Daily chess puzzle: Check Mate #416

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

White to play and mate Black

Vikman v Kanko, correspondence, Finland 1975

Solution

Nice; and took me a while to see that 1 Rd1! is a knock out. Black is mated on the bank rank.

Much of my favourite author CJS Purdy’s writing applies here.  There are pins, nets and ties:

Purdy on nets, pins and ties, Fine Art, vol 2, pg 205

Some things are hooey,

and most others lies;

But forks you mustn’t miss,

nor pins, nets, ties.

And for good message, the solution is found by ignoring the threat of Qc8* LPDO Qe6:

Purdy on threats, In Search of Chess Perfection, pg 289

You must see all real threats. That means you must also see the unreality of real threats…. When in doubt, you can always save time by remembering it is really your move. Try then the following way of thinking:

Imagine the threat could not possibly be executed. Then what would be my best move? Try out each attractive move separately, considering each one as follows. Visualise the whole position as it would be after this move of yours, and then work out whether the opponent would gain by executing his ‘threat’.

FEN

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