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

Patience v Tilson, England 1964

Solution

Easy enough as a problem, but in a real game, how easy would it be to sacrifice Q and B, and not worry that something had been missed?

But it is a problem, so, fearlessly, 1 Qd4+! cd 2 Bg7+!

2…Rg7+ is trivial: 3 Re8+ and mates in a move or two. So 2…Kg7, when 3 Re7+, and the only thing to worry about is if 3…Kf6 4 Re8 gives Black a perpetual, but after 4…Qg5+ 5 Kf2 Qd2+ White interposes with 6 Re2 and it is game over.

Therefore, instead all one needs to calculate is if 3… Re7 4 h8(Q)+ Kf7[] is a win or a draw:

5 Rh7+ Ke6[] 6 Qc8+

6…Kd5 drops the Re7 (aftr 7 Qf5+ first) so 6…Kf6 when 7 Qf8+ picks the rook up all the same.

Nice.

FEN

4r2k/1p2r2P/p2p2pB/2p2q2/3b4/5P2/PP1Q2K1/4R2R w – – 0 1