Daily Chess Puzzle

Today’s problem is from the recent Tal Memorial in Moscow. A lovely combination by Vishy Anand.

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

Anand V c Grischuk A, Rapidplay, Tal Memorial Moscow 4/3/18

Solution

What makes this combination special, and therefore really hard to see is the second move, since 1 Ng5+ hg is fairly obvious. But 2 Rf7+!! is a move which I certainly could miss (I played through the game shortly after it finished, on Playchess, so couldn’t set the problem for myself).

R*f7 makes the Qe6 LPDO, so Black is forced to play 2…Qf7, when 3 hg+ Kg7 (or Kg6) 4 Qh6 is a pretty mate.

FEN

r5r1/3n1p1k/2p1q2p/1pp1pR2/4Pp1P/pP1P1N1Q/P1P2P2/1K1R4 w – – 0 27
wKb1,Qh3,Nf3,Rd1,f5,Pa2,b3,c2,d3,e4,f2,h4/bKh7,Qe6,Nd7,Ra8,g8,Pa3,b5,c5,c6,e5,f4,f7,h6