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

Trojanenscu v Soos, Rumanian championship 1957

Solution

1 Re1+! Kf4

2 Bd1 or 2 Kc1! or 2 Bg6! and the pawn queens, or the N is captured: Re8 Nb7 Rb8 traps the N.

2 Bg6! seems most efficient, but they are fairly equivalent. The advantage of 2 Bg6 is that White can later play Be4 hitting the Nb7, rather than using the R to capture it.

FEN

8/3P4/p3n3/1p2k1p1/2p3r1/8/PPB5/1K1R4 w – – 0 1