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

Forintos v Tomovic, Budapest 1957

Solution

White is about to be mated, so (more or less) only checks matter. 1 Bd3+! g6[] 2 Rh8+ Kh8 3 Qf8+ Kh7[] 4 Qf7+ Kh8[] 5 Qf8+! Kh7[]

And now the key move, 6 Bg6+! Kg8[] 7 Qg8 mate.

(Note that 1 Rh8+ followed by 2 Qf8+ and 3 Bd3+ also wins, in the same way)

FEN

3R4/1p3ppk/1p5p/rB2P3/PQ4P1/5b1K/1P5P/6q1 w – – 0 1

Footnote

I thought I had seen this problem before, and indeed I had: good news for me that I instantly recalled the solution, including the denouement 6 Bg6+.