Pervakov Puzzle
There's a new book featuring some of the great chess composer Oleg Pervakov's finest studies, which I will be reviewing for this blog very soon. For now, a little taster that I came across on Emil Sutovsky's Facebook page. It's White to move and win:
This starts a few moves into the study, but you'll probably find it challenging enough even from here.
Here are a few general tips for those of you who are relatively new to solving studies. First, if you don't find anything clever or beautiful in your proposed solution, you haven't found the solution. (At least this is the case for good studies, which you will find in abundance in Pervakov's work.) Second, sacrifices are common, though not a necessity. But there will almost always be some paradoxical element, and sacrifices fit into that category. Third, look for unusual geometrical motifs. Sometimes that too will fall under the heading of paradox, though it need not.
Do your best and enjoy the study. You will certainly get a kick out of it once you've solved it, and even if you don't I'm sure you'll find it beautiful all the same. I'll post the solution later today.
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