Bolojubov-Mieses, Baden-Baden 1925
White to move. What should White do?
r2r2k1/p2b2pp/Q3p3/1p1pPp1q/5P2/2P1P3/P4PBP/3R2RK w – – 0 22
Daily Chess Improvement: A Classic Chess Tactic!
Bolojubov-Mieses, Baden-Baden 1925
White to move. What should White do?
r2r2k1/p2b2pp/Q3p3/1p1pPp1q/5P2/2P1P3/P4PBP/3R2RK w – – 0 22
1. Bd5 exd5
2. Qf6
This seems attractive to me, but I can’t figure out how to proceed further.
1. Bd5 exd5
2. Rxg7 Kxg7
3. Qf6 Kg8
4. Rg1 Qg6
5. Rxg6
This looks good. But what if black doesn’t take the bishop at d5 ? White still gains a couple of pawns, but is there more to it ?
Anup,
1. Bxd5. exd5. 2. Rxg7. Kxg7. 3. Qf6+. Kg8. 4. Rg1+. Qg6. 5. Rxg6.+. hxg6. 6. Qxg6+ leaves white with only Q vs 2R+B and will be forced to take perpetual to stay afloat. Utmost he can win the BB for the e pawn.
Whites h1 a 8 diagonal is weak.
So the solution has to be to retain the WB and sac the Rook or a pawn to prise open blacks position.
Anup,
1. Bxd5. exd5. 2. Qf6 loses to Qf3+. 3. Rg2. Qxd1+. 4. Rg1. Qxg1+. 5. Kxg1. gxf6 and Black is 2R and B up!.
Sacrifice both the rooks and mate with Queen and bishop.
1.Rxd5 exd5 2.Bxd5+ Kh8 3.Rxg7 Rf8 and now there’s a problem with grabbing the bishop 4.Rxd7 Qd1+ 5.Kg2 Rg8+ 6.Bxg8 Rxg8+ and ignoring interpositions 7.Kh3 Qh5#
A great problem that has been posted here on two other occasions that I know of- once around August 11th or 12th of 2013 and again on April 6th of last year.
The line Anup Jalan has the right start with his second comment, in my opinion. I went pretty deep on this problem the first time it was posted, working on it on an off for over a week and revisiting some new ideas in April of last year at the prompting of Prof. Bhat who seems to have vanished in recent months. In any case, you can find all the analysis in the April 6th thread here:
https://chessdailynews.com/a-classic-tactic-review/
1. Rxd5. exd5. 2. Bxd5+.
A – 2….. Kf8? 3. Qd6+. Ke8. 4. Rxg7. ( white threatens mate at f7, g7 or g8 and hence next moves are forced) Qd1+. 5. Kg2. Qg4+. 6. Rxg4. fxg4. Now W has Q+B vs 2R+ B but…7. e6! And
A1- 7. ….Bxe6. 8. Qxe6+ and 9. Qf7#
A2- 7……Bc1. 8. Bc6+! Mates. Bd7. 9. Bxd7+. Rxd7. 10. Qxd7+ Kf8. 11. Qf7#
A3- 7……Bc6. 8. Bxc6+. Rd7. 9. Bxd7+. Kd8. 10. e7#!
B- 2…..Be6?. 3. Qxe6+. Kh8. 4. Qe7!
B1- 4…..Qg6/g4. 5. Rxg6/4 hxg6/ fxg4. 6. Bxa8. Wins easily.
B2- 4…..Rg8. Bxa8. And Black cannot play Rxa8. Due to mate at g7,
B3- 4…..g6. 5. Qf6#!
B4.- 4….Qh6. 5. Bxa8. Rxa8. 6. e6 and white should win.
C- 2……Kh8. 3. Bxa8. Rxa8. 4. Qb7 seizing the diagonal and threatening Qxa8+.
C1- 4…..Rd8. 5. e6! Winning the BB. And should win with pawn om 7th rank.
C2- 4….Qe8!! White is in danger. 5. e6 won’t do because of Bc6+ winning White Queen.closing diagonal with 5. f3 does not help. Bc6. 6. Qa6. Bxf3+. 7. Rg2. Rd8 and white can resign.
In effect, R or B sac looks suspect!
I did a fairly deep analysis on this line, too- I basically decided it was inferior to 1.Bxd5, but in this line I think white does best with 3.e6 rather than 3.Bxa8:
1. Rd5?! ed5
2. Bd5 Kh8
3. e6
Here, black can just sacrifice for the pawn, or he can retreat the bishop e8:
3. ………….Be8
4. Ba8 Rd1! and I looked for a long time and find no way for white to avoid a draw by repetition after either 5.Rxd1, and if white tries something else, black just plays Rxg1+.
Now, in this line, black, if he is feeling brave can try to take the pawn:
3. …………Be6!?
4. Qe6
Here, 4. Ba8 Ra8 5.Qe6?? Qf3 loses for white outright, while 5.Qb7 Rg8 is a likely loss for white. Also, 4.Be6 is mate starting with 4. …Qf3. Continuing from 4.Qe6 above:
4. ………….Rac8!
And now how can white make any progress? I think black is playing for the win here, not white.
Incidentally,
1. Rxd5. exd5. 2. Bxd5+. Kh1. 3. Rxg7 does not work due to Qd1+
A- 4. Rg1. Qxd5+. 5. Rg2. Qd1+. 6. Rg1. Qf3+. 7. Rg2. Bc6 and white can resign he cannot prevent mate at g2 or d1.
B- 4. Kg2. Qxd5+. 5. Kg3. Bc6! (Threatening Kxg7 as well as Qg2+) 6. Rg5. Qg2+. 7. Kh4. Qxh2#
I think 1. B:d5 ed2. R:g7+ K:g7 3. Qf6+ Kg8 4. Rg1+ Qg6 is best for both sides.
Now 5. e6 seems best, it will allow white to win the f-pawn and mobilize all the pawns on the e and f files. For example:
5…Q:g1+ 6. K:g1 Rf8 (trying to defend the f-pawn and drive the Q off of f6 so that the K can run to h8). White can’t risk putting the Q on the g-file with the K on g1, so:
7. Qh6 forces the B to move, it looks best for Black to play 7…Bc6 threatening to open the long diagonal.
8. e7 Rfc8 9. Qe6+ Kg7 10. Q:f5. Now White is threatening 11. Qe6 followed by bringing the forward f-pawn into battle. Black can try numerous ideas here with his free tempo.
10…. Rg8 putting the R on the same file as White’s K on general principles. But after 11. Qe6 Kh8+ 12. Kf1 Rg6 13. Qe5+ Kg8 14. f5 White succeeds in disconnecting all of Black’s pieces while threatening 15. f6; White is clearly winning. Black can also try 11…Be8, trying to get the B to g6 and reconnecting the rooks
while restraining f5, but he’s a tempo late. 12. f5 Bf7 13. Qe5+ Kh6+ 14. Kf1 and White has the terrible threat 15. Qf6+. I think Black has to play 14…Kh5 here to avoid that, but 15. Qf6 is still very strong, winning material and leaving White with many threats.
Another try for Black is 10…b4 trying to open lines for the rooks. 11. cb d4 12. ed Bf3 looks interesting but 13. h3 kills the mate threat. 13….Rc1+ 14. Kh2 and Black has to cope with the threat of 15. Qe5+ and 16. Qe3.
I’m sure there are others, but the general theme of this position is the White Q’s ability to create threats all over the board coupled with the advance of the pawn to f6. I don’t see how Black can cope with all the possibilities.
This has a lot character similar to the line where white takes at g6 rather than force black to take at g1. In one white wins the h-pawn, but at the cost of a tempo because the king still sits on h1 when the bishop comes to c6, and in the other, your line above, black retains the h-pawn, but immediately loses the f-pawn. I studied this line in some detail 3 years ago, and I just can’t see it being better than taking at g6 immediately- black can’t hold on to the f-pawn anyway:
1. Bd5 ed5
2. Rg7 Kg7
3. Qf6 Kg8
4. Rg1 Qg6 (Mieses played Qg4 here)
5. Rg6 hg6
6. Qg6 Kh8!
7. e6 Bc6
8. f3!
This is the tempo I mentioned above- the king is still on h1 and white needs to deal with this in a proactive manner, or give black lots of counterplay. More details on this line can be found in the link I gave above.
I see. I missed 8. f3!. I guess this is better, among other reasons is that after White takes the f-pawn a later …d4 is met by e4! and the B can go to sleep for the rest of the game.