Daily Chess Puzzle: best of 2017

To start 2018, I will on most days post positions, moves, or games that have given me pleasure during 2017. I will intersperse these with two further items: (i) problems from the 1972 book “Chess Combination as a Fine Art”, a book based on articles published in the 1950s-1960s by Kurt Richter; (ii) a pot pourri of puzzles taken from my years of newspaper clippings, printouts and other pieces of paper which I have collated over the years. I have piles of the latter, and made a new year’s resolution to go through them, clearing out those which no longer interest me. I hope to find some gems in these old papers.

I have decided to adopt the style of only saying which side is to play: and not giving an idea if the move wins or otherwise. Instead, the problems are posed with the instruction to decide what you would play, as in a game.

Black to play (board presented normal way up)

Kravtsiv v Ding Liren, FIDE World Cup Tbilisi, 8/9/17

Solution

I am sure there are several ways to win, but Ding Liren did so elegantly. 1…Rb2+ 2 Kc4[] a2 3 Rh8 Rc2+ 4 Kb3 a1(N) mate.

FEN

8/8/8/k7/1p5R/pK6/5r2/8 b – – 0 107