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.

The final position of the game I have been looking at during the last week.

Black to play

Huguet v Simonovic, Paris 1963

Solution

Black resigned, and I can see why. It took me a good while studying this position to see that Black’s position wasn’t hopeless, and that 1…Kg8[] still kept the game going.

The book, pre-engine era, doubts that White can win. But my engine, left running for a while, increases its assessment to +1.8 after 1 Qb4[] Rh2 2 Qf8+! Kf8 3 Rh2, when I can see that White will prevail with his too many pawns.

But in a human game, 1..Kg8 might have kept saved the game, since 2 Qe6+ with a repetition is what some players would do after such a great fight.

FEN

5r1k/4Q1p1/p5Pb/8/1p2P3/4n3/PP2r3/1K5R b – – 0 11