Daily Chess Puzzle

Today’s problem is from an old edition of Chess Magazine. I don’t know which one, because, as is my habit, from time to time I photocopy a page to solve on walks or on trains etc; and my copy doesn’t show the magazine date.

As is my custom, I only say 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: how to play after 1 Nd5! Qd5

Naoum v Skiadopoulous, Isthmia 23/8/2011

Solution

I had a complete fail with this puzzle, first blogged yesterday: I wonder if my readers fared better?

I couldn’t defeat 1 Nd5! Qd5: but it is perhaps fairly simple. 2 Qa5, which I saw, is actually very strong.

I assumed 2…Qd7 or 2…Rd7 would both hold, especially 2…Qd7. But the Queen is overloaded, tied to defending both rooks. So 3 Rc6 and White is better.

I think I got by judgement wrong because of the centralisation of Black’s pieces: but they aren’t coordinated, and the queen is overloaded.

FEN

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