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17 minutes
1. Ba4 d2+ 2. Kxc2 d1=Q+ 3. Nxd1 and wins
In the original position Black has a draw after 1. c8=Q d2+ 2. Kxc2 d1=Q+ 3. NxQ Rc6+ and 4. Qxc6 is stalemate
1. Bd5 doesn’t work because d2+ 2. Kxc2 d1=Q+ 3. Nxd1 Rd7 4. c8=Q Rc7+ and 5. Qxc7 is stalemate
I suppose I made the problem look a bit more clever by showing that with superficial thinking it’s easy to get things the wrong way round.
I disagree with James Attewell and see below:
1. Bd5!! d2+, 2. Kxc2 d1=Q+, 3. Kxd1!! Rxd5+, 4. Nd3!!! (preventing Rb5) Rxd3+, 5. Kc2! (still preventing Rb3) and White c-pawn goes queening and White wins!!
1. Bd5!! d2+, 2. Kxc2 d1=Q+, 3. Kxd1!! Rxd5+, 4. Nd3!!! (preventing Rb5) Rxd3+, 5. Kc2! (still preventing Rc3) Rd4! (worth a try!), 6. c8=R!! (not 6. c8=Q?? Rc4+, 7. Qxc4 Stalemate!!!) Ra4, 8. Kb3! and Black has to avoid getting mated by giving up his rook. White wins.
James,
After 1.Ba4, can’t black still draw with Rd4? If 1.Bd5 was your first thought, I would give it a second look- you are overlooking a truly beautiful maneuver that on its face just looks losing at the start, but has a very nasty little thorn for black’s rook. I have to admit, that I picked up 1.Bd5 from your comment- my first thought was also 1.Ba4, but I can see why it fails pretty quickly.
This is a beautiful tactic! The first move is 1.Bd5, but you have to think a bit outside the standard chess box after that point.
I don’t know how long it would have taken me to find 1.Bd5, but longer than 15 minutes I am guessing.
Here are the full details on 1.Ba4 as I see them:
1. Ba4? Rd4!
The idea behind 1.Ba4 is to take away the c6 square from the rook while, at the same time, relinquishing the a2 square to the black king to avoid stalemate- it is what drew me to the move and why I was blind to 1.Bd5 until I read James’ comment. However, black simply relocates the rook to d4 to keep the same stalemate threat, while also having a free square on c4 for the rook if white tries either 2.Nxd3 or 2.Kd2. So, let’s finish off with queening the pawn, but James has already shown this in a fashion in his 1.c8Ql line above:
2. c8(Q) d2
3. Kc2 d1(Q)
4. Nd1 Rc4
5. Qc4
Or 5.Nc3 Rxc8 also should be drawn. The only hole in this analysis is what happens if white underpromotes to a rook at move 2 in order to be able to capture at c4 without stalemating black? This won’t help, though, because black can now get a technical draw via another route……
1. Ba4 Rd4
2. c8(R) d2
3. Kc2 Ra4!
And I stuck this position into a Nalimov tablebase just to make sure I wasn’t overlooking some miracle mating net with the R+N vs R since the black king was cornered- it is a draw according to the tablebase.
1. Bd5 Rb6
2. c8=Q Rb1+
3. Kd2 c1=Q+
4. Qxc1 Rxc1
5. Kxc1 d2+
6. Kxd2 Kb2
James,
1. Ba4? Rd4!!, 2. c8=R! d2+, 3. Kxc2 Rxa4!!, 4. Kb3 Rf4! and White cannot mate Black with Rc1+ because the Black d-pawn is on d2 defending against Rc1#. Actually, it’s a draw. 1. Bd5!!! is the only move for a win.
I liked everybody’s lines I was just too disappointed to respond sorry.
James,
Don’t be sorry. You’re not alone. Nobody’s perfect!! It’s a lot of fun analyzing this tricky and interesting endgame.
Hello Luis David, hello Yancey, hello all!
Sorry! I was out of business for a moment. Luis David’s analysis were absolutely correct.
As a sidenote, the knight sacrifice Nd3 to attract the rook on d3 and then Kc2 is an idea borrowed from a study by Liburkin, but the most important thing to know is that THIS position (i.e. after Kc2) is the critical moment of a venerable and praised study from Saavedra, the story of it you can find here :
https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/saavedra.htm
and
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter51.html#CN_5796
The game from which this fantastic idea came is the game Fenton-Potter which you can find here:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1607862
Yancey’s line about Ba4 is correct (and better than the study database I have which propose the losing 2…Rxa4??
The uncovered lines are easy to refute : 1.Bb3, 1.Bb5 and 1.Bc6 are all zeroed by 1…d2+!