It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 196

White to play and win

Solution

A very pretty puzzle, with some nice geometry.

The first move is obvious, but does it win? 1 Ne6!

Black clearly can’t play  1..Bh4 due to 2 Ng7 mate; and 1…fe 2 Qh5+ and rook lift is almost as clearly 1-0; but what about 1…Bb5?

(in the game, printed below, Black did take on e6 and lost)

The nice point, which took me the standard British unit of time to work out (time to brew a cup of tea and ponder) is that (1…Bb5) 2 Ng7+! is vicious. 2…Kd7 3 Qg4 mate, so 2…Kf8

3 Nf5!! which is geometrically very pretty (hence the exclamation marks)

Black can’t take the Bb4 because the Qd8 is then LPDO; and can’t take the Qh4 since the Be7 is pinned to the King by the Bb4. So say 3..Nc8 defending the Be7, but then 4 Rc8! 1-0.

The whole game, and how Viktor the Terrible builds up the attack, is worth playing through.