Daily chess puzzle: Check Mate #405

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

White to play and mate Black

Rotmanov v Laska, SSSR 1975

Solution

A pretty one, and a motif which I don’t think I have seen before.

How to get at Black’s king?

1 Rd4! threatens 2 Qd3+ 1-0, so 1…Qa6[]

2 Rd2+!! ed[] 3 Qf3+ and 4 Qf2 mate.

PS

As happened a few days ago, I again solved the wrong puzzle: what has happened is that I took a photocopy of the page from the book, to take on my dog walks, and the print quality was poor/paper got crumpled, so I solved the same position but with a rook on h4 instead. Same solution: or a dual: either Rd4 followed by Rd2+ wins.

FEN

8/8/4q3/5p2/1R5P/1pQ1p3/4k1P1/3b2K1 w – – 0 1