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

evaluate 1 f6 Be4

Lundholm v Aurell, Stockholm 1957

Solution

Continuing yesterday’s problem 1 f6 Be4 2 fg+ Kg8[] 3 Ne4:

I found thinking about the follow up to this position hard to discern in my head from the opening position, thinking that maybe Black was better, if he survives, and I thought he did survive, not seeing a win. I also presumed that 3..Qe7 was forced, defending f6, because if 3…Rd6 4 Nd6. I  will return to this tomorrow.

I think the evaluation for human purposes is unclear, but the engines show White is better, perhaps winning. The longer I leave Komodo 10 running, the higher its assessment; I suspect AlphaZero would show White is winning. After 3…Qe7 4 Rg5! is best; and is a move I might not have thought about.

Even the idea of 4 Rg5! wasn’t obvious to me.

Query: what is the idea behind 4 Rg5

Solution

4 Rg5 plans Ne5-g4 heading for either f6 or h6; the rook move ensures the Ng4 doesn’t block the rooks protection of the Pg7.

FEN

3r3k/1p4rp/2p5/p2bNP2/Pq1bQP2/2N4P/1P1R2RK/8 w – – 0 1