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.

Black to play

Hagloff v Andersson, corres 1968-69

Solution

1.. Re4 is obvious; so that 2 Rf8+ Qf8 and White can’t defend both e1 and f1.

A harder defence is 2 Qd3 when 2…Qf5! is a lovely exploitation of the same theme: again, e1 and f1 can’t both be defended.

If 3 Rg1, then 3…Re1 and since the Qd3 is LPDO, Black wins a piece after 4 Qf5 Rg1+.

FEN

4rr1k/1p4b1/6p1/p1q4p/4P3/P7/R3Q1PP/4NR1K b – – 0 1