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Black to Play

Pete Tamburro on

Published in Chess Puzzles

As you can tell from the diagram, this was one heck of a game between Mueller as White and Stahlberg as Black in 1934. Stahlberg played 1…Rde8 here and the game was eventually drawn. However, he missed a winning combination! What was it the grandmaster missed?


Solution:

Fred Reinfeld, the prolific chess author of yesteryear, gave this as a Stahlberg win with 1…Rd4+, but Stahlberg didn’t play it and it doesn’t work, either! 1...Rd4+ 2.Qxd4 Qh2 3.Bxe6+ Ke7 4.Qc5+ Ke8 5.Bf7+ Kd7 6.Be6+ Kc7 7.Qa5+ b6 8.Qe1 and White just saves himself. However, there is a win with the very subtle move 1…Bd7: 1...Bd7 2.Kh3 Qh1+ 3.Kg4 b5 4.Bb3 Ke7 5.Nxe3 Qg1+ 6.Kh3 Rf8 7.Nd5+ Ke8 8.Nf6+ Rxf6 9.gxf6 Nf4+ 10.Qxf4 e5+ and wins.

 


Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.

 

 

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