White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
A classic endgame
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White to move. How should White proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
A VERY classic endgame indeed!
As often, Pogosjants worked with little material, but as often with him, this study is as beautiful as it is an IMPOSTURE! Pogosjants simply made an introduction, put the rook pawn a step closer and operated a symmetry of a well-known study.
Technical details :
Full study reference : Pogosjants, Shakhmaty v SSSR, 1976, correction.
Correctness : confirmed correct afer the 2nd white move by Nalimov 6-men EGTB.
Anticipation : Rinck, Els Escacs a Catalunya et Jaque, 1935
ASCII : wKc2,Ng5,Pa3,c7/bKc8,Bh8
FEN : 2k4b/2P5/8/6N1/8/P7/2K5/8 w – – 0 1
(just copy/paste it in your favorite chess engine/database)
Please webmasters, do a thorough selection of studies and show us original ones, neither cooked, nor busted studies, nor outright plagiarisms…
Thanks a lot.
Sincerely yours
Cortex
A very clever puzzle:
1. Nb5 and black has only bad choices
1. …..Ke6
2. Nc7 Kd6 (what else?)
3. Na8 Kc6
4. Kf4 and black cannot win the knight and get back to h8 in time.
1. …..Kc6
2. ef7 Kd7
And, here, this took some trial and error to find the winning move, but I forunately had an idea of what I was looking for since we had a puzzle recently that had a similar motif of knight forks everywhere:
3. Kf2! Ke7 (pawn queens if else)
4. Nc7
And, now where to put the bishop- at f3 and g2, the white king takes, at d5 the knight takes, so this leaves b7, c6, e4, and h1- examining them in order:
4. …..Bb7
5. Ne6! Kf7 (Ke6 6.f8(Q) wins)
6. Nd8 forks and wins the bishop and the game. Or
4. …..Bc6
5. Ne6 Kf7
6. Nd8 forks and wins the bishop again. Or
4. Be4
5. Ne6 Kf7
6. Ng5 forking and winning the bishop. Or
4. …..Bh1
5. Kg1 Bf3 (only move left)
6. Ne6 Kf7
7. Ng5 forks and wins the bishop, too. The key of white’s 3rd move is that it is the only way to address the possibility of black’s 4. ….Bh1.
Back to black’s first move options:
1. …..Ke7
2. Na7! and the c-pawn can only be stopped by giving up the bishop, by allowing ef7 and queening of the white pawn at f8, or an exchange at c6 that allows white to win the remaining black pawn and queening the h-pawn. The last of these scenarios is:
3. …..fe6
4. Ke4 Kd6
5. h4! e5 (the last trick here)
6. Kf5! Kd5 (nothing holds)
7. c7 Bb7
8. c8(Q)Bc8
9. Nc8 e4
10.Nb6 Kd4
11.Nc4 and black can do nothing now other than watch the h-pawn march forward- take the knight, lose the e-pawn, push the e-pawn and watch the knight sacrifice to stop it.
First moves for black like Ke5 and Kc5 lose simply to 2.ef7, while Kd5 loses to 2.Nc7+.
Nb5+ and white wins in every variations!
Best from Hungary
Nb5+ Ke7
c7 Bb7
exf any
Nd6 and wins
This is one of those artificial studies where one can actually see the artifice writ large on the board. Very unsatisfying. The bishop on a8 is the largest tip-off it is obviously artificially constrained. So we’ll give it a whirl. Nb5+ to keep the bishop in. Kxc6 to try to get it out. exf7 to force the position of the king. Kd7+ to stop the pawn. Kf2 to reach the only “safe” square for the bishop to hide. Ke7 … Nc7 to light the fire under the bishop. Bh1 or the knight scores the bishop in three hops. Kg1 and the bishop is caught either by the king or knight to Ne6.
Not a full analysis but the stem is found by more or less direct threats.
Since White can obviously get at least a draw, this must be
a “White to Play and Win” problem, but it is hard to believe from the initial position that White can win, especially since the c-pawn is pinned. White has to win either by coming down to knight and pawn versus lone king, or else if black has the bishop left, be able to march the h-pawn to promotion without the bishop being able to
capture the pawn. The only hope for White seems to lie with:
1. Nb5+
There are 3 roads to go down now: 1…. Kxc6, Kxe6, and
Ke7. 1…. Kxe6 is probably the weakest continuation for Black, so let’s take that first:
1…. Kxe6
2. Nc7+ Kd6
3. Nxa8 Kxc6
4. Kf4 and the Black king does not have the time to go after the White knight.
Now let’s look at 1…. Kxc6
1…. Kxc6
2. exf7 Kd7+
Now, it looks like 3. Kf4 Ke7 4. Nd6 will be good for White, since Black can’t take the knight without
the White f-pawn promoting, but Black draws with 4…. Bd5 5. h4 Bxf7 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 draw.
White has to try instead:
3. Kf2! Ke7
4. Nc7
and now all of these Black bishop moves, Bb7, Bc6, Be4 are
met by 5. Nd6! Kxf7 6. N forks bishop and king. So Black
must try:
4…. Bh1
5. Kg1 and now Bf3 is also met by 6. Nd6!
The Black bishop is going to be lost for the f-pawn, and
White will retain the knight and the h-pawn, good enough to win. A remarkable demonstration of the
White knight and king dominating the Black bishop down the entire length of the long diagonal.
Lastly, Black can try:
1…. Ke7
Then 2. Nd4 doesn’t look like it leads anywhere good for White.
So:
2. Na7
The idea here is that the c-pawn is a continual threat until Black takes the time to bring her king over to attack the knight and/or the c-pawn, and free the bishop.
In the meantime, White will try to promote the h-pawn.
2…. Kxe6
3. Kf4 Kd6
4. h4 and Black cannot continue going after the c-pawn
and the knight wihout letting the h-pawn promote. And if the
Black king does not go after the White knight and c-pawn, then White can always win the bishop for the c-pawn by playing c7 Bb7 c8=Q Bxc8 Nxc8, remaining with enough
material to win.
The same considerations apply when Black plays 2… fxe6 rather than 2…. Kxe6.
Lucymarie
White wins.
1)Bk5+,Kc6
2)exf7,Kd7+
3)Kf2,Ke7
4)Nc7,Bh1
5)Kg1,Bb7
6)Ne6,Kf7
7)Nd8+,Kg6
8)Nxb7
If Black moves…Kxe6 then
2)Nc7+,Kd6
3)Nxa8,Kxc6
4)h4,Kd6
5)Kh4,Ke7
6)Nc7,Kf6
7)h5,Kg7
8)Ne8,Kh6
9)Kg4,f5+
10)Kh4,f4
11)Nd6,f3
12)Nf5+,Kh4.
Now it is easy for the White pawn to become Queen