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

Lapiken v Reshevsky, Long Beach 11/8/1955

Solution

White played 1 Kb1 and the game was eventually drawn. But 1 Bc4!! wins: 1…Qc4+ 2 b3 and the double attack on the Q and the threat of Qh6+/Qh8 mate wins the game.

FEN

r4r2/4ppBk/p2pq1p1/1p5n/4P2P/P4P2/KPPQ4/3R1BR1 w – – 0 20

Footnote

The game was an exciting Sicilian Dragon; worth playing through in full. It is in Megabase.