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

Perez Perez v Ivkov, Havana 20/5/1962

Solution

Megabase says 0-1 in this position, due to the threatened R8g2 mate.

My book says White played 1 Be4! fe 2 Rd6+ Ke7 3 Re6+! and a draw was agreed, since Black can’t avoid the stalemates.

My engine says 1 Be4 Ke7! with ever so slight advantage to Black.

Deep Fritz gives this as -1; I wouldn’t be confident in my ability to exploit this advantage if I were Black.

I wonder which of Megabase and the book is correct? From the source below, it looks like Megabase is correct.

FEN

3k2r1/5p2/5R2/2pB1p2/2P1p3/2P1P3/4PK2/6r1 w – – 0 37