Daily Chess Puzzle

A nice, and I found difficult, position, seen in Malcolm Pein’s Daily Telegraph column.

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

Rapport v Kollars, Grenke Open, 2018

Solution

I found this one tough, and needed to have it with me (in my head) on a long walk to eventually solve it.

At first I thought not 1 b5? because of 1…Qb5; so instead I looked at nearly all other moves, such as 1 Ne3, 1 Ra7, and others. Before reverting to the move I first thought of, 1 b5!, noticing that after 1…Qb5[] 2 Rc1 is a fatal overload of the Nc6 which is tied to defending the Rd8: 1-0

FEN

3r2k1/2Q2pp1/2n5/4p1p1/1Pq1P3/8/5PPP/R4NK1 w – – 0 1