Daily chess puzzle: Check Mate #277

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

White to play and mate Black

Biljonov v Kudrjasov, Moscow 1963

Solution

A nice puzzle today, but of the type I’ve seen before: it is obvious that the Q must be sacrificed: the task is to analyse why it works.

So, 1 hg Ne4 2 Bf7+!

2..Rf7 3 gh+

3…Kf8 and now the pretty 4 Bh6 wins.

(4 h8(Q)+ peters out: White is only slightly better in that line).

FEN

r1bq1rk1/pp2ppbp/2pn2p1/4N2P/2BPQ3/2P5/PP3PP1/R1B1K2R w KQ – 0 1