Monday’s puzzle was an endgame study composed by two of the greatest Soviet masters of this art, Leopold Mitrofanov and David Gurgenidze (Shakhmaty v SSSR 1987), which I discovered in the June 2026 issue of the British Chess Magazine.

The solution is 1. a6! Ra1 2. Bg1+! Rxg1 3. Kh8! Rd1 4. a7 Rh1+ 5. Kg8 Rg1+ 6. Kf8 Rf1+ 7. Ke8 and White will emerge with queen against rook: not so easy to win over the board, but sufficient for a win in a study.

Congratulations to David, the first to find the first two moves, and to Mike L, who found White’s third move. You might want to work out for yourself why the unlikely Kh8 is the only winning option here.

You can play through the solution here: click on any move for a pop-up window.