Daily chess puzzle

A position from the current Wijk aan Zee Tournament.

Today’s blog is affected by my PC having failed and needing repair or replacement, so is in different format to normal. How long it will be before it returns to normal format will be dependent on if the PC can be returned to good health.

White to move: what would you play? (Note, White isn’t winning after the move; it is a question about move selection)

Anand v Mamedyarov, 20/1/19, Wijk aan Zee

Solution

Vishy played a move I wouldn’t have considered, having never seen the motif behind it before.

1 c4!!; exclaims for originality. Black is forced to play 1…Rc4 when 2 Rd5! breaks through, the Rc4 being LPDO and skewered by 3 Qd5+ if Black takes the rook. So 2…Rf7, and the game goes on. Vishy won quickly, in fine style.

1 c4 had the affect of swapping off the meaningless pawn whilst giving White dominant control of the d file, which underpinned the end of the game.

FEN

No FEN whilst this problem persists. Sorry.