Daily Chess Puzzle

Today’s problem is from a recent game, the position being the puzzle from Ray Keene’s column in the Times. It took me a while to solve, and made me smile when I did, so I felt it worth sharing.

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

Korobov v Adly, Abu Dhabi 11/8/18

Solution

1 Rc7+! is the natural try, seeing that the Qd8 is tied to defending f8: 1…Qc7 2 Qf8 mate.

But what after 1…Kg8?  This took me a while.

2 Ne7+! 1-0, since Black either loses the exchange, or his Bb7 is LPDO. And after 3 Rb7, it is fairly easy to see that White can untangle, after which it is a trivial win.

Nice.

FEN

1n1q4/1b3kr1/1p2ppN1/pP1p2p1/3P2P1/Q2BP3/P4PK1/2R5 w – – 0 28