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.

Black to play: evaluate 1…Rc3

Thal v Bohnisch, Berlin 1969

Solution

1…Rc3?? loses, to either 1 Rd8+ Bf8[] 2 Bf4! or 1 Bf4. The engine prefers 1 Bf4, but both are overwhelmingly winning. I’ll give the diagram after the more natural human moves.

FEN

2r3k1/1p2ppbp/p5p1/4P3/3R4/2P4P/qPQ2PPB/6K1 b – – 0 1