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 game continued 1… Bb3 2 Kd3: analyse

Taylor v Lamberti, Imperia 1961

Solution

After 2 Kd3 the wonderful 2… Re2!! wins. Wouldn’t it be nice to play such stunning moves?

3 Qe2 loses the Q after 3.. Bc4+, for insufficient compensation.

3 Ke2 loses fairly simply, by 3…Qc2+ 4 Ke1 Qd1+ or 4…Re8+

Therefore, 3 Ne2 when 3…Qc2+ 4 Ke3 Re8+ 5 Kf4 Re2 6 Qf1

And now 6…Kh6 is the move given in the book, which forces 7 Qe2 with a hopeless position for White. I found 6…Re4+ instead, the main line being 7 Kg5 Rg4+ 8 fg[] Qe4! with a nice final position.

9 gf or 9gh both lose to 9..Qg4 mate, whilst 9 Qf4 loses to the pretty smothering mate 9…Qe7.

FEN

4rr2/pp4k1/2p3p1/5p1p/2bP1N1P/2P2PP1/q1PK2Q1/3R3R b – – 0 1