Eagle eyes required

6 comments

• Reply

  

  Bill Brock says:

  February 4, 2008 at 7:52 am

  (having cheated)

  Beautiful!

• Reply

  

  Mauro says:

  February 4, 2008 at 9:31 am

  (also having cheated)
  Nice rook mate in d2!;-)

• Reply

  

  Anonymous says:

  February 4, 2008 at 10:46 am

  If White can exchange the N for the f-pawn, then white has an easy R+K v K end game.

  For starters:
  1. Nc6 f2
  2. Nd4+ [Kd1, Kd2, Kd3]
  3. Nf3+ [Ke1, Ke2, Ke3]
  exposed check from the d8 rook
  4. Nh2 [Ke1, Ke2, Ke3]
  if e8 and promotes, Nxe8 followed by Kxe8 and white has obtained the desired K+R v K end game. also, the h2 N, f5 K, and the f2 pawn form a wall against the black king
  5. Re8+ [Kd1, Kd2, Kd3]
  because of the wall, the black king is forced to move away from the pawn and can not cross the e-file so the white king can gather the pawn and we have a K+R+N v K end game.

  So, black can not push the f-pawn because he must not let the white N check on move 2.

• Reply

  

  Mauro says:

  February 4, 2008 at 11:11 am

  anonymous, it is not so easy. Black may oppose a stubborn resistance with:
  1. Nc6 f2 2. Nd4+ Ke3 (which makes 3. Nf3+ impossible) 3. Nc2+ Kf3 4. Rd3+ Ke2 5. Re3+ Kd2 (5… Kd1 6. Rf3 Ke2 7. Nd4+ Ke1 8. Re3+ Kd2 9. Re2+ and wins) 6. Rf3 Ke2 7. Nd4+ Ke1 8. Re3+ Kd1 (if 8…Kd2 9. Re2+ as above) 9. Rd3+ Ke1 10. Nf3+ Ke2. And now? it seems that White cannot make progress in avoiding the promotion of the f2-pawn. But: 11. Ke4! and if 11… f1=Q 12. Rd2 mate. Black must underpromote with 11… f1=N, but the endgame K+R+N vs K+N is easily won (e.g. 12. Nd4+ Kf2 13. Rf3 Kg2 14. Kf4). The tactical point of this endgame is the mate in d2, 11 moves after the initial position. Without it, the endgame would be draw.

• Reply

  

  Anonymous says:

  February 4, 2008 at 12:04 pm

  Didn’t expect it to be so easy. 🙂 Here are some other defensive attempts I had worked out. I was still working on the 3. .. Kf3 defense.

  1. Nc6 f2
  2. Nd4+ Ke1
  3. Nf3+ Kf1
  4. Kf4 Ke2
  Kg2 is similar, the f3 N will hop opposite the king to cover the promotion square
  5. Nh2
  we’ve reached the same position as above with the N and pawn blockade, the rook will check and the rest is elementary

  1. Nc6 f2
  2. Nd4+ Ke3
  3. Nc2+ Ke2
  4. Re8+ [Kd1, Kd2, Kd3]
  5. Ne3 Ke2
  6. Re7 Kf3
  7. Rg8+ Kh7
  and white will collect the pawn and reach a won end game

  after 6. Re7, black tries
  6. .. Ke1
  7. Kf4 Kd2
  8. Re8 Ke1
  9. Kf3 Kd2
  10. Kg2 Ke1
  11. Ng4+
  exposed check from the Rook and white finally wins the pawn

• Reply

  

  Anonymous says:

  February 4, 2008 at 5:58 pm

  **Didn’t expect it to be so easy. :)**

  for a reason, because it wasn’t. you just didnt find the best moves for black. 3. nc2 kf3! and then what?

  mauro, u nailed it. cool. I failed to find the checkmate

  axel