Daily Chess Puzzle

Today’s problem is from the 1972 book “Chess Combination as a Fine Art”, a book based on articles published in the 1950s-1960s by Kurt Richter.

Since the start of 2018, 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, unless on occasion I think signposting would be helpful. Instead, the problems are posed with the instruction to decide what you would play, as in a game.

White to play

Rovner v Kamyshev, Moscow 1947

Solution

Shades of Adams v Torre: so not hard today. 1 Qa7! Qa5[] 2 Qa6! Qc7[] 3 Qa7 1-0 A nice dance with the queens, noting that the Bf3 defends the Rd1, so Black doesn’t have a R*d2 defence.

FEN

1r1r2k1/2q2ppp/p3b3/4p3/1p2P3/5B2/PPPR1QPP/3R3K w – – 0 1