Black to move. In this position, the two players agreed to a draw. Do you agree with their decision? If not, what would you have played as Black? No Fritz analysis please 🙂 
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
- About Us
- Chess Improvement
- Chess Puzzles
- Chess Research
- College Chess
- General News
- Home
- Major Tournaments
- News
- Polgar Events
- Privacy Policy
- Scholastic Chess
- SPICE / Webster
- Susan’s Personal Blog
- Track your order
- USA Chess
- Videos
- Women’s Chess
- Contact Us
- Daily News
- My Account
- Terms & Conditions
- Privacy Policy
Do you agree with their decision?
I strongly disagree with black’s decision.
If not, what would you have played as Black?
Does it matter?
No Fritz analysis please 🙂
Who is Fritz?
firstly Black put their knight in d6
then the pawn in h3 and the king in g3
then …h2+ Kh1, Ne4 c8Q, Nf2 mate
Yep, same idea as anonymous. What I got was h3+ Kh2 Kh4 Kh1 Kg3 Kg1 Nc8 Kh1 Nd6 Kg1 h2+ Kh1 Ne4 c8Q Nf2#
Black definitely wins.
Tommy says.
I have trouble following the above suggestions. I dont see a mate.
here is the way I look it it. the trick is to force white to move. then if he moves the pawn to c8 he loses the pawn and the knight is free to come to the h1 corner to help black. the other move that is possible for white is to move the king. but the white king will have to back up and allow the black king to move closer to the h1 corner.
lets see now. white obviously will not give up the pawn. so he will have to move the king back.
we have 2 methods to force white to move. one is to move the knight into the c8 square. that obviously stops the pawn from moving and the king must back off. the other choice is to check the king with h3+. white moves into h2 and black goes to h4. now white must back off to g1 or h1.
that is about as far as I can analyze in my mind. but one shoule play out to here. then I could maybe do some more moves.
from here it looks close. the black king can not force the white king out of the corner without the knight. so that would be a draw.
the only chance it looks like to win is to bring in the knight. but that requires abandoning the pawn. the pawn would then queen and the knight needs to get to the corner in time. I dont know. It would help to have a board and to move the pieces.
from here my guess would be to move the knight from Ne7 to c8 then to Nd6 that looks closer to reach the corner. but I dont know if it makes it or not.
on that it would probably be a win for white or black depending on if the knight can get to the king and get it out of the corner and queen the black pawn.
of course now there is a white queen on the board and a black queen and knight.
looks close. I dont know the answer. except to say definitely if I was black being up a knight I would play a few more moves.
Tommy Says:
I would like to comment on:
Samer said…
Yep, same idea as anonymous. What I got was h3+ Kh2 Kh4 Kh1 Kg3 Kg1 Nc8 Kh1 Nd6 Kg1 h2+ Kh1 Ne4 c8Q Nf2#
Black definitely wins.
****************
what if h3+ Kf2. there are just so many other moves. what if h3+ Kf2 then if Kh4 white can play either kf3 pressuring the black king or Kf1 so if Kg3 then Kg1 takes the opposition.
Certainly black has the initiative and he should keep playing. but I am not positive there is always a win. but there is a good chance that white might not make the best moves and black can still win then. this is pretty tricky position. definitly not the place for black to accept a draw.
tommy
in my above analysis. if h3+ Kf2 then Kh4 Kf3 would be my choice. that really pressures black. if h2 then Kg2 wins the pawn and it is a draw. the Kf1 Kg3 Kg1 to take opposition is not as good because black is still moving forward. Kf3 stops black from forward progress.
of course black does not have to play Kh4 allowing Kf3.
Samer lets play this out as a game. You play h3+ and I play Kf3. what is your move. it probably wont be Kh4 now.
if you do choose Kh4 then my choice is Kf3.
Susan it looks like we still have a game here.
tommy
Good point tommy, but in my humble opinion Black should never let White the chance to play Kf3.
On Kf2 Black should answer with Nc8 forcing the White king to move… and there are only “bad” squares for him to move to.
Fritz
1.h3+ Kh2 2.Kh4 Kg1 (Kh1) 3.Kg3 Kh1(Kg1) 4. Nc8 Kg1 (Kh1) 5. Nd6 wins
Interesting position.
With reverse colours and mirroring, we have a position reached in a study by Pastalka, ARVES AT EBUR, 1998, second honorable mention ex-aequo, corrected.
wKf7,Nc7,Pa4,b4/bKb7,Pa5,a6,f6
The solution is
1. Nxa6! axb4
2. Nc5+! Kb6
3. Nb3 f5
4. Ke6 f4
5. Kd5 f3
6. Kc4 f2
7. Nd2 Ka5
8. Kb3 Kb6
9. Kxb4 Ka6
10. a5 Ka7
11. Kb5 Kb7
and now we have the position of your very first study-related puzzle in your blog, which of course is won by White here by
12. a6+ Ka7
13. Ka5 (13. Nf1 Ka8 14.Kb6 is shorter)
13… Kb8
14. Kb6 Ka8
15. Nf1 Kb8
16. Ne3 Ka8
17. Nd5 f1Q
18. Nc7+ Kb8
19. a7+ Kc8
20. a8Q+ Kd7
21. Qe8+ Kd6
22. Qe6#
Remarkable entry.