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

Briones v Garcia, Cadiz, 1956

Solution

1 Rc5!! is the obvious first move,  but the tactics are deep.

1…cd is easy: 2 Bd5+ Ke7 (or Ke8) 3 Qe4+! and 4 Ba8 wins.

1..Ng3+ is harder:

2 hg Qc2 3 Rf5+!- the key move:

3…Kg6 4 Bc2 Rf5 and now the winning move, exploiting the pin: 5 g4

FEN

r4r2/2b2kp1/p1p3qp/1pPp1n2/1P3P2/1B6/PBQ3PP/3R1R1K w – – 0 1