allanbeardsworth

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

Black to play and win

Hromadka v Samisch, Piestany 1922

Solution

I thought this puzzle was pretty. After seeing no easy way to take on f1 or f2, I saw, in CJS Purdy language, that the Rd2 was tied to defending f2, so can be overloaded with the lovely 1..Rd1! White's position collapses.

White resigned.

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Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

Black to play and mate White.

Euwe v Reti, Amsterdam 1920

Solution

The first move is obvious, 1…Bh3! 2 Qa8[]. After a moment's thought, seeing that the slow double attack 2…Qg4 fails to 3 Qe8+, one sees that a forcing move is needed: 2…Bc5+, and after 3 Kh1[] (3 Kf1? Qf2 mate) 3…Bg2+! and it is check, check and mate: 4 Kg2[] Qg4+ 5 Kf1 (5 Kh1 Qf3 mate) Qf3+ 6 Ke1[] Qf2 mate.

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Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric's 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

White to play and mate Black

Adams v Torre, New Orleans 1920

Solution

Another position from my chess education, and doubtless known to most of my readers.

1 Qg4! Qb5[] (tied to the Re8) 2 Qc4!! Qd7 (ditto) 3 Qc7!! Qb5 (ditto)

4 a4! (4 Qb7?? Qe2! would have spoiled everything) Qa4[] 5 Re4! Qb5[] 6 Qb7! 1-0 since Black no longer has the Q*e2 resource.

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Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric’s 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

Black to play and mate White

Jaffe v Kostic, New York 1919

Solution

1..e3! is natural (this being a puzzle) and the calculation is fairly linear: 2 Qf3 ed+ 3 Kd1[] Bc2+! 4 Kc2[] de+(Q) 5 Kb3[] Qe6+

This is nearly the limit of my visualisation. I was able to see that 6 c4? loses to 6…Rh3 pinning the Queen and the King; so the K has to move: in a game I would play this far, and then see what turns up: although I could see that Black can check and check again, and then likely take on b2 with check. Seeing the position when writing up this blog, I see all this is true, and in the game, White played 6 c4 when in fact Black didn’t play 6…Rh3, but played for mate with 6…Qb6+ and 7…Qb2+: it is mate either on b4 or d4.

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric’s 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

White to play and mate Black

Alekhine v Feldt, Tarnopolj 1916

Solution

1 Nf7! Kf7 (1..Qc8 and Black loses prosaically) 2 Qe6+! Kg6 3 g4 1-0 There are alternative ways to win: 3 Qf5+, for instance, and Black can also defend, but it still hopelessly lost, by 2…Kf8.

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric’s 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

Black to play and mate White

Bernstein v Capablanca. Moscow 1914

Solution

Part of my chess education: so solved immediately.  1…Qb2 0-1

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric’s 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

White to play and mate Black

Munch v unknown, Kassel 1914

Solution

Quite picturesque: 1 Nc7+ Ka7 2 Qa6+!

ba[] 3 Nb5++ Ka8[] 4 Ra7 mate.

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric’s 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

White to play and mate Black

Tarrasch v consulting partners, Naples 1914

Solution

1 Bc7!! is a nice deflection, causing disconnection between Black’s pieces. 1…Qc7 2 Rc5+! or 1…Rb7 2 Qb7+!! and mates.

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric’s 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

White to play and mate Black

Hartlaub v Testa

Solution

Quite a standard motif: sacing on g7 a couple of times, then on e5, and capped by a nice mate once Black opens the a2-g8 diagonal by playing f7-f6.

1 Rg7+ Kg7 2 Rg1+ Kh8 3 Qe5+! de 4 Be5+ f6 5 Bf6+! Rf6[] 6 Rg8 mate.

Another puzzle from Dragoslav Andric’s 1981 book “Matni Udar”.

White to play and mate Black

Schories v unknown, England 1913  {presuming Engleska is England}

Solution

Quite nice: a variant of similar motifs. 1 Qe8+ Bd8[]  2 Qd7+! , 3 Bg4+ etc.