It’s Your Move: daily chess puzzle #330

White to play and win

(cooked, so only spend some time on this puzzle)

Doney v Weinhold, England 1974

Solution

Ouch: this problem is slightly cooked, which means part of the considerable time I put into it was ‘wasted’ – if studying time is ever wasted. In a game, I might have played a poor move such as 1 Nd5+, but knowing it was a puzzle, I looked at 1 Bc4! met by 1…Qa3+ 2 Kb1 Qb4+ 3 Bb3 Kf6 4 Rd7:

But 4.. Rg8! provides a tough defence, and even after leaving Fritz ponder for ten minutes, it gives a resolute 0.0.

Now, perhaps, deeper analysis, or a different engine will suddenly produce +-, but to a human player, 4…Rg8 was obvious (at least to me) and is a fighting defence.

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