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, played 1…Qb5+: what happened next?

Bucher v Muller, Basle 1959

Solution

White wins by 2 Rc4+!!. If 2…Kd6, 3 Qd8 mate; so 2….Kc4, when 3 Qc3 is a pretty epaulette mate.

FEN

8/7p/2p1r3/Q1krp3/4R1P1/1q5P/1P1p4/4RK2 b – – 0 1