It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 51

White to play and win

Bojkovic v Sakharov, Vrnjacka Banja 1963

Solution

This puzzle is a good example of the effect on the game of engines. The solution given in the Teschner book is short and sweet, and is the line I would play ten times out of time. 1 Rh5! gh 2 Nf5! and it is all over. That is about all Teschner gives, too, and absent engines, that is about all I would do too, perhaps with a little regard to what happens after (1 Rh5) 1….f5 by which Black tries to cling on, noting that both the Rh5 and Nc3 are en prise. I did look at 1…f5, knew it was Black's best try (because it is murky) and felt that after 2 gf Rf6[] 3 e5 I had looked 'deep enough', the idea being that if 3…de, 4 Ne4 biffs the Rf6 at the same time as moving the knight from harm's way.

The engine goes a bit deeper, though. 3 e5 Rf7! 4 ed Qf8! and after 5 Qf8+[] Raf8 6 Re5 we reach this position:

White is winning, clearly: but would you win it if you were white against Magnus Carlsen? There is some scope to mess up.

Engines

Stockfish, on my iPad, finds a far better line.

1 Nf5!! gf:

and now, not the 'ten times out of ten' move 2 Rh5, but the cruel 2 Rdg1!! The human 2 Rh5 permits 2…f6 with a bit of a struggle.

After 2 Rdg1!!, Black can't play 2…f6, because of 3 gf+ biffing the queen, so has to waste a move, 2…Kh8, the effect of which is that White has gained a tempo, which he has used to bring the Rd1 into the attack. So 3 Rh5 f6[] 4 g6:

4…Qg7:

And now rather than the prosaic 5 Qg7+ Qg7[] 6 Rh7+ Kg8[] 7 Rd7 bc, which wins, the machine shows the much more elegant 5 Qh7+! Qh7[] 6 g7+!! Kg8[] 7 gf(Q)+ Kf8 8 Rh7, and White is a whole Rook up. Silicon precision.

Posted with Blogsy