It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 74

White to play and win

Nei v van den Berg, Beverwijk, 1964

Solution

Teschner's puzzle book gives hints or comments which, due to the layout of the book, are impossible not to read. Here, the comment is 'White captures a pawn and weakens his opponent's position decisively'.

So all I did was choose between 1 Ne4 de 2 Ne6, and 1 Ne6! The former line is clearly less strong because Black exchanges queens and then has the tempo to take on c2. So the 'solution' is 1 Ne6! fe[] 2 Ne4

In the game, Black didn't take on e4, and soldiered on in a hopeless position. Teschner merely comments that 2..de 3 Qd8+ and 4 Bb6 win, which is where I stopped, but I did wonder if the advantage was overwhelming.

In fact, it isn't. 4….Rc8 and Black has some compensation for the pawn. It is actually a good training position, and I played it a few times as white against Houdini. In each case, my advantage dissipated. I suggest my readers give the position some time to reflect, and hence I will add a solution heading to break the blog.

Solution

Having played it a few times, I see that white's advanced kingside pawns can be a weakness, and that Black creates pressure by activating his rook by a timely …h6. If White responds by h2-h4, Black exchanges and then lifts his rook, for instance to h4. If white instead keeps the h file closed by g6, then h6-h5, rook lift and R*g6.

Solution

So, in fact, 1 Ne6 isn't easily winning: you need better technique than I have to exploit it, and Houdini only gives a +1 advantage.

Instead, the equally natural 1f5! is far stronger. Black probably responds by 1…Qd7 when 2 fe fe 3 g6! either gains control of f7 if Black doesn't take, or lets the white queen in (4 Qg4) if he does.

Black has other defences, but White has all the fun for instance after 1 f5 ef 2 Ngf5 g6 3 e6!

Again, the positions after 1 f5 are good training material. I played it against Houdini a few times with far better results, provided I played aggressively. If White is passive, Black has time to develop and defend, and then White's weaknesses will prevail.

Posted with Blogsy