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; after Black plays d4*c3 in the position below

Anderson v Wilkinson, BCCA championships 1956-7

Black plays d4*c3

Solution

I found the main idea, but didn’t solve the problem fully. 1 d4! opening the a2-g8 diagonal for the Be2; 1…Be6, blocking it.

Whilst I also looked at 1 Rf6 Qf6 2 Bg5 (amongst other things) I didn’t see that after 1 d4 Be6 2 Rf6! is now a killer. 2…Qf6 3 Bg5! traps the queen.

Lovely.

FEN

rnbq1rk1/pp4pp/5b1B/2p1N3/3p4/2PP2Q1/P1P1B1PP/R4RK1 w – – 0 1