This week’s puzzle was taken from Taimanov – Psakhis (Moscow 1981).

Black found the only winning move: 25… Re8!. The game continued 26. Ne5 Qf6! and Black soon won, but the critical variation would have happened after 26. Qxg4.

To gain full credit you had to find 26. Qxg4 Ng3+! 27. Kxf2 Nh1+! 28. Kg1 Qxe2 29. Qd4 Qe1+! 30. Nxe1 Rxe1# – a beautiful conclusion.

If you calculated all this, well done!

I took this position from The Hidden Laws of Chess Volume One: Mastering Pawn Structures by Nick Maatman (New in Chess 2022). My review of this book will be published shortly on British Chess News.

If you’d like to see the whole game you can play through it here. Click on any move for a pop-up window.