It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 124

White to play and win

Vasiukov v Taimanov, Tallinn, 1965

Solution

As with yesterday's puzzle, examine all biffs leads to the solution. If it didn't, combining it with looking for LPDOs, here the Re4, and seeing how they could be biffed, should succeed. 1 Nf6! forks Rook and Queen, and if captured, 2 Qf3+ again forks the Rook and King, winning the rook: White is therefore up an exchange, with full control over the position to boot.

A final thought. Had there for instance been a Black Knight on f6 in the initial position, then one would have examined 1 N*Nf6 without a moment's thought, and no doubt then seen 2 Qf3 easily. The benefit of CJS Purdy's technique, of asking a series of specific questions, helps find moves which are far less obvious, without a N of f6.

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