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

Skotorenko v Vladimirov USSR 1961

Solution

A nice one today: first, an absolute pin is created by 1 Rf7+ Bf7: the B is now pinned by the Rf1, so that e6 is unprotected: 2 Ne6+

2..Kg8? 3 Qg7 mate, so 2…Ke8[] when 3 Nc7+ forks king and queen.

FEN

5k2/p3bp2/2p3p1/1qNb3r/6p1/2Q1P3/P4RPP/5RK1 w – – 0 1