Daily chess puzzle: Check Mate #384

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

White to play and mate Black

Ljubojevic v Duran, Malaga 1974

Solution

An enjoyable position, and one which took me more than a few moments to find, but when I did, the solution made me smile.

1 Bb5! is an unusual motif.

The B defends f1, which is very helpful, whilst threatening 2 Ba6 mate. So 1…Rf8 can be met by 2 Ba6+ Kd8[] 3 Bd6, and there is no back rank mate because the Bb5 looks at f1, and the Qa7 at g1.

The nice point about the solution is that 1…cb is met by 2 Qa6+ K-moves 3 Bd6 mate. Very pretty.

FEN

2kr3r/Q2b2pp/2pb4/4pq2/B3R3/BPP5/P5PP/7K w – – 0 25