Mattison 1914, presented by Andreas
White to move. Is this a draw? How should White proceed?
8/1k2P3/8/4K3/8/r3B3/8/8 w – – 0 3
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1. Bd4
1.Ba7 Ka7: 2. Kd4
Ba7 followed by Kd4.
1.Ba7 KxB
(1…Ra1 2.Kf4 Rf1+ 3.Bf2! should wins)
2.Kf4! wins
–Henryk
1. Bd4
1…Ra8 draws.
1.Ba7 Ka7: 2. Kd4
Black needn’t be quite so obliging. See next note.
Ba7 followed by Kd4.
You didn’t explicitly give this line, but:
1.Ba7 Ra1
2.Kd4 Re1
… draws.
1.Ba7 KxB
(1…Ra1 2.Kf4 Rf1+ 3.Bf2! should wins)
2.Kf4! wins
Tiny nitpick: after 1.Ba7 Kxa7 White also wins with 2.Kd4.
The correct line is the one presented by Henryk (1…Ra1 2.Kf4 Rf1+ 3.Bf2! should wins).
With the line 1.Ba7 Kb7xa7 2. kd4 white wins faster than kf4
1.Ba7 Ra1 or Ra2 2.Ke4
If black plays 2….Re1+(or Re2+), 3.Be3 and win.
If 2….Ra5+ 3.Kf6 and wins.
Sayan
I’m sometimes frustrated by the “and wins” comments, especially with the trickier endings, as in “with king, knight, and bishop vs. king, White wins.” Sure enough, but it’s worth it to play it out to see how it works, so I played out a couple of the K&Q vs. K&R endings from this position to see how it works.
1. Ba7 blocks the rook’s access to a8 and guards e3. On 1. … Rxa7, the pawn promotes to queen and White wins. (Example: 2. e8(Q) Ra1 3. Kd5 Ra5+ 4. Kc4 Ra2; 5. Qe5+ Kc6 6. Kb4 Ra7 7. Qc5+ Kb7 8. Kb5 Kb8 9. Qd4 Rc7 10. Kb6 Rb7+ 11. Ka6 Kc8 12. Qh8+ Kc7 13. Qg7+ Kd6 14. Qb7 etc.
On 1. … Kxa7, White prevents the skewer with 2. Kf4 or Kd4. (Example: 2. Kd4 Ra4+ 3. Kd5 Ra5+ 4. Kd6 Ra6+ 5. Kd7 Ra1 6. e8(Q) Rd1+ 7. Kc6 Rc1+ 8. Kd5 Rd1+ 9. Kc4 Rc1+ 10. Kb3 Kb7 11. Qe4+ Rc6 12. Kb4 Kb6 13. Qe7 Rc7 14. Qe5 Kc6 15. Qe6+ Kb7 16. Kb5 Kb8 17. Qe5 Kb7 18. Qe8 Rc1 19. Qe4+ Kc8 20. Kb6 Kd8 21. Qd4+ Kc8 22. Qg4+ and now the Black king must allow a queen fork on the next move.
sayan:
1.Ba7 Ra1 2.Ke4?? looses to 2…Ka7: 3. e8Q Re1
Anonymous from 11:19:00
Bb6!
Ba7 is obvious
Ba7, followed by Kf4.
1.Ba7 is the only move that wins. The most interesting part is to figure out why all the other bishop moves don’t work.