English Chess Forum

Hi guys,

Going through an old notebook of mine and I found this:



Setting it up I soon realised White has to stop Bxc7 mate by throwing things between the Black Bishop and c7.
This has to be done in the correct order to allow the b5 Rook to get to e5 stopping Bxc7 mate and freeing
the b5 square for the a3 Knight so it can hold c7 and White then wins...except White does not win.

White to play and draw! The first move is 1.Bh2.

BK1k4/PPNP4/2Pb4/1R1P1P2/8/N7/2Q2RP1/6B1 w - - 0 1

(does anyone know who composed this.)

[FEN "BK1k4/PPNP4/2Pb4/1R1P1P2/8/N7/2Q2RP1/6B1 w - - 0 1"] 1. Bh2 Bxh2 2. g3 Bxg3 3. Rf4 Bxf4 4. d6 Bxd6 5. Qh2 Bxh2 6. Re5 Bxe5 7. Nb5 Bf4 8. f6 Bxc7+ 9. Nxc7 *

Nice puzzle!

A Google search using the FEN suggests it’s by Boris Sidorov - see here (towards the bottom of the page)

Thanks Matt,

A google of the fen - good spot. yes Boris Sidorov 1981.

Whoever compared this deserved a prize, what a great position and a nice crisp solution to it too. It's a shame such gems as this are being buried under a mountain of computery garbage on tactics sites now.