THE HASTINGS CHALLENGER No. 6

SOLUTION

White to play and mate in 2

B P Barnes

Skakbladet 1961

This problem is all about White moves which seem to work, but fail against just one black defence – such moves are known as tries. Thus, a random move of the rook from b4 (say 1.Rb1) threatens mate by moving the other rook. Then 1…Be7 2.Rc5 mate, 1…Bg5 2.Re3 mate and 1…Be1 2.Qd8 mate all work, but Black defends with 1…Bf6! when there is no mate. 1.Rd4 sets up similar ideas, and defeats the 1…Bf6 defence, but fails to 1…Be1! (since now White does not have 2.Qd8 mate). A random move of the c3 rook (say 1.Rc1) is defeated by 1…Be7!

The only successful move is the key 1.Rc5, threatening to mate by moving the b4 rook anywhere. Then all defences fail, eg: 1…Bf6 2.Rd4 mate, 1…Bg5 2.Rf4 mate, and 1…Be1 2.Qd8 mate. Note that in the initial position, the obvious 1.Rxh4 is stalemate.

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