Test your chess: daily chess puzzle

White to play and win

Allanbeard v Aegalaivan, Playchess 13/5/15

Solution

Yesterday my puzzle was from the Playchess Wednesday afternoon blitz tournament of a couple of weeks ago; today's is from this week's tournament, which I also managed to (in this case) tie for first on- a rescue effort, having had a disastrous early round loss and another poor early draw – a two pawn Swiss Gambit.

By contrast, the finale for this position was harder than yesterday's puzzle, and, I think, prettier. 1 c6! the idea of which is after 1…Bd7 there is 2 cd with a nice version of Purdy's potassium cyanide (a double attack on Re8 and Rc8, the latter being mate. So Black must either take the pawn with his N, when white's rooks chomp away on the seventh rank pawns, or play as in the game, 1…bc when 2 Ba7+ Ka8[] 3 Rc8mate.

I like pattern, with both white's rooks being unprotected and one being attacked.

(a small detail: if 1…Nc6 then best is 2 Rf7 gobbling up the f and g pawns, rather than 2 Rb7+, which is more natural, but leads to messiness after the Nd6 pin: 2…Ka8 3 Rf7 Nd6 4 Ba6 Bc8 with more or less equality).

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