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: position after Rd8-Rd6

Lundholm v Aurell, Stockholm 1957

Solution

I would likely always play 1 Nd6 Qd6 “and hope”. The engines show 2 Rde2! with the idea of 3 Nf7!! – I wonder if any of my readers saw this?

Better than 1 Nd6 though is 1 Nf3!!: again, I wonder who saw this. I didn’t, and it took me a moment to see its point: 1…c5 would mean that the Qb4 no longer protects the Rd6, so the Rd6 becomes LPDO, and 2 Nd6 wins it for free.

FEN

6k1/1p4Pp/2pr4/p3N3/Pq1bNP2/7P/1P1R2RK/8 w – – 0 4