It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle # 207

White to play and win

Schmid v Westerinen, Bamberg 1968

Solution

Not too hard today, but nor an especially convincing puzzle. One of the two natural moves, 1 Qb7, just leads to a mess (1…Rd8 2 e3? Nc2+  3…Qc8 and the Queen is safe from Bc6, and Black is better; so 2 0-0 Qc8, unclear) so White has to play the other natural biff, 1 Qe3+ forcing 1…Ne6 when 2 f4 causes Black a lot of inconvenience.

In the game, Black played the natural 2…f5, losing simply to 3 Bb7 and 4 Bc6:

Slightly better is the tricky 2…Qa4, defending against f5 by the Qa5+ double attack motif. 3 b3 Qa6 retains the motif, and after 4 f5 Bf5 5 Nf5 Qa5+ 6 Bd2 Qf5 7 Bb7 the game goes on, but White is better.