White to move. Is this a win or draw? How should white proceed?
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Sharp eyes tactic review
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White to move. Is this a win or draw? How should white proceed?
A first try: Black wants to get perpetual check or if he can get the White king up the h file, maybe mate is in there somewhere. But White can take both of those away, I think, by taking away f4 and g5 as vantage points for check by the Black Q; covering g5 with the White Q and f4 with the white K:
1. Qd8 Qf4+
2. Kg1 Qe3+
3. Kf1 Qc8+
4. Kf2 Qd2+
5. Kg3
Now I think Black’s in a jam. Can’t give check with the Q at f4 or g5. Using the forward f-pawn to check at f4 allows the white K to go to h4 and out of range of any checks on the next move. If Black plays Qg2, threatening a series of perpetual checks at g3 and g6, white interposes Qg5+ forcing an exchange of Queens. I.e.,
5…f5f4+
6. Kh4 Qg2
7. Qg5+ g2g5
8. h4g5 and the c-pawn promotes.
I could easily be missing something, but that’s what I am seeing right now just staring at the screen.
1.h4 +-
1.h4 +-
h4, to avoid a perpetual
it must win for white, In my opinion first move for white is h4 making space for white king from queen check
White needs a refuge square, such as h3, to escape perpetual check by the black queen. 1. h4 makes that square available and maybe helps white gain some tempo to permit queening of the pawn on c8. Black must sacrifice his queen to prevent white having two queens.
[FEN “2Q5/p1P2pkp/1p2p3/5p2/3P4/5P1P/P2q2PK/8 w – – 0 0”]
1. h4
{Black’s alternatives all have the same outcome: white gains a queen; black loses his.}
(1… Qxa2
2. Qd8 Qc2
3. c8=Q Qxc8
4. Qxc8)
(1… Qxd4
2. Qd8 Qc5
3. c8=Q Qxc8
4. Qxc8)
1… Qf4+
2. Kh3 Qxd4
3. Qd8 Qc5
4. c8=Q Qxc8
5. Qxc8 1-0
{With white having a queen advantage, black has no hope of promoting any of his queenside pawns and is thoroughly doomed.}
A full analysis of the above main line by Fritz 13 (200 sec per move) found no better alternatives.
h4
All I saw here at first is that W needs tempi like WQ checking followed by promoting but didn’t work. So tried escaping with K with
1.h4 first (not Kg3 first because of Qg5+ etc) and it looks as if WK can escape up h2-b8 diagonal.
if 1….Qf4+
2. Kh3 Qc1
3. Qd8 (protects g5 and h4)Qh1+
4. Kg3 Qe1+
5. Kf4 Qd2+
6. Ke5 Qe3+
7. Kd6 Qxd4+ (or Qf4+ or Qa3+)
8. Kc6 and safety at b7/b8
Seems a bit long winded for a ‘sharp eyes’ so look forward to seeing correct solution if diff!
0-0-0
-0-0-
h4!
1. Qd8 Qf4+
2. Kg1 Qe3+
3. Kf1 Qc1+
4. Kf2 Qd2+
5. f4+ Kg4 (else Kh4 6. Qe1+ Kh5 then mating threat of Qg5+ then C8=Q+
6. F5+ Kh5
After this black has no way of giving perpetual checks and c8=Q wins
Sorry wrong sequence of moves earlier..
1. Qd8 Qf4+
2. Kg1 Qe3+
3. Kf1 Qc1+
4. Kf2 Qd2+
5. Kg3 f4+
6. Kg4 (if 6. Kh4 Qe1+ 7. Kh5 then mating threat of Qg5+ then C8=Q+
..F5+
7. Kh5
After this black has no way of giving perpetual checks and c8=Q wins
When I was learning chess there is one teaching that stuck to me. “if you can find the best move in each position, you don’t need a plan”. This puzzle reminded me of that. White’s only chance to win is to avoid a perpetual check. It is pretty obvious that move is h4. You find this move and the rest of the moves come naturally.
Obviously, white’s problem is preventing the perpetual checks black is going to deliver starting with Qf4. There is no square she can move the queen to on move 1 that can interfere with these checks in any way other than 1.Qa6, but 1.Qa6 just loses the c7 pawn, and maybe the game, too. Let’s just look at how black will draw if white tries to move his queen out of the way of the c-pawn:
1. Qd7 Qf4
2. Kg1
Or [2.g3 Qd2 3.Kg1 Qe1=]. Continuing:
2. …..Qc1 (Qe3 trickier, but =)
3. Kf2 Qd2
4. Kg3 Qg5
5. Kf2 Qd2=
So, we must either move the king on move 1, or move a pawn. We know white cannot play Kg3 since black just plays Qg5+ forcing the king back to h2 or f2 which we know is drawn from the lines above, and we know Kh1 or Kg1 is must met by Qc1+ as above. Of the pawn moves, we can eliminate all the moves like a3 and a4 as they don’t affect anything discussed above. This leaves f4 and h4. Let’s dispense with f4 first:
1. f4 Qf4 (Qd4 should draw too)
2. Kg1 Qc1 (Qd4 ok too, and Qe3)
3. Kf2 Qd2
4. Kf3 Qd3
5. Kf4 Qe4
6. Kg3! Qe3
7. Kh2=
By process of elimination, this leaves h4:
1. h4! Qf4 (alternatives below)
2. Kh3!
And now black has no check on the next move, and white has time to play the queen out of the way of the c-pawn. Black can get a check from h1 in two moves by playing to c1 first:
2. …..Qc1
3. Qd8!
I think this is the only winning move, but I am not 100% sure of this since I have not looked at every single variation. 3.Qd8 has three points in its favor- it protects h4 and d4 directly (important in some of the lines I looked at in variations like 3.Qb8/3.Qb7 etc.). It also threatens Qg5+ followed by c8Q# in some lines as we will see below:
3. …..Qh1 (alternative below)
4. Kg3 Qe1
5. Kh2! and now black is out of checks again- h4 is protected by the queen at d8! So, let’s back up to move 3 for black to look at the only real alternative:
3. …..f4
Threatens 4. …Qh1+ and 5. …Qxg2+. I think white can just queen the pawn anyway since the white king can capture at f4 and find safety somewhere on the queen side. However, it seems simpler to me to just move the king now:
4. Kh2! Qe1 (what else?)
5. Qg5! with mate on the next move- the additional point of 3.Qd8 above.
Beautiful puzzle Susan.
I would like to contact you privately Susan.
Just do not publish this comment and contact me via my Google account.
I can assure you, my motives are honorable.
Qd8 shuts off the perpetual checks.
Gm Polgar, you have been posting some challenging puzzles lately. Take it easy on us 🙂 .
I think 1. h4, to reserve a flight on h3 for the king, looks good. For example, 1… Qf4+ 2. Kh3 Qc1 3. Qd8 Qh1+ 4. Kg3 Qe1+ 5. Kh2, or 4… f4+ 5. Kf2, and white wins.
Looks like Qd8.
h4
Way too hard.