White to move. Is this a win, draw, or loss for White? How should White proceed?
8/1q1p4/4p1p1/2R3P1/k6P/8/8/K2R4 w – – 0 5
NO computer lines please!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Proper endgame assessment (Endgame brilliancy)
1. RA2 threatning 2. RB2+ and then picking up the queen.
Rdd5!! exd5 (the point is that the Black queen is now trapped on the a and b files, where you can win it) Rc2 Qb3 R…a2+ Kb4 Rb2 d4 Rxb3+ Kxb3 Kb1 Kc3 h5 d3 Kc1 d2+ Kd1 gxh5 g6 and White wins
My initial thought was that Black must be bad because his King is badly placed. But how to exploit that? 1. Rc2 seemed obvious enough, trying to win the queen, but she simply moves away. It was then that I got the fantastic idea 1. Rdd5!
1…exd5 2. Rc2 changes the picture drastically. (Rdd5 is an interference sacrifice.) The queen cannot get out of the way! 2…Qb4 3. Ra2 kb5 4. Rb2 and we net the queen. But what now? This is where the pawn position on the K-side is suggestive. After the exchange of rook for queen, white has a breakthrough with h4-h5! Whether black takes or not, the white pawn queens.
White is winning.
“Is this a win, draw, or loss for White?”
Of course.
Rc5-Rc4
Rd4+ threatening checkmate
“RD4+ threatening checkmate”
First assessment- white is materially ahead, but black can threaten perpetual checks, I can’t see the solution just yet, but the threat of h5 means that if white can just force the queen to exchange for the two rooks on the queenside of the board, he can win by creating a winnning passer out of the g-pawn.
With this in mind, my first thought to analyze an immediate push of the h-pawn:
1. h5 gh5
2. g6 h4
3. Rc4 Kb3
4. g7 Qg2
5. Rd7 h3
And, now, Rc8 loses to h2:
6. Rc8 h2 (threatening mate)
7. Rc1 h1(Q)
8. Rh1 Qh1
And this should be a technical win for black with the extra pawn and the exposed king. I have not done a complete analysis of this line. I can’t say for sure that white or black doesn’t win in subvariations, but of the lines I briefly glanced at, black seemed to either draw or win.
So, I am back to finding a line to force the exchange of all the heavy pieces. Let’s look at the rook checks first:
1. Rd4 Kb3 (Ka3?? 2.Rc3 wins)
And, now, the threat of Qh1 must be addressed by white, and I see only two moves to do this- Kb1 and Rd3:
2. Rd3 Kb4 (Ka4 3.Rc4+-)
3. Rcc3 Qe4 (unsure best move)
4. Rb3 Kc5, and I find no way to make progress for white after looking for 30 minutes. Indeed, best for white seems to be to continue the checks with the outside rook from c3, b3 and a3- letting the black king to reach d6 seems dangerous to me.
1. Rc4 Ka5 (only move)
2. Rd2 Qh1
3. Ka2 and I see no way for white to proceed that does more than draw. I also looked at playing h5 at move two in this line, but
2. h5 gh5
And, now, g6 might lose to Qf3:
3. g6 Qf3 (threatens Qa3-Qb3)
4. Rcd4 Qf6 and the pawn is lost.
Will continue in my next comment due to length.
Don’t have time to work out a bunch of variations, but I will suggest a strategy for White:
After 1. Rc4+ Ka5 2. Rb1 Q moves 3. Rcb4
White will have mating threats (moving the Rook on b4 to b7, for instance). Black will be able to give some checks with the queen which will defeat White attempt at a direct mate with rooks and king, but White can try to forcefully deflect the queen by threatening to queen either the g-pawn or h-pawn (playing h5), allowing White to either promote one of the pawns, or carry out the original plan of mating with the rooks. (Black queen has too much to do.) Black can win 2 rooks for the queen, but then would be unable to stop either the White g-pawn or h-pawn from promoting.
In my previous comment, I pointed out that if white could force the exchange of all the heavy pieces on the queenside of the board, h5 would be a winning move since the white g-pawn would win the queening race. After spending about an hour looking at the rook checks from c4 and d4, I couldn’t find a winning line for white, but a draw at best. My next thought is to try to threaten the black king with Ra2 and Rb2. The black queen will have to find a square of retreat:
1. Rc2
Now, here, the queen only has two possible squares as the a-file and b-file are off limit due to the skewer threats starting with Ra2+- e4 and f3. Qf3 loses immediately to Rb1 with a mate threat, so
1. …..Qe4
Now, the black queen is in place to start delivering an avalanche of annoying checks from e5 or d4. In addition, she is threatening the h-pawn. White can double the rooks on the c-file and protect h4 indirectly with the threat of Rc4, but I again find no win for white:
2. Rdc1 Qe5
3. Ka2 Qd5
4. Rc4 Kb5
5. Ka3 Qd6 (Qc4 6.Rc4 Kc4 7.h5+-)
6. Rc5 Kb6
7. Ka4 Qd2 and I don’t see how white makes progress. At move 2 in this line, white needs another plan. The only other reasonable looking line to me is
2. Rb2 Qh4 (no reason not to)
3. Rd7 Qe1 (thr. was Ra7#)
4. Ka2 Qe3 and I see nothing but draws here for white, at best.
However, analyzing this line has shown me the light (a bolt of lightening right through the forehead. Continued in my next comment.
In my previous comment, I looked at the line starting with 1.Rc2 to threaten Ra2 followed by Rb2 to skewer the black queen, however, her majesty plays to the only square of escape, e4, and draws with the threat on the c2 rook, the h-pawn, and the checks starting from e5 and d4. While I was in the middle of analyzing this, I realized that if I could keep the queen from ever leaving b or a-files, the skewer couldn’t be stopped after Rc2. The d7 pawn blocks the queen’s egress along the seventh rank, and the rook on the c-file prevents her from going to this file. The question was how to bring all of this about, and then it hit me- the key square all along was d5- it needed to be physically blocked. After I realized this, the win was easy to see:
1. Rdd5!!
The threat, of course is Ra5 followed by Rb5, if necessary. In addition, the rook at d5 prevents the queen’s escape along the diagonal, and taking the rook with the e-pawn loses to the move I tried earlier:
1. ……ed5
2. Rc2!
And where can the queen go? At c6, white wins just like I had anticiated earlier by creating a winning passer out of the g-pawn:
2. ……Qc6
3. Rc6 dc6
4. h5
Any other move, and white wins with the checks from a2 and/or b2.