Chess Problem # 8

The 57th World Congress of Chess Composition took place in Berne, Switzerland from 23^rd August to 30^th August 2014. There were both composing and solving contests in problems and endgame studies. There were as many as 104 players in the Solving Competition. It was a star-studded field with some of the greatest names in chess participating, Marjan Kovasevic, David Gurgenidze, Kenan Valikhanov, Yochanan Afek, John Roycroft, John Nunn and Harold van der Heijden, to mention a few.

The 1^st Place was taken by Anatoly Mukoseev (Russia) followed by Bojan Vuckovic (Serbia) who came 2^nd and Kacper Piorun (Poland) who came 3^rd.

The following is a beautiful two-mover from the solving contest. Give it a try.

White to play and mate in two moves

Zinovy Birnov, 4^th prize, All-Unions Championship, USSR 1952