…a5

(Hard, but worth pursuing)

KF Kirby v JW Eriksen 1953

Solution

In enjoyed this one, and it took one of the standard units of measure, a full dog walk to solve it, but when I did, it was a pleasing moment.

First, imagine you were at your local club, and you were kibitzing some analysis, and were asked 'which side would you take?'. I would take Black, presuming, as Black did in the game, that the a pawn would decide the game, with black's Q and R keeping white's pieces contained.

But 1…a5 is a gross mistake, whereas 1…g5 would have contained things.

So, 2 f4! is surprisingly powerful.

The easiest line to see is 2…ef, when it is quite an enjoyable task to see enough lines to convince oneself that black is defeated: he is more or less in a mating net. 3 Rd5! 4 Bd4+ and depending on how black defends, white has four pieces in the attack against a defenceless king. Go figure. (An expression I learnt somewhere, and seems appropriate, since there are too many variations.

Reitstein only goes 2…ef, 2…Qf4?? (which loses trivially- 3 Bh4+ and the Q drops off) and 2..a4? which is also fairly trivial, since 3 fe+ and, again, all white's four pieces pounce on the king. The line which took a lot of my dog walk was 2…e4 which keeps the lines closed, but eventually I became convinced that 3 Rd5 and 4 Bd4+ are nearly as good. The engine of course shows all black's choices as equally bad, and quickly turns to 'mate in…' but in practice 2…e4 gives white chances to go wrong. Again, go figure, or this could be a position to play as white vs an engine.

In the game, black played 2..a4 but lost soon after 3 fe+ Ke6 4 Bh3+ Ke7 5 Rc8+ etc.

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