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

Grynszpan v Kaminkski, Poznan 1961

Solution

The natural move is 1 e6! which Komodo says is also the strongest. 1…Ne6 2 Qe6!; though the book suggests that 1…f6 is tougher; but the engine says 2 Rg7+ is mate in 6 {Qg6+, Bf6+, Qf7+, Ng6 mate is the plan).

Instead the book offers 1 Ng5 hg[] 2 Ng6: this is good for White too, but the engine says 2…Qe8! when 3 Ne7+ Qe7[] 4 Re7[] gf is “only” +1.

The book misses 2…Qe8 and Black succumbs to a flashy mate, along the same lines as 1 e6 2 Rg7+.

FEN

q4rk1/2nR1pp1/n6p/2p1PQ2/p1P2P1N/Pr2PN2/5K1P/B7 w – – 0 1