It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 98

White to play and win

Lutikov v Tal, Kiev 1964-65

Solution

Another rest day, the most interesting thing about the position is who the loser is.

1 Qd8! Rd8[] 2 Rd7+ cleans up.

I do these daily postings for two reasons: in the perhaps forlorn hope of improving, by having a disciplined approach to chess tactics training, and for pleasure. This puzzle made me research White, Anatoly Lutikov, 1933-1989. He was from St Petersburg, a near contemporary of Mikhail Tal 1936-1992. If my quick count of their games is correct, he had a +2 score against Tal, and from a quick flick through some of their games, they were often highly entertaining. Tal Lutikov 1-0 1964 looks to be a truly fantastic game. I have never studied Tal, so only have a passing knowledge of his games, but I would suggest that a perusal of these two players games against each other would be instructive, and very entertaining.

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