Aix-les-Bains chess tactic

6 comments

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  Anonymous says:

  April 1, 2011 at 4:56 pm

  Rb2 would be played by cute and sexy players

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  knockout2010 says:

  April 1, 2011 at 5:06 pm

  1.Rxb2 Rxb2
  2.c7 Rb3
  3.Kc2 Rb4
  4.c8=Q Rxe4

  ***Black resign

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  Jorge says:

  April 1, 2011 at 5:22 pm

  1.Rb2 Rb2
  2.c7 Rb3
  3.Kc2
  OR
  2….Rh8
  3.c7 Rc8
  4.Rc2

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  Lucymarie says:

  April 1, 2011 at 6:43 pm

  At first I thought:

  1. c7 Rh8
  2. Rb8 but Black can play Rc8, so…..

  1. Rxb2 Rxb2
  2. c7 Rb3
  3. Kc2 Re3
  4. c8=Q Rxe4 and it is one of these dreadful Q vs. R endings.

  or

  1. Rxb2 Rh3
  2. Kc4 Ke7
  3. Kb5 Kd8
  4. Kb6 Kc8
  5. Rb5 should win.

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  Anonymous says:

  April 1, 2011 at 6:53 pm

  Rxb2

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  Yancey Ward says:

  April 1, 2011 at 7:28 pm

  White can get a queen vs rook by sacrificing at b2. Now, black doesn’t have to accept the offer, but it won’t help:

  1. Rb2 Rb2?
  2. c7

  And the pawn is unstoppable. This is, in fact, what Hammer played. After Hammer checked from b3 and played Rb4, the game reduced to a Q vs R+P endgame:

  2. …..Rb3
  3. Kc2

  Here, Kc4 is met by Rb1 threatening a skewer if white queens the pawn, and black will likely win since he can sacrifice for the pawn, pick up e4 and win with the e-pawn. Continuing:

  3. …..Rb4
  4. c8(Q)Re4

  And Inarkiev went on to win 28 moves later.

  I checked the Nalimov tablebase to be certain, and the position after Re4 is a win in 38 moves.

  Now, as I wrote, black isn’t forced to take at b2 on move 1:

  1. Rb2 Rh8
  2. Kc4 Ke7
  3. Kc5 Rh1 (Rh4 4.Rb8 Re4 5.c7+-)
  4. Kb6 and we have seen enough of these R+P vs R endgames to know this is clearly won for white, even with the two extra pawns on the board.