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: examine 1 Nd5, as Viktor played in the game

Korchnoi v Portisch, Berverwijk 1968

Solution

1 Nd5? was a losing mistake: 1…Bd5 2 ed[] g3! is a double attack on h2 and the LPDO Nc4.

Viktor played on with only minimal compensation for about another 20 moves.

FEN

3rk1nr/1pp2pbp/p1b5/4p3/2N1P1pq/2N5/PPP2PPP/R1BQR1K1 w k – 0 13