It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 179

White to play and win

Unzicker v Dückstein, Krems 1967

Solution

A difficult one. I knew instantly the answer had to be, and it is, 1 e5, with the idea of 1…fe 2 f6 and 1-0 (I think the main line is 2…gf 3 Qg6+ Qg7 4 Qe8+ Qf8 5 e7!) but 1….Qe5 is clearly the move to play, with the hope of a perpetual.

Play continues 2 Qd8+ Kh7[] when:

White can either take the Nb6, or push the e7 pawn. I chose wrongly, to take the N, and hope that there is to a perpetual, and my engine analysis confirms it: White is winning, and after playing a few checks, the engine's assessment rockets from +1.5 to sky-high. But 3 e7 is stronger: I 'feared' 3…Nd5, with the N coming into play, not looking hard enough: after 4 e8(Q) some of Black's checks are taken away from him, by White's promoted pawn watching the e line. A bit more analysis shows that it is easier for White to avoid the checks.

Would I play 1 e5! in a game? Of course, since either the King side is prised open, or, by taking the Nb6, White can't lose. Would I be sure that 3 e7 was better than 3 Nb6 after Black's second move? Don't know, depends on how much time and my emotion at the time.

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