Daily chess puzzle: Check Mate #211

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

White to play and mate Black

Tolush v Bannik, USSR Championships, Riga, 1958

Solution

In the game, White missed the only winning move, and the game was drawn after another dozen or so moves.

But knowing it is a problem with a solution, 1 Nh6! isn’t hard to find, and I bet Tolush saw it: but I suspect he missed the follow up (after 1…gh) 2 Re6!! the only winning move- all other moves give equality.

The idea of 2 Re6!! is to divert the Queen, so that after 2..Qe6 3 Rg6! is a nice (and quite thematics-a motif fortunately I remembered) mating pattern.

FEN

2r5/3nr1pk/p2qpp1p/1p5Q/3P1PN1/2P3RP/P5PK/4R3 w – – 0 28