Level
5-Queen
Chess Diagram
[Event "Puzzle #125"][Date "2010.07.09"][Result "0-1"][SetUp "1"][FEN "8/4p3/2n5/ppB4K/7p/Pk6/5PP1/8 b - - 0 34"]{Game line} 34...Kc4 35.Be3 b4 36.axb4 axb4 37.Kxh4 Kc3 38.g4 Nd4 39.Bc1 Kc2 40.g5 Kxc1 41.g6 Ne6 42.f4 b3 43.f5 b2 44.fxe6 b1=Q 45.Kg5 Qb8 {Black won after a few more moves}
Today, July 9, 2010 in Windsor ON takes place the last round of CYCC and new Canadian Champions will be crowded in each age group. Our BC players are doing quite well, especially 5 former club members who are going to win at least 2 national titles. You can follow my comments on Facebook for the up to date results.
Yesterday afternoon two of them: Jacob Jensen - John Doknjas, faced each other in round 6 of their under 12 group. A very interesting and hard fought endgame emerged. Jacob's last move was 34. Kxh5 ... and the game continued as shown. Your tasks:
a) Analyse the position
b) Could you find a few alternate winning ways for Black? This means at different moments in the endgame Black could have played differently and still win (sometimes faster)
Each line you can find is valued 10 points, or as much as the answer to "a". Total available points for this puzzle is about 40 if I am not mistaken; however here I am open to receive valuable lines and award more points for them. The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #126.
Puzzle #124 solution:
Kasparov - Ivanchuk played this game back in 1988. Karl has sent a beautiful solution which I have preferred over a couple of other nice ones.
a) Analysis
Material: Black is up a pawn.
King safety: the White King is obviously safer because of the fact that all of White’s pieces (excluding pawns) are attacking the Black King. The White King, however, has no attackers.
Position: Black is in a defensive position, while White is attacking. The Black Rook is trapped on the back rank, and has reduced mobility. If Bc6 wasn’t there, Re8 would be checkmate instantly. White can catch Black in all sorts of squares such as h7. White has a Rook on the 7th rank, and a good attack. Now a tactic or two and some action will get a win for White.
Conclusion: White is better by far in the positional view, and just needs to increase his attack for a win.
Key ideas to attack:
- The Black King is trapped in the corner
- Back rank is weak
- Nf7+ and there’s a discovered check
- These 3 pieces aren’t enough to make the attack successful, and a fourth is needed.
The key to this puzzle is Black’s major positional disadvantage. Ra8 doesn’t even do anything! The King is trapped on the back rank, and a Knight on the side of the board is a bad one. White is the opposite, with a Rook on the seventh rank and the Knight and Bishop placed on powerful squares.
b) See solution:
If I am not mistaken Ivanchuk resigned after 1.f6!! ... He knew what was coming!
[Event "Puzzle #124"][Date "2010.07.02"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "r2n3k/pp2R1pp/2bp4/3B1PN1/2pP4/2P5/P6P/6K1 w - - 0 1"]1.f6! Nf7 (1...Ne6 {Seems to work for Black as well, but after} 2.Bxe6 {Black is still simply losing}) (1...gxf6?? 2.Rxh7#) (1...Bxd5?? 2.Re8+ Bg8 3.f7 Nxf7 4.Nxf7#) (1...h6?? 2.fxg7#) 2.Nxf7+ Kg8 3.Nh6+ Kf8 (3...Kh8 4.fxg7#) 4.Rf7+ Ke8 5.fxg7 Kd8 6.Bxc6 bxc6 7.g8=R#
Correct solutions:
Rick, Karl, Owen, Andy Y - 20 points
Alex, Jeffrey - 18 points
Frank - 10 points
FINAL STANDINGS:
Owen - 502 points
Andy Y - 482 points
Karl - 430 points
Edwin - 375 points
Jeffrey - 323 points
Alex - 265 points
James - 231 points
Andy Q - 214 points
Humphrey - 180 points
Rick - 162 points
Nathaniel - 150 points
Amir - 103 points
Frank - 95 points
Marko - 10 points
Yesterday afternoon two of them: Jacob Jensen - John Doknjas, faced each other in round 6 of their under 12 group. A very interesting and hard fought endgame emerged. Jacob's last move was 34. Kxh5 ... and the game continued as shown. Your tasks:
a) Analyse the position
b) Could you find a few alternate winning ways for Black? This means at different moments in the endgame Black could have played differently and still win (sometimes faster)
Each line you can find is valued 10 points, or as much as the answer to "a". Total available points for this puzzle is about 40 if I am not mistaken; however here I am open to receive valuable lines and award more points for them. The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #126.
Puzzle #124 solution:
Kasparov - Ivanchuk played this game back in 1988. Karl has sent a beautiful solution which I have preferred over a couple of other nice ones.
a) Analysis
Material: Black is up a pawn.
King safety: the White King is obviously safer because of the fact that all of White’s pieces (excluding pawns) are attacking the Black King. The White King, however, has no attackers.
Position: Black is in a defensive position, while White is attacking. The Black Rook is trapped on the back rank, and has reduced mobility. If Bc6 wasn’t there, Re8 would be checkmate instantly. White can catch Black in all sorts of squares such as h7. White has a Rook on the 7th rank, and a good attack. Now a tactic or two and some action will get a win for White.
Conclusion: White is better by far in the positional view, and just needs to increase his attack for a win.
Key ideas to attack:
- The Black King is trapped in the corner
- Back rank is weak
- Nf7+ and there’s a discovered check
- These 3 pieces aren’t enough to make the attack successful, and a fourth is needed.
The key to this puzzle is Black’s major positional disadvantage. Ra8 doesn’t even do anything! The King is trapped on the back rank, and a Knight on the side of the board is a bad one. White is the opposite, with a Rook on the seventh rank and the Knight and Bishop placed on powerful squares.
b) See solution:
If I am not mistaken Ivanchuk resigned after 1.f6!! ... He knew what was coming!
[Event "Puzzle #124"][Date "2010.07.02"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "r2n3k/pp2R1pp/2bp4/3B1PN1/2pP4/2P5/P6P/6K1 w - - 0 1"]1.f6! Nf7 (1...Ne6 {Seems to work for Black as well, but after} 2.Bxe6 {Black is still simply losing}) (1...gxf6?? 2.Rxh7#) (1...Bxd5?? 2.Re8+ Bg8 3.f7 Nxf7 4.Nxf7#) (1...h6?? 2.fxg7#) 2.Nxf7+ Kg8 3.Nh6+ Kf8 (3...Kh8 4.fxg7#) 4.Rf7+ Ke8 5.fxg7 Kd8 6.Bxc6 bxc6 7.g8=R#
Correct solutions:
Rick, Karl, Owen, Andy Y - 20 points
Alex, Jeffrey - 18 points
Frank - 10 points
FINAL STANDINGS:
Owen - 502 points
Andy Y - 482 points
Karl - 430 points
Edwin - 375 points
Jeffrey - 323 points
Alex - 265 points
James - 231 points
Andy Q - 214 points
Humphrey - 180 points
Rick - 162 points
Nathaniel - 150 points
Amir - 103 points
Frank - 95 points
Marko - 10 points
CYCC 2010 endgame challenge