It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle #328

White to play and win

Tal v Stean, Hastings 1973-74

Solution

Tal magic again: less mortals would draw by perpetual check now, but not Tal. I wonder how much earlier he saw the win, saw that even his reduced amount of material would be sufficient?

Here, knowing it is a puzzle leading to 1-0, “bringing more pieces to the party” is more or less all White can do, so 1 h4! is “obvious”. It gives White an anchor on g5 if needed, or a lever h4-h5 dependent on Black’s reply.

Too many variations to consider: Black played 1…h5, followed by 2 h5+ and Qf7+ Qf6+ Qg5+ Qh4+ before mating with Rf2+ and Ne2+.

Magician.

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