Daily chess puzzle: Check Mate # 97

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

White to play and win

Grigoriev v Čhelikov, Moscow 1926

Solution

This puzzle took me a long time, but only because the move I immediately thought of, 1 Nc6, isn't a mating line, but just wins the house: 1….Qd6 2 Nb8 and 1-0. 1…Qd8 is of course necessary since Nc6 opened White's Queen's route to f8.

So I looked, and looked again at 1 Ng6+ but couldn't see any rook lift, and then turned to the solution, seeing this one is the first in the book which is a +- but not a mate.

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