Polgar, Zsuzsa – Hort, Vlastimil (Monaco, 1994)
White to move. How should White proceed?
3B4/2N1bk2/P1b2p2/3p1B2/1p1Pp2p/1Pn1P2P/3K4/8 w – – 0 51
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Polgar, Zsuzsa – Hort, Vlastimil (Monaco, 1994)
White to move. How should White proceed?
3B4/2N1bk2/P1b2p2/3p1B2/1p1Pp2p/1Pn1P2P/3K4/8 w – – 0 51
Can white play:
Be6+ Kf8
Bxd5
And white will queen on A8. Please tell me I am missing something!
Oh, here’s a good idea: Tell the host of a chess blog how she should play a game.
Well, okay, I would try 1. Bxe7:
1. … Kxe7
2. a7 Kd6
3. a8=Q Bxa8
4. Nxa8 Kc6
5. Bc8 Nb5
6. Ke2
… and if my opponent were Vlastimil Hort, I would think I had done okay, but I’ll bet that’s not what Susan played now, is it?
By the way, I don’t think 1. Bd6 works:
1. … Kf8
2. Bxd5 Nxd5
How does the a-pawn get in?
Can white play:
Be6+ Kf8
Bxd5
1.Be6 Kf8
2.Bxd5?? Nxd5 -+
better would be :
2.Bxe7 Kxe7
3.Bg4 unclear
However Zsuzsa’s first move was something much better winning the game.
Pharaoh
To jcheyne :
1.Bxe7 looks ok but leads to unclear game, probably drawish.
Pharaoh
isnt it Bg6 + and black has to take – so other B is falling
yes, I agree with Bg6+
h
I would guess that the most efficient strategy might focus on winning the queen’s bishop before playing a8Q, driving it off of the a8-h1 diagonal, or blocking it at b7. However,
I think Bg6+ does win by clearing Black’s king’s bishop and the c3 knight.
If:
1. Bg6+ Kg6 (1….Kf8 2. Ne6 wins a piece)
2. Be7 Nb5
3. Nb5 Bb5
4. a7 Bc6
5. Bb4 Kf5
6. Kc2 Bb7
7. Be1 Kg5
8. Kc3 and Black cannot prevent both threats. I am trying to work out the possibility that Black finds a way to create his own queening threat with the king’s pawn, but his bishop is trapped behind his own pawns, so I don’t think it would work.
Yancey Ward
How about this:
1.a7 Bd8
2.Bd7! Ba8
3.Na8 and the a pawn cannot be stopped.
Yancey Ward
Yancey:
1.a7 bxd8 2. bd7 bb7 3. bc8 bd7 =(?)
its tempting to use bf5-c8-b7 but i cant find a winning variation
so bg6+ is the answer
alex
alex,
Yes, I looked at that, too, and I agree that there is no clear winning line without an extra tempo for white (the queen’s bishop and then the knight are hanging in sequence, and this is why I looked at a7 first).
Yancey
Bg6+ seems best to me, and I see that several others, especially Yancey Ward, have posted the principal variation. White gets an opposite colored bishops endgame in which Black’s bishop is bad (on the same color squares as his central pawns) and overworked: passed pawns on the b- and h-files and the vulnerable d-pawn are more than Black the bishop can handle.
You may replay the game here :
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1059241
B to d7