Daily chess puzzle: Check Mate #398

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

Black to play and mate White

Westerinen v Hubner, Oslo 1974

Solution

Quite an elegant solution, a one move one: 1…f4 and White is powerless to meet the threat of 2…Bc5+ and 3..bc mate. The position below is after 2 (null move) Bc5+ and 3…bc mate.

Alas, my eyesight is poor, and I actually solved a different problem, but with the same solution:

Here, 1…f4! is again the solution, and threatens 2…Rfc8-c4 and mate, which can only be stopped by losing the N.

FEN

5b2/3k4/1p2p2p/3pPpp1/1P1K4/P2R3P/2rN2P1/8 b – – 0 50