It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 184

White to play and win

Schöneberg v Tukmakov, Zinnowitz 1967

Solution

A really hard puzzle, which I only got partly correct; and only after several cups of tea, a long dog walk, putting the pieces out on a set….without full success.

I will discuss 1 Rg7+ at the end, but the move I eventually settled on was 1 Qh6!

Black’s reply is forced, 1…Qe5 (though having said that, the engine suggests giving up a rook by 1..Rf7 2 Bg7 Qf8 is slightly less losing).

Now what? I tried many things, including 2 Rg6, before settling on 2 Rg5. To my small credit, White gets the advantage after 2…Qf6 3 Qf6 Nf6 4 e5 Ne4 5 Rg2, which was my main line, assessed as unclear, but the engine says White is somewhat better.

I saw the better move 2 Rd6!! but didn’t assess it correctly.

In particular, whilst I saw it as prophylaxis against Qf6, I didn’t see what to play against the natural 2…Bb7: but 3 Rg6!! is super strong.

After 3…Be4 4 Rg7 Nf6

White wins by the thematic 5 Qf6! (thematic in the sense that many lines are aiming to land a rook on g8).

Very nice; and very hard.

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Finally, I personally spent a lot of time on 1 Rg7, before settling on 1 Qh6. I kept looking at 1…Kg7, which actually loses to 2 Qg3+ Kf6 3 Qf4+ Kg7 and the surprisingly quiet 4 e5!! wins- the Q is tied to g1, so can’t take the N, and if 4…Ne5 then 5 Qg5+ and the N is pinned to the LPDO Qc5, or 5…Kh8 6 Qf6 mate.

However, eventually, after spending far too long analysing 1…Kg7 lines, I saw that the simple zwischeschach 1…Qe3+! wins: Black first controls all the key squares before taking on g7.

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