White to move. Is this a win or draw for White?
3q3k/5Q2/3N4/8/8/4K3/8/8 w – – 0 2
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Q and N vs Q endgame
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White to move. Is this a win or draw for White?
3q3k/5Q2/3N4/8/8/4K3/8/8 w – – 0 2
White can win
1. Qh5+ Kg7
(If Kg8 Qg6+ & force mate in next move)
2. Nf5+ Kg8
(If Kf6 Qh4+ or Kf8 Qh8+ winning queen )
3. Qg6+ Kf8
(Kh8 ?? Qg7++)
4. Qg7+ Ke8
5. Ke2
Black is Zugzwanged
Qd2 Qg8++
Any other queen move loss queen or mate on e7
As a clue, I will offer up that the key position is one of the most beautiful waiting moves pushing an opponent into one of the most beautiful zugzwangs I have ever seen.
Take advantage of the separation of the king and the queen with skewer threats:
1. Qh5 Kg7 (if Kg8 see below)
2. Nf5 Kg8
If Kf6 3.Qh4 wins while if Kf8 3. Qh8 wins- the black queen is skewered. Now comes the move sequence that took me a while to find, and it isn’t an easy one to see
3. Qg6 Kf8 (Kh8 4. Qg7#)
4. Qg7 Ke8
5. Ke2!!
Took me almost 30 minutes to find this. I went round and round looking for another line. One of the beautiful zugzwang positions I have ever seen. The black queen must move and she has no check and no square from which to prevent Qe7#. Wow. Very beautiful.
Also, to wrap up,
1. Qh5 Kg8
2. Qg6 Kf8 (Kh8 3. Nf7#)
3. Qf7#
1.Qh5+ Kg8
2.Qg6+ Kh8 (if Kf8)
3.Nf7# (then Qf7#)
OR…
1.Qh5+ Kg7
2.Nf5+ Kf6
3.Qh4+ 1-0
If instead 2…Kf8
3.Qh8 1-0
And if 2…Kg8
3.Qg6 with mate next move.
White wins! 🙂
I am new to chess. Just learning how to name moves. The following moves looks reasonable to me for white’s win.
Qh5+ kg8; Qg6+ Kf8 Qf7#
Qh5+ kg8; Qg6+ Kh8 Nf7#
Hard to tell, but 1. Qg6 is interesting.
Thank you for your blog Susan!
After thinking the first few forced moves 1.Qh5+ kg7 2.Nf5+ Kg8 3.Qg6+ Kf8 4.Qf7+ Ke8, I was confused on how to proceed. Then all of a sudden I found the winning move 5.Ke2! Black cannot check the white king and is in complete zugzwang.
Great puzzel Susan. Thanks
tried this for one hr..looks like a tough cookie
This is beautiful.
I found a solution by moving the pieces and i must say i’m very proud of it.
1.Qh5+! Kg7 forced (1…Kg8 2.Qg6+! +-) 2.Nf5+ Kg8 3.Qg6+ Kf8 4.Qg7+! Ke8 5.Ke2!!! 1-0
1. Qh5+ Kg7 (1. … Kg8 2. Qg6+ (… Kf8 3. Qf7#) Kg8 3. Nf7+)
2. Nf5+ Kg8 (2. … Kf6 3. Qh4+; 2. … Kf8 3. Qh8+)
3. Qg6+ Kf8 (3. … Kh8 4. Qg7#)
4. Qg7+ Ke8
5. Ke2
This forces the queen to move, but avoids a series of checks. Where will the queen go to avoid 6. Qe7#? There are no checks that do not allow immediate capture of Black’s queen. Only 1 move answers 6. Qe7# without losing the queen: 5. … Qd7, but then 6. Qg8#.
1.Qg6 is an interesting attempt but the problem is 1…Qe7+ and the queen stays forever on the 7 th rank or on the f file and when Nf7 qxf7 and stalemate !
White wins
1)Qh5+ Kg7
2)Nf5+ Kf7
3Qh8++
else
1)Qh5+ Kg7
2)Nf5+ Kf6
3Qh4+ (black looses queen)
else
1) Qh5+ Kg8
2) Kg6+ Kf8 (Kh8..loses to Nf6++)
3) Qf7++
Hi Susan Polgar,
Already best moves were given by others in this game. Good.
Nothing much to add.
By
Venky