Test your chess: daily chess puzzle # 209

White to play and win

Warning: really hard, or at least I think it is, but very satisfying to solve. Took me longer than it should, perhaps.

D Friedgood v V Huang 1971

Solution

This one took me all of a standard British unit of time (the time it takes to brew a cup of tea) and all of a long dog walk both without success, so I did what I rarely do with these puzzles, and set the pieces out, and tried to think it through as a game.

Just as I told my daughter I was giving up and going to look at the solution, the solution came to me. 1 Ba6! overloads the black queen.

Firstly, if 1…Qa4 (which, apart from taking a pawn, also takes away b5 from the white bishop), 2 Re7 is decisive.

If 2…Re7, then 3 Qe7+ Kg8[] 4 Bf6 and white emerges a piece up.

Second, and perhaps best for black, is 1…Qf5 when 2 Bf6 Qf6; then 3 Bb5 and white is at least the exchange up, with a bind.

Finally, if 1…Ra6, 2 Bf6 gf[] 3 Qh5, and black is mated.

This puzzle is one of those annoying ones for me: if shouldn't have been so hard. In fact, I think I saw 1 Ba6 in my early appraisal (I will have done, following examine all biffs) but didn't appreciate it.

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