It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle #237

Black to play: analyse

Westernin v Jansson, Uppsala 1969

Solution

In the game, Black missed the winning tactic, and actually lost quickly. But knowing it is a puzzle, it is not too hard. (Actually, I doubt the Megabase 2012 game score: the end position, after only a few more moves, is unclear/even, definitely not lost for Black).

Black has a few tactical tries, such as taking with either N on d5, but 1…Ncd5? is plain bad (2 ed) as is 1…Nfd5 (2 Nd5). But another biff, 1…Ne4! is far stronger.

2 Ne4[] (else Black has just won an important pawn for free) 2…Nd5 3 Qd2[] (hitting the LPDO Nd5 since 3 Qc1? drops the also LPDO Ne4) and 3…Nf4 4 Qf4[] f5. (3…Re4 is just as good too)

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