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

Gligoric v Averbach, Titovo Uzich 20/7/1966

Solution

The position looks bad for White, so almost out of desperation 1 Rh6!. A point being 1…gh? 2 Qd4+, 3 Qd5+ and 4 Q*c6.

And if 1…Kg8 2 Qd5+; so best is 1..Qd7 when 2 Re6!! is another “only move” but what a one!

2…Qe6 3 d7 Rd6[] 4 d8(Q)+ Rd8[] 5 Qd8+ Qg8[] 6 Qb6

and then the conversion phase commenced. Move 40; Averbakh resigned on move 87. I don’t know if the Q+P ending is theoretically won or lost. In the game, the Q side and the f5 pawn came off, leading to a 3v2 ending which Gligoric won.

FEN

3q3k/6pp/pprP4/5p2/P7/5P1R/1P4PP/3Q2K1 w – – 0 35