White to Play and Win
Published in Chess Puzzles
This interesting position is a win for White despite the Black pawn on f4 be able to get to f1 pretty quickly. The key is obviously how you use those knights at first and later you'll find the White pawns are there for a reason as well! This is from a study by J. Hasek, published in La Strategie in 1929.
Solution:
The main line runs this way-- 1.Nc6 dxc6 2.Ng6 f3 3.Ne5 f2 4.Nd3 f1=Q 5.Nb2 and mate with 6.a4 or 6.c4 can't be prevented! That's why it was important to play 1.Nc6 first. Watch what happens if you left that out: 1.Ng6 f3 2.Ne5 f2 3.Nd3 f1=Q 4.Nb2 Qg2+ and Black is the one who wins. And, if the Black king ignores the knight and tries to help the f-pawn, the knight act like those raptors from the dinosaur movies:
1.Nc6 Kc4 2.Ne5+ Kd5 3.Nhg6 Ke4 4.Kxc7 f3 5.Nxf3 and after the recapture the a-pawn runs down to become a queen.
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