Beware British Greeks bearing Gifts: a special daily chess puzzle

White to play and win

-the motif should be fairly obvious, but the task here is to evaluate and decide how to beat Black’s various defences.

Nigel Short v Eylon Nakar, Isle of Man, 4/10/15

Solution

I logged on to Playchess on and off yesterday, firstly to watch game 4 of Svidler-Karjakan, and secondly to watch my schoolfriend Nigel Short and others play round 2 of the PokerStars tournament in Douglas, Isle of Man.

I logged on after Black had played 19…a5, and, before I could fully analyse 20 Bh7+, Nigel had played it. At that time, I thought the sacrifice was insufficient because of (20..Kh7 21 Ng5+ Kg8 22 Qd3) g6.

White to play and win

Black took ages after 22 Qd3, so that, alas, I had to log off and carry on with Sunday chores. When I looked back later, Black had played what I had thought the more trivial to defeat line, 22…Kf8, and Nigel won by checking and opening more lines.

After 22..g6, I couldn’t see the path to victory, especially if 23 Qh3 Kf8, trying to shuffle away. I printed the diagram out, ready to set up the pieces, but before doing so, I had the ‘lightbulb’ moment: the Qc7 is a LPDO (as is the Ra8- it was using the technique of reviewing for LPDOs that I found the solution): 24 Ne6+ (forking King and Queen, so the knight must be taken) 24…fe[] 25 Qh8+, 26 Qh7+ and 27 Qc7. The final point is that on c7, the White Queen is safe, and can’t be trapped.

I have analysed the combination here.

Wonderful to see Nigel playing with such style.

I have analysed the combination here.

http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2015/10/5/Game835722984.html