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

Matulovic v Zakharov, Suchumi 1966

Solution

The  game was drawn, after 1 Nh5, but Max Euwe showed that 1 Ne6! would have won. Alas, for some reason, even though it was a problem where I knew there was a win, and even though I saw 1 Ne6, I couldn’t see the winning idea.

1…Re8 (say) 2 Rg8! Rg8 (say) 3 Qh6+! the point, and 4 Rh3 mate.

FEN

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