It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 173

White to play and win

Ivkov v Dückstein, Sarajevo 1967

Solution

A nice puzzle, involving keeping control, and exploiting the geometric alignment of the Black rook and bishop, with the Ra4 being a LPDO.

So 1 Rc4! Ke7 (1….Kd7 2 Nc5+) 2 Rd4! keeps the Black King hemmed in. Then 3 g3 4 Kg2 5 Nd4 6 Rc4 and 7 Nc2 or similar wins the bishop.

The game’s final position is below.

Posted with Blogsy