White to move. The position may look familiar to a game seen earlier today. Is there a win for White? How should White proceed?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Practical endgame tactic
About Author
It is a draw just like the other game.
Re8 Kg7
Qf6+ Kh7
No, Re8 then Qc3. Nothing.
Re8 Qc3
Qf6 threatening Rh8++
…Qxf6
gxf6 and Black can’t stop the pawn from Queening.
Re8 Qc3
Qf6 Qxf6
gxf6 Rf7
Re7 Kg8
Kg5 Rxe7
fxe7 Kf7
e8Q Kxe8
Kxg6 followed by Kxf5 and an easy win
Anonymous said…
“It is a draw just like the other game.”
Oh noooo — you’re back!
I stared at this and at first thought 1 Qf8 for a minute or two, as threatening Qh6+ and Re8++ looked great, until I realized I’d forgot about 1…QxR. D’oh. So Re8! is the only try.
Anonymous:
“1 Re8 Qc3!”
(only saving move for black)
“2 Qf6 Qxf6
3 gxf6 Rf7?
4 Re7 Kg8
5 Kg5″ etc.,etc.,wins, but–
3…Rf7? loses without a fight.
Here, black has to play …Kh6! (to avoid the fork Re7+, which wins the rook or queens the pawn if black exchanges rooks). But now white can trade rooks and throw away the passed pawn to get his king into position and eat the rest of black’s pawns. Continuing:
3 gxf6 Kh6
4 Rh8+ Rh7
5 Rxh7 Kxh7
6 Kg5 b4 ( Zugzwang!! — Indeed in light of this in hindsight, perhaps 4 a3! might be even stronger, as it prevents this move later — I wouldn’t think of this move unless I’d seen the zugswang in the above variation — it’s the kind of move that computers play that give them such creepy clairvoyance.)
7 f7 Kg7
8 f8/Q Kxf8
9 Kxg6 and it’s over, the white king gobbles up the pawns and wins.
But seeing that zugzwang, and being an obsessive perfectionist, I now am driven to analyze that cute and probably sharpest variation:
1 Re8 Qc3!
2 Qf6 Qxf6
3 gxf6 Kh6
4 a3!! Rh7 (the only defense — what else? For if 4…g5+!? 5 fxg5+ Kg6 6 Re7 and black is dead, as the pawn will soon queen)
5 Rg7! (box the king in and now black can only make a random rook move)
5 … R-any7
6 Rh8+ Rh7
7 Rxh7 Kxh7
8 Kg5 Kg8 (Zugzwang again!)
9 Kxg6 etc.
And white wins with the same zugzwang as above. Except this time there isn’t the b4 move for black; hence white has an extra tempo and pushes the king back and eats the paws and wins, yet doesn’t have to sack the passed f-pawn to do so, yielding an even faster win! How’s that?
–Tom
slight correction — my first comment about zugzwang wasn’t quite right — it wasn’t zugzwang because of b4, but was almost zugzwang; so if that move weren’t there, as in the stronger 4 a3 variation, then black is truly in zugzwang, and instead of eating the pawns, and winning in a dozen moves, white queens his pawn on the 12th move. That’s what I meant to say.
Old article:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CE1DF1338F93BA35757C0A963948260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fC%2fChess
1. Re8 Qc3 2. Qf6 QxQ 3. Rf7 Kg5 4. b4 Re7 5. Kg8 Kxg6 6. Tf8 f7+ …
@TVTom
In your second variation, I cant see where the 5.Rg7 comes from!?
1 Re8 Qc3!
2 Qf6 Qxf6
3 gxf6 Kh6
4 a3!! Rh7 (the only defense — what else? For if 4…g5+!? 5 fxg5+ Kg6 6 Re7 and black is dead, as the pawn will soon queen)
5 Rg7! (box the king in and now black can only make a random rook move)
5 … R-any7
6 Rh8+ Rh7
7 Rxh7 Kxh7
8 Kg5 Kg8 (Zugzwang again!)
9 Kxg6 etc.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned the defence …Qf7, which allows a nice, but not obvious mate!
1. Re8 Qf7
2. Rh8+ Kg7
3. Qd4+!
and mate next move after interposing the queen.
Dopa said…
“@TVTom In your second variation, I cant see where the 5.Rg7 comes from!?
1 Re8 Qc3!
2 Qf6 Qxf6
3 gxf6 Kh6
4 a3!! Rh7 (the only defense — what else? For if 4…g5+!? 5 fxg5+ Kg6 6 Re7 and black is dead, as the pawn will soon queen)
5 Rg7! (box the king in and now black can only make a random rook move)”
Oh dear, that doesn’t make sense, does it, as the R starts on e8. I was on a roll and doing this late at night and I missed my typo.
I of course meant to write:
5 Rg8! and not “Rg7!”
Except that Rg8 doesn’t really deserve an exclamation point because it’s pretty much the same for any white rook move. The point is that with that a3 move, black keeps getting into zugzwang. So 5 R-any8 (except h8, obviously, where the rook would be hanging) and black has to move his rook away, and then white plays 6 Rh8+, trades rooks, and the f-pawn queens 3 moves later.
Thanks for spotting that (wow, you actually read my babble). And so, it goes as thus:
5 R-any-8! R-any-7 (Zugzwang!)
6 Rh8+ Rh7
7 Rxh7 Kxh7
8 Kg5 Kg8 (Zugzwang again!)
9 Kxg6 Kf8
10 f7 Ke7 (Zugzwang yet again!)
11 Kg7 K-any
12 f8/Q as white promotes and wins.
Ok, I think I’ve finally got it right this time. Btw, Zugzwang is so cool!
At the risk of being annoying, when I went over the variation for Dopa, I realized I missed a cute try for black to avoid the zugzwang:
1 Re8 Qc3!
2 Qf6 Qxf6
3 gxf6 Kh6
4 a3!! Rh7
5 R-any-8! R-any-7 (Zugzwang!)
6 Rh8+ Rh7
7 Rxh7 Kxh7
8 Kg5 Kh8!
(Instead of Kg8, as not only does it hold out a few more moves, but it sets a nice beginner’s trap:
9 Kxg6 Kg8
10 f7? Kf8
11 Kf6?? h4!!
(Not …b4?? as the order counts here because if black pushes the b-pawn first, white ignores …h4 next and wins the race!)
12 gxh4 b4!
13 axb4 Stalemate – the Ultimate Zugzwang! Whew Who!!!
White avoids the trap by simply playing 10 Kxh5 or Kxf5 and it’s over, or after 10 f7? Kf8 11 Kxf5 Kxf7 and white wins but is just set back a half-dozen moves.
In a blitz game, 8…Kh8! would be much more crucial variation to find, as white might stumble into a stalemate, than 4 a3!, which is elegant tactically, but unnecessary, as it just saves a few moves. Always give your opponent a chance to blow it, even when the position is lost. Oh, and did I mention that Zugzwang is sooo cool!