It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 76

White to play and win

Tal v Matanovic, Moscow 1963

Solution

As with yesterday's puzzle, examine all biffs leads immediately to 1 Nf7!

There aren't too many lines, and only one is important. The trivial one is 1.. Kf7 2 Bg6+, 3 Rc7, 4 d6, the final move, potassium cyanide, being key to the success of the combination.

The more interesting one is 1..Rf7 2 Bg6 Qc1 3 Bf7+ Kf7.

What then is best? The two alternatives are 4 Qc1, hoping to win the ending by picking up a loose pawn of two, or 4 Qh5+ hoping QandPawns prevail. In practice, I might have made the wrong choice.

White to play and win: what would you play?

Showing a weakness in my approach to chess, namely undue fear of losing, I would play 4 Qc1, thinking that I should win, and can't lose by simplifying; and that keeping queens on gives a higher risk of losing.

But playing on a few likely moves in the endgame, White does (with skilful rook moves) eventually win a pawn, probably as below the h pawn, but then his rook is offside and Black's pieces cooperate well.

He probably shouldn't lose, and probably wins the above. However, playing Qh5+ and winning the Q, then gobbling up a pawn or two, seems (having played the lines against an engine a few times) the surer way to proceed. Rather than give possible lines, which as I say, are just possible ones, I will leave it to the reader to do some work him or her self.

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