White to move. How should White proceed?
Hint: This is a long and complicated one. No computer lines please!
Source: ChessToday.net
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Complicated chess tactic
About Author
re7!!kxe7 h7 a2 c4 rg2 kh3
My very first thought was that Susan was tricking us. I thought I saw a quick win for white:
1. Re7 Ke7
2. h7 and how could the pawn be stopped? White’s king controls h2 which prevents black’s rook from getting behind the h-pawn, and black has the wrong bishop to cover h8, and the black king is too far away. Easy win for white- no further analysis required. However, just to be thorough, I decided to look carefully at black’s possible replies at move 2:
Option ONE with 2. …..Rg2:
2. …..Rg2
3. Kh3 a2
And it was here that I started to realize that things were not quite so simple, even though I am quite certain I have the beginning right.
4. c4? Rg1!!
And now white can’t play
5. Bg1? a1(Q) and black wins as the newborn queen covers h8. In fact, I don’t see much better for white here than
5. h8(Q) Rh1
6. Kg3 Rh8
7. Bh8 Kd6 (heading for c4 pawn)
8. Bd4 Be4
9. Kf4 Bd3 and white will be fighting hard to hold a draw the rest of the way since his bishop is forever tied down to the a1/h8 diagonal. In fact, I feel black has a forced win. At move 5 above, the only other alternative for white looks like
5. Bf6 Kd6 (Kf6?? 6.h8(Q)+)
6. Be5 Kc5
7. Bd4 Kc4 and black should win with the three connected passers in the bishop of opposite color endgame. However, black might win even more quickly by taking at move 6 above:
6. ……Ke5
7. h8(Q) Ke4
8. Qh7 Kd4
9. Qg7 Kd3 (Kc4 is less accurate)
10.Qg6 Be4 and white is out of checks and black will queen on the next move. I have not completed the analysis here, but I find it difficult to believe that there is any perpetual check themes in the continuation. I think it is a matter of personal preference which line black should follow at move 6. I know, over the board, I would rather not have to let white queen if I didn’t have to- for me, it is easier to deal with the bishop endgame when time is limited.
Now, back to the main line. At move 4, white erred above with c4. I don’t see much else other than to just queen, and working through it, it looks much, much better than my initial suspicion (I was worried that black could queen, find a hiding place for the king, and go on the attack). However, I think this is a forced mate for white, but it is complicated. I will continue on my next comment.
In my previous comment, I had establised the following line in what was called Option ONE in which I think white has a mating net (at least, I hope he does, or I have wasted the last hour for nothing but a busted idea) on the black king after moves 4:
1. Re7 Ke7
2. h7 Rg2
3. Kh3 a2
4. h8(Q) a1(Q)
5. Qf6 Kd7
6. Qf5 Ke8 (Kd6?? 7.Bc5#)
7. Qe6 Kf8 (Kd8?? 8.Bf6#)
8. Bc5 Kg7 (only move)
9. Qe5 Kg8 (alternatives below)
10.Qg5 Kf7 (alternatives below)
11.Qf5 Ke8 (alternatives below)
12.Qe6 Kd8 (only move now)
13.Be7 Ke8
14.Bg5 Kf8
15.Bh6#
Ok. Now to look at the alternatives working backwards from this forced mating line (hope is forced, still).
At move 11, black had two alternatives:
11. ….Kg7
12. Bd4 Kg8(Kh6 13.Qf8Kg5 14.Qf6#)
13. Qg6 Kf8
14. Bc5# Or
11. Kg8
12.Qg6 Kh8
13.Bd4#
At move 10, Black had two alternatives:
10. ….Kh7
11.Qf5 Kg7 (Kh8,Kg8,Kh6 mate, too)
12.Bd4 Kg8 (Kh6 13.Qh5#)
13.Qg6 Kf8
14.Bc5# Or
10. ….Kh8
11.Bd4 Kh7
12.Qg7#
At move 9, Black had three alternatives:
9. …..Kf7
10.Qf5 Kg7(Ke8/g8 covered above)
11.Bd4 Kg8(Kh6 12.Qh5#)
12.Qg6 Kf8
13.Bc5# Or
9. …..Kg6
10.Qf5 Kg7 (Kh6 11.Bf8#)
11.Bd4 and we have already covered this position as mate. Or
9. …..Kh7
10.Qf5 and we have already seen all the continuations from this point in the lines above, and they all lead to mate.
At move 6, Black had two other alternatives:
6. …..Ke7
7. Bc5 Kd8 (Ke8 see above)
8. Qf8 Kd7 (Be8 9.Qe7Kc8 10.Qe8#)
9. Qe7 Kc8
10.Qe6 Kd8 (Bd7 or Kb8 11.Qg8)
11.Be7 and we have already seen this position above as mate. Or
6. …..Kd8
7. Bf6 Ke8
8. Qe6 Kf8
9. Qe7 Kg8
10.Qg7#
At move 5 above, I see only one alternative for black:
5. …..Ke8
6. Qe6 Kf8 (Kd8 7.Bf6#)
7. Bc5 Kg7 and we have already covered this line above and it also leads to a forced mate.
Now, at move 4, did black have anything better than queening the a-pawn. As we have seen, the new queen at a1 offered no defense whatsoever since she was cut off from her endangered king. Of the possible rook moves, only Rd2, Re2, or Rf2 should change any of the analysis I have already done on a1(Q). I will continue this part of the analysis in my next comment.
I’ve calculated 1.Re7+ Kxe7 2.h7 a2 3.h8/Q a1/Q 4.Qf6+ Kd7 5.Qf5+ Ke8 6.Qe6+ and the two pieces against the lone king plus the g4/pawn and the king that fill the net succeed in getting rid of the black monarch.
One interesting try is 2…Rg2+ 3.Kh3 Rg1 4.Bxg1 a2 5.h8/Q a1/Q but still even if the bishop is deflected White wins after some manoeuvers but it’s just too long to explain.
In my previous comment, I had established the following line up to black’s fourth move:
1. Re7 Ke7
2. h7 Rg2
3. Kh3 a2
4. h8(Q) a1(Q)
I had shown, I hope, at least, that a1(Q) lost in all lines to a mating attack on black’s king. The question arises, can black find another move that defends the king from the mating net, while preserving the possibility of a1(Q) at a later point? Lets look at the only rook moves that can possibly change the preceding analyses:
4. …..Rd2 (threatens the bishop)
5. Qf6 Kd7 (Ke8 see below)
6. Qf5 Ke7 (Kd6 7.Bc5#; Kd8 7.Bf6)
7. Bc5 Kd8 (Ke8 8.Qe6 Kd8 9.Be7)
8. Qe6! with the threat of Be7 and a mating net we have already covered. Black has delaying checks that do nothing to prevent this, so the best defense seems to be
8. …..Bd7
9. Qe7 Kc8
10.Qf8 Be8
11.Qe8 Rd8
12.Qe6 winning the a-pawn and the game. No better (worse, actually) is
8. …..Rd6 (Rd7 9.Qg8#)
9. Bd6 cd6 (threat was Qe7, Qc8#)
10.Qd6 with Qe6+ and Qa2 to follow.
At move 5 in this line, black had
5. …..Ke8
6. Qe6 Kf8 (Kd8 7.Bf6#)
7. Bc5 Rd6 (see Kg7 below)
8. Bd6 cd6
9. Qa2 should win. At move seven, here,
7. …..Kg7
8. Qe5 should lead in all lines to either the mating nets I discussed earlier, or to white double attacking the king and the rook, winning the rook, allowing black to queen, and then catching the black king in the same mating nets as before. I will only analyze this last possibility due to time constraints:
8. …..Kg8
9. Qg5 Kh7 (no place to hide)
10.Qd2 a1(Q) (forced, obviously)
11.Qd3 Kg7 (nothing better)
12.Bd4 Kf8 (nothing better)
13.Qf5 and we have seen this position earlier, but with the rook still on the board at g2, which was still mate. So, 4. ….Rd2 was no defense. Lets look at Re2 which takes e6 and e5 away from white’s mating attacks, but white has a simple, simple reply that also works with Rd2, but I didn’t even see it until now (LMAO!)
4. …..Re2
5. c4 and what is black going to do? At best he can force white to exchange the bishop for the a-pawn, but still be in a lost position since white still has g and c-pawns.
4. …..Rf2
5. c4 should be no better than the above, but I think white could probably just take the rook at f2 since the same mating net arises when white plays Bc5+ after black queens.
Now, are there other 4th moves that save black. Any king moves like Kd7, Kf7, Kd6, Ke6 should eventually give the same mating net after the appropriate check/s with the queen. As for bishop moves
4. …..Bd5
5. Qe5 Be6
6. Qc7 Bd7
7. Kg2 a1(Q)
8. Bc5 Kf6
9. Qf4 and it is mate, I think, in all lines since the king is now separated from the bishop since
9. …..Ke6
10.Qf5#
Other bishop moves like Be4, or off the a8/h1 diagonal lose the bishop or the rook, and the pawn still queens without check or a path back to black’s side of the board leaving the black king defenseless against the queen and bishop.
Continued in my next comment.
Sorry about the multiple, identical posts, something weird is going on with blogger. If you want to delete the duplicates, feel free to do so, especially since I have a multi comment post anyway. From now on, I will write up my long comments outside the comment’s box and copy and paste them in. I think the amount of time I have the window open while I type and analyze is causing the problem.
Well, after the comments appeared so quickly, I just assumed I was wrong and broke down and went to the Chessbomb analysis of this game (Round 1 of the Greek Chess League tourney in the previous post). What I found was bit weird. From the position diagrammed, the proposed correct line was Rc7 and it gives the evaluation of +1.37, but after Re7 (what Kryvoruchko played), the evaluation is +2.46. So I don’t know what to make of this. I simply don’t see how Re7 isn’t the proper beginning. I will only add that the engine at Chessbomb suggested that black’s best 2nd move from the diagrammed position is
2. …..a2
but, after that, the position interpolates into the first line I analyzed.
Could someone put this into a high level engine and let us know what it says after, lets say, 20 minutes. The only engine I have access to is an old Chessmaster 3000 on my ancient desktop from the era of the pharoahs, and I would not trust it to find a mate in one (only kidding- well, only a little bit)
I’m convinced I’m on the right track, but how many different squares can the Black king go to??
This is tedious. Reminds me of some of the 3rd grade
math homework assignments I used to get a very long time ago. I’ve worked out about probably half of the mates after
after:
1. Re7+ Kxe7
2. h7 a2
3. h8=Q a1=Q
4. Bc5+
but there is just no way that I’m going to write them all down, or even if I do, anyone is going
to read them. Aargh!!
If anyone really wants to see all of the variations, I’d be happy to
supply them for a dime a move. That
way I’d be rich!!
Susan, please don’t do this to us again very soon. Thanks.