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

Driksna v Strautinsch, corres, Latvia 1968

Solution

A variation of a standard theme: what is the order you need to make the moves in order to mate, possibly on the back rank, possibly just with N and B? In my cases, I few missed attempts (1… Qb1+; 1…Ne2+) before I saw the correct path. 1…Qc2+ 2 Rc2[] Nb3+ 3 ab Rd1 mate.

FEN

8/3r1pk1/1Q4pp/1pp2q2/2Bn1Pb1/2P5/PP1R2PP/2KR4 b – – 0 1