White to move. Is this a win, draw, or loss for White? How should White proceed?
8/K1p2q2/p1k4p/4p2P/2p1N3/p1P5/P5B1/8 w – – 0 5
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Knight to D5 !!
White would capture queen setting up pawn promotion. Which looks like a win for white.
I, however, am used to being wrong….
Well, white would love to win the queen outright, but black gets the bishop for her, and gets a king-supported passed pawn to play against the knight. However, I see no other beginning for white after looking at this for 20 minutes:
1. Ng5 Qd5
2. Bd5 Kd5 (hg6? 3.h6+-)
Here, I now think it hopeless to try to stop the e-pawn with the knight- white’s king is simply too far out of play to ever get back in time to help as long as black plays accurately. Here is a completely plausible line outlining this futile plan:
3. Nf3 Ke4! (e4 below)
4. Ne1
Here, moves like Ng5, Nh4, and Ng1 all lose quickly to 4. …Kd3 as black creates a second passed pawn. Continuing:
4. …..Ke3
5. Ka6 Ke2
6. Ng2 Kf2 (6.Nc2 Kd3-+)
7. Nh4 e4
8. Nf5 e3!
9. Nd4
(9.Ne3 Ke3, 10.Kb5 Kd3, 11.Kb4 c6/5 is zugzwang for white -+) Continuing:
9. …..e2!
10.Nc2 e1(Q)!
11.Ne1 Ke1
12.Kb4 Kd3 (c5?? 13.Kc4 obviously)
13.Ka3 Kc3 and black wins the race by a mile. All the way back at move 3 in this line, black playing 3. ….e4 is less forcing and too slow, and may not win at all:
3. …..e4
4. Ne1 e3 (the king needs a path)
5. Ka6! Ke4
6. Kb5 e2 (the pawn is in the way)
7. Kc4 and by my eye, this is lost for black. The e-pawn being the way of it’s king while at e4 and e3 cost enough tempii to allow the white king to win c4 and most likely the game after a3 falls.
No, if the line started by Ng5 is to work, white must create counterlay with his most valuable pawn- the one at h5. Let’s start the analysis of this idea right from the top:
1. Ng5 Qd5
2. Bd5 Kd5
3. Nf7 e4 (what else, really?)
4. Nh6 e3 (everything else loses)
5. Nf5 e2
6. Ne3 Ke5 (Or Ke6 only moves)
7. Nc2 Kf6 (what else?)
8. Ka6 Kg5
9. Kb5 Kh5
10.Kc4 Kg4
And here, I am not sure what the most accurate plan is. My instinct is to play 11. Kd5 to keep the king away from the knight at c2 force black to exchange his e-pawn for the knight and queen while white scoops up the c-pawn and queens his own. However, a quick count of the moves required tells me this is a draw as black will eventually win white’s a-pawn and advance his own to to a2 just after white queens at c8, and this is a theoretical draw since there are never tempi that allow the white king to come forward:
11.Kd5 Kf3
12.c4 Kf2
13.c5 e1(Q)
14.Ne1 Ke1
15.Kc6 Kd2
16.Kc7 Kc2
17.c6 Kb2
18.Kd6 Ka2
19.c7 Kb2
20.c8(Q)a2
21.Qb7 Ka1 (Kc1 22.Qa6 Kb1 23.Qb5)
22.Qc6 Kb1
23.Qb5 Kc1
24.Qc4 Kb1
25.Qb3 Ka1
26.Qc3 Kb1
27.Qe1 Kb2
28.Qd2 Kb1 And you should get the idea by now. 11.Kd5 was too clever for it’s own good.
So, at move 11, did white have something better, or did he need to deviate from this line sooner?
Looking at what happened in the line above, after 11.Kd5, I now favor 11.Kb3 to win a3 and push the a-pawn:
11.Kb3 Kf4
Here, playing the king down to f2 and exchanging the knight is hopeless as white pushes the pawn to a8 while protecting c3 with the king. In retrospect, I should have seen this right from the start. Continuing:
12.Ka3 Ke5
13.Kb4 Kd6 (what else, now?)
14.Kb5 Kd7 (c6 15.Kb6)
15.c4 and it is clear that white will queen either the c-pawn or the a-pawn- black cannot both protect his c-pawn and stop the a-pawn from reaching a8.
So, think this is the winning idea. If I have missed something more forcing, I don’t know what it might be.
Very interesting position. My first thought was that with Ka6, we can block the black king’s b5 square, but I see that that fails to Qd5, when black is now threatening checkmate.
Also, it is noticeable that stalemate is an option, but we do have 2 minor pieces on the board, and white king has 2/3 escape squares.
So, starting off with intuitive Ne6+ disc. check, black king escapes to b5, c5 or d6. Nothing clear jumps out at that point.
Uhhm, you mean Knight to G5, Knight to D5 is not a valid move!
Sam
This is too difficult.
1.Ng5+ Qd5 2.Bxd5 Kxd5 3.Nf7 e4 4.Nxh6 e3 5.Ng4 e2 6.Ne3+ Ke4 7.Ng2 Kf3 8.Ne1 Kf2 9.Nc2 e1=D 10.Nxe1 Kxe1 11.h6… and white wins
Armando Neto – Brasil
Black win! NG5,QD4,BxD5,KD5,KxA6,E4,NxE4,KxN then White attacking the C pawn.
Ng5+ White win. The rook pawn will be promoted
Exchanging for the queen doesn’t work since then black pushes his passed pawn. I think white can get a perpetual check by:
NF6+,KD6
NE4+, KE6
BH3+, KD5
BG2, no good move for black and white can keep checking, right???
Ng5 wins!