White to move. How should White proceed?
6r1/2N5/7p/3Nkp1P/8/7P/5P2/7K w – – 0 1
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Ne7 then f4? look interesting
Is this a chess problem or an actual game position?
My first goal as white would be to get the king free of the h-file- right now, he is trapped there by the rook on the g-file. One way to do this is to bring one of the knights to g6. Let’s see if this gets us anywhere interesting:
1. Ne7 Rg7 (Rg5?? 2.f4! Kf4 3.Ne6)
2. Ng6 Ke4 (N forks otherwise)
Now, what to do with the c7 knight?
The options are Na8, Na6, Nb5, Ne6, and Ne8. Looking at this position, now, one might want to find a way to attack and win the h-pawn, or double attack and win the f-pawn, so the obvious moves are the last two since they attack the rook immediately (the right move is probably one of the less obvious ones:P, and this is even assuming move #1 was the correct one). Let’s start with those:
Option 1 with 3.Ne6:
3. Ne6 Rh7 (Rg8 is below)
4. Kg2 Ra7 (keep rook on 7th rank)
5. f3 Kd5 (keep king near f5)
6. Nef4 Kd6
And here, it is hard to find a way to attack either pawn with a knight without allowing the black king back to e5 or e6, or the black rook to h7 or g7. I now think the best continuation in this line to be to try to bring the king to f4 and lure the rook off the seventh rank allowing a knight to reach f7:
7. Kg3 Ra1 (to harrass king)
And, now, with the rook off the seventh rank
8. Nh8 Ke7 (Ra7 looks ok, too)
And I just don’t see a way to continue. I would like to bring the king to f4, but I don’t see how to shield him from checks on the 4th rank, and the pawns at f5 and h6 keep him from penetrating up the g-file. I could be missing a sacrfice at g4 leaving white with 3 pawns and knight against 1 pawn and a rook endgame, but this endgame is a theoretical draw if I am remembering correctly.
At move 3 above, black could have played Rg8 instead of Rh7, but in light of my inability to even make much progress against Rh7, what is the point of analyzing this now? Time to study another option for white’s 3rd move.
This analysis is continued in my next comment.
Continuation of the analysis in my previous comment:
Option 2 with 3.Ne8:
3. Ne8
And, now, actually looking at this move on my board, it definitely looks stronger than Ne6- the difference is that there are few good squares for the rook- Rb7, Rd7, Rf7, Rh7, and Rg8 fail to knight forks, and Rc7 and Re7 just lose the rook straight out. I see only Ra7. Continuing:
3. …..Ra7
And, now, I wanted to play Nd6 and win the f-pawn and attack the h-pawn, but on looking at it, I see
4. Nd6?! Kf3!
5. Nf5 Kf2
6. Nh6 Kg3
7. Nf5 Kh3
8. Nf4 Kg4 winning the last white pawn and holding a draw. White does no better at move 8 with Kg1. At move 6 above, white could try
6. Kh2 Kf3
7. Ngh4 Kf4
8. Nh6 Kg5
9. N6f5 Kh5 and how does white make progress? Black always has in reserve the rook taking a pawn which leads to the theoretically drawn 2 knight ending. The key move in this line, if it is to work I think, is white’s 4th one. 4.Kg2 is required to keep the black king out of f3:
4. Kg2 and now the question is on black, how to stop Nd6 winning f5? I see three alteratives, f4, Kd5, and Ra6. Let’s take them in order:
4. …..f4
5. Nd6 Kd5 (what else?)
6. Nf5 and this wins the h-pawn and should win the game.
Or,
4. …..Kd5
5. Nf6 Ke6 (Kd6 6.Ng8 Rh7 7.Kf3)
6. Ng8 wins the h-pawn as Rh7 is always prevented by the Nf8 fork.
The best line for black, and certainly the most complicated, is
4. …..Ra6
5. f3 and now there are three moves for the black king, but the best move for white seems to be the same in all three lines
5. …..Kd4
6. Kg3 Ke3 (keeps control of f4)
7. Ng7 Ra5 (Rf6 9.Ne7 f4 10.Kg4)
Black’s last hope I think is for white to hastily play
8. Ne7? f4!
9. Kg4 Rg5
10.Kh4 Kf3 and white will be lucky to not lose this. However, the right plan at move 8 seems to me to be h4 to take g5 away from black’s rook at the key juncture:
8. h4 Ke2 (Rb5 9.Ne7 f4 10.Kg4+-)
9. Ngf5 Rb7
10.Ng8 should win easily.
The two other alternatives at move 5 immediately above for black look like losers to me, too:
5. …..Kd3
6. Kg3 Ke3 is just the line above with a different route to e3. And, finally:
5. …..Ke3
6. Kg3 and now Ne7 or Nd6/Ng7 are the threats. Continuing:
6. …..Ra1 (to harrass the king)
7. Nd6 Rg1
8. Kh4 Kf3 (f4 9.Ne5 Kd4 10.Ng4+-)
9. Nf5 Ra1
10.Nh6 should be a win for white. Or,
6. …..Ra5
7. Nf6 f4 (others, see lines above)
8. Nf4 Rg5
9. Ng4
Whew!! I despise knight puzzles, I really do. I think my plan wins in all lines. I may be missing something simpler (probably am), but I am tired, and I need a break and some food.
This is awfully hard.
Very amusing, but AARGH, I spent the longest time looking at
the position arising after:
1. Ne7 Rg7
2. Ng6? Ke4
3. Ne8
when the ONLY saving move that Black has is 3… Ra7. I kept
trying to find a winning move for White at that point. There
isn’t one. So I finally stopped throwing good time after
bad (wasted) time into the pot, and looked at 2. Nc6+ for
White:
1. Ne7 Rg7
2. Nc6+ Ke4
3. Ne8 Rg5
4. h4
OK, must be on the right track. But I have to remember that
the White pawns need to be preserved. White must promote
a pawn to win.This game is far from over. What amounts to
the 2nd half of the problem arises after:
4…. Rg4
5. Nf6+ Kf3 (attacking the f-pawn)
6. Nxg4
(Will have to come back and look at 6. Nce5+ if Nxg4 doesn’t
pan out, but instinct tells me that I’m going to need to
have that Nc6 go Nd4.)
And now both 6… Kxg4 and 6… fxg4 look like excellent
tries to save the game for Black.
6…. fxg4
7. Kg1 (MUST preserve the f-pawn!)
7…. g3
8. Nd4+ (MUST preserve the f-pawn, and 8. Ne5+ doesn’t
win after 8…. Kf4 9. f3 Kxe5 9. Kg2 Kf4.
I knew that the knight belonged on d4
rather than e5.)
8…. Kg4 (Kf4 is no better, but if Black goes after the
knight with 8…. Ke4, then White says go ahead
and after 9. fxg3 Kxd4 White wins.)
9. f3+ (MUST preserve the f-pawn)
Now Black has 2 tries: 9…. Kxh4 and Kh3
9…. Kxh4
10. Kg2 Kxh5
11. Kxg3 wins.
9… Kh3
Now, it would be a mistake for White to play:
10. Ne2? g2
11. Nd4 Kg3! (taking the h-pawn loses for Black)
White must play instead:
10. f4 Kg4
11. f5 wins.
So, now we still have to look at 6…. Kxg4 for Black.
6…. Kxg4
7. Nd4 (Wins, attacking Black’s f-pawn, which can be
gobbled up if Black goes after the h-pawns, AND
keeps the Black king out of f3, where it would
attack White’s f-pawn.)
I don’t think I missed something simpler than this complicated
try. This is a remarkably rich problem, with lots of twists.
Lucymarie
Nc7. If rg5 then f4+! Kf4 Ne6+
if Rg7 then could again try f4 but I think Ng6+ would give white a satisfactory game.
Yes, it is. No short tactic here.
This is wonderful but I managed to find it !
1.Ne7 Rg7 forced!
[ a)1…Rh8/f8 2.Ng6+
b)1…Rd8/b8 2.Nc6+
c)1…Rg5 2.f4+ ]
2.Nc6+ Ke4 forced 3.Ne8!! Rg5 4.h4 Rx5 5.Nf6+ +-
This is just wonderful.
1.Ne7! Rg7
Rg5 allows f4,Kxf4,Ne6 fork
every other rook move is either to a square attacked by a knight or allowing a fork!
2.Nc6! Ke4
K to d6,f6 or f4 all allow a fork!
3.Ne8! Rg5
again every other square is either attacked or allows a fork!
4.h4!
and the rook is trapped, as Rg8,Rxh5 and Rg4 all allow a fork!!
This is a great puzzle, because there are alternative promising knight moves and f4 also looks promising on move 1 or 2.
1.Ne7 Rg7 (only move if 1…Rg5 2.f4+ ) 2.Nc6+ Ke4 3.Ne8! Rg5 4.h4 wins
A stunning domination-themed puzzle. The solution just “grows” like Topsy, once the first move is discovered (which is rather easy, as it has to be the d5 knight). So, white starts with:
1. Ne7
Attacking the rook. Where can the rook go? All the white squares on the 8th rank are directly attacked, and all the black squares are targets for a knight fork. If we look at the g-file, again all the white squares are directly attacked and g5 loses via the 1… Rg5 2. f4+! 3. Kxf4 5. Ne6+ fork. So the only square left for the black rook is g7, and there shall he go.
1… Rg7
2. Nc6+
Now, it is the turn of the black king to squirm. All the black squares he can move to, can be used to fork his rook. So he has to move to a white square – and there is only one option, which is:
2… Ke4
3. Ne8
The focus swings back to the rook. Where? This time, all black squares on the seventh rank are directly attacked, and all white squares are targets for a knight fork. All squares on the g-file are either attacked, or fork targets, except:
3… Rg5
4. h4!!
And that’s the end of the road for the black bishop.
First prize for analysis definitely goes to LucieMarie, partly for mentioning that the key aspect of 2.Nc6 is to prevent the rook from going to a7, but mostly for recognising that black still has drawing chances after losing the exchange. Well done LM!
Only blemish is the note with 9…Kh3;10.Ne2,g2, which as it happens is still very much winning for white. 11.f4 wins straight away, 11.Kf2 is a perfectly good alternative, and even Luciemarie’s 11.Nd4,Kg3 is good enough to win after 12.Nf5+,Kxf3;13.Nxh6 and the black king is one move further from the h pawns than in the possible drawing lines.