Kutznetsov 1964
White to move and win! Enjoy 🙂 Can you solve this without computer assistance?
k7/7b/2N3p1/7p/2B5/8/8/6K1 w – – 0 0
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A try (from the screen, so i’m sorry for any obvious mistakes):
1.Bd3 Kb7 (1..Bg8? 2.Be4 and black looses the bishop if it stayes on the a2-g8 diagonal) 2.Ne7 and now the black king cannot go to c7 (or b6) because of 3.Nd5+ and 4.Nf6.
Jørgen,
You’re off to a flying start, but there’s a lot more to this study.
1.Bd3 Bg8
2.Be4
… does force 2…Bh7. White’s still got a long way to go, though.
You have indeed spotted the theme, which is that once White gets his knight to e7, the Black king is trapped in the corner, for exactly the reason you cite.
1.Bd3 Bb7 2.Ne7
Black’s king is boxed in the corner. White just improves the king to eventually take of the Black’s bishop.
It’s not quite that simple, guys. For example,
1.Bd3 Bg8
2.Be4 Bh7
3.Ne7+ Ka7
4.Kf2? Ka6!
5.Ke3 Kb5
6.Kd4 h4
7.Ke5 Kc5
8.Kf6 Kd4
… is only good for a draw.
but for the above line,
4. Bd3 saves the day, right?
Jörgen is right.
My version:
1. Bd3 Kb7 2. Ne7. This is the key position.
After this I will go for the black bisoph with the king. There is just one more thing with that white has to be cautious. If the white king is on g3 and black plays h4+ I mustn’t take that pawn because of g5+.
Instead of this first white have to fix tehe G pawn with Kg5.
1.Bd3 Bg8
(1…Kb7 2.Ne7 transposes)
2.Be4! Bh7
3.Ne7+ Ka7
4.Bd3!
(4.Kf2? Ka6! 5.Ke3 Kb5 6.Kd4 h4 7.Ke5 Kc5 8.Kf6 Kd4 =)
4…Kb7
5.Kf2 Kb8
6.Ke3 Kb7
7.Kd4 h4
8.Ke3! Kb8
9.Kf3
(9.Kf4? g5+ =)
9…Kb7
10.Kg4 Kb8
11.Kg5!
(11.Kxh4? g5+ =)
11…h3
12.Kh6 h2
13.Be4
Here is what I think it will go:
1. Bd3 Kb7
2. Ne7
Boxing the king in the corner
2 .. Kb8
3. Kg2 Kb7
4. Kf3
White approaching from f3-e3-d4-e5
4 .. Ka7
All black can do is moving the king in that little box
Other moves will lose anyway
5. Ke3 Kb7
6. Kd4 Kb8
7. Ke5 h4
8. Kf6 Kc7
9. Ke6!
9. Kg7 Kd6 put a little headache for white
9 .. Kd8
10. Kf7 h3
11. Be4 Kc7
12. Nd5+ Kd6
13. Nf6 Ke5
14. Bb7 g5
15. Nxh7
The rest is a matter of technique
15 .. g4
16. Kg6 Kf4
17. Ng5 h2
18. Kh5 Kf5
19. Be4+ Kf4
20. Kh4 g3
21. Bb7 Kf5
22. Nh3 g2
23. Bxg2 Ke5
24. Kg3 Ke6
25. Kxh2
I think I have an improvement:
8. Kd6 My computer found it;
this is one of the best puzzles I have ever seen.