It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 177

White to play and win

Shamkovich v Barcza, Salgotarjan 1967

Solution

A few things work here: White can convert his space advantage to either opening Black's King up to attack, or winning the d6 pawn. The prosaic 1 Ne6 Be6 2 Ba3 does the latter. It threatens 3 e5, so (say) 3 …Qc7 when 4 f5 is a double attack on the Ne6 and Pd5.

But 1 Ne6 isn't a puzzle book solution, so it has to be 1 Nd5! cd 2 ed

There are no clever unpins with the Ne6, so Queen moves, a few exchanges on e6, and Black has at least two weaknesses: the Pg6, Pd6; Pb7; and opened King.

In the game position, White continued with Qd3 and f5, winning.

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