It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle #242

White to play and win

Zinser v Lombardy, Zagreb 1969

Solution

A nice problem, which took me a while to solve. In the game, White didn’t play the best combination, winning prosaically after 1 ed+ but there is a forcing line. After two or three attempts, without success, I did what I often do, took the problem with me (in my head) on my daily dog walk: and it came fairly quickly.

1 f6+ gf[] 2 gf+ Ke8[]

And now the key move, 3 Ne6!!.

Firstly, 3…Qb4?? is mated by 4 Nc7 or, I would say the nicer, 4 Ng7. Secondly, 3…fe loses to 4 Qg4! which fulfils several roles. Minor one: prevents Qg1+; major one, threatens Qg6 mate; equally major one, also threatens Qe6 mate, so that 4…Bb5 loses to 5 Qe6 mate.

So, 3…Qg1+ 4 Ka2 fe[] 5 Qd6 and 1-0

Nice.

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