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

Florian v Koberl, Budapest 1961

Solution

This position relies on a motif I don’t think I have seen before. After the obvious 1 Qc6 Re8, how does White proceed?

The answer is 2 Re7! so that 2…Re7 3 Rd8+ Re8[] 4 Qe8: I don’t recall seeing a similar idea of Re7 dragging the defender out so that a rook can land on the 8th rank.(Though is some way, in Purdy language, the Re8 is tied to the 8th rank and the Black king is in a net, so there are themes which are Purdy reader can work on).

The second point is that after 2Re7, 2…Ke7 is met by 3 Qd6 mate. Quite a cute smothered mate.

FEN

r4k2/p3ppr1/P1p5/1p6/5P1p/5Q2/1qP2PP1/3RR2K w – – 0 1