Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 180

White to play and win

W Weise v LR Reitstein 1966

Solution

If 1 Ng5 then 1…Qf6 and black is fine, but 1 Ne5! and it is game over: 1…Ne5 2 Re5 Qd6 3 Rh5! and black hasn't got time to play 3…Qf8, so 3…gh 4 Qg5+ and 5 Qg7 mate.

The nicest line is 1 Ne5! Qd6! when white must find the pretty deflction 2 Nd7!! keeping the Q from f8: 2….Nd7 3 Rh5 as before.

As I normally do, I wrote the above before entering the problem into Stockfish. In this case, Stockfish had things to tell me. Firstly, it also likes 1 b4! and 1 Re4! both of which it says are winning; but it rates 1 Ne5 for higher. But after 1 Ne5! Qd6 at first it likes 2 Ng6 (+8) before deciding 2 Nd7! is even better, though it defends with 2….Ne7!! a move which would have rocked my confidence had I been playing white. But then the engine says 3 Re5!! and black can't prevent mate. Lovely.

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