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

Tatarintsev v Tsemtov, USSR 1966

Solution

1 Qf3! breaking Black’s position. Quite simple, but there is a nice follow up after 1…Bb3

2 Rf7+! (2 ab, 2Qa8, 2 Qb3 also all win, prosaically) 2..Bf7[] 3 Ne6+ and the absolute pin means that the LPDO Qg5 drops off.

FEN

rn3knr/2R2p1p/p2p2p1/3b2q1/1p1N4/1B6/PP3PPP/3QR1K1 w – – 0 1