White to move. How should White proceed?
3K4/3P4/6k1/6N1/8/8/8/4b3 w – – 0 2
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Special endgame
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White to move. How should White proceed?
3K4/3P4/6k1/6N1/8/8/8/4b3 w – – 0 2
Kc8 followed by Ne6 and Nc7 and the pawn can’t be stopped.
I suggest 1 Kc8. The only move to stop the promotion is 1…Ba5, but then after 2 Ne6, the knight can block the Bishop by moving to c7 next, and then the pawn queens.
Hi Susan Polgar,
Ref: “Special endgame”.[White has to move].
Sub: White wins the game.
Well,the game is fairly simple,variations exist.
Let me give in an example.
1.Kc8 Ba5
2.Ne6 Kf6
3.Nc7 Ke7
4.d8(Q)+
There on nothing to prevent White’s win.
By
Venky[Chennai – India]
1. Kc8 Ba4 (any other move allows immediate Queening of the pawn)
2. Ne4 (the Knight heads for c4 when the Bishop can’t defend d8 anymore)
eg. 2. …Kf5
3. Nd6+ Ke6
4. Nc4! Bc3
5. d8=Q
From Spain….
1)Kc8,Ba5
2)Ne6,black movie
3)Nc7+-
Looks pretty simple.
1. Kc8 Ba5
2. Ne6 Kf6
3. Nc7 any move but Bxc7
4. d8=Q+
or 3… Bxc7
4. Kxc7 Ke7
5. d8=Q+
Lucymarie
Not so hard, I think. Obviously, to win this kind of endgame, and one I have encountered many times over the years of playing online, is to use the knight as a blocker to keep black from sacrificing the bishop to take the new queen. In this position, white must either move the king to c8 or e8 and bring the knight to either c7 or e7 respectively. In this position, the knight can reach c7 in two hops, so the obvious plan is
1. Kc8 Ba5 (obviously only move)
2. Ne6 and there is no way to prevent white from playing 3.N
1.Kc8 Ba5
2.Ne6 Kf6
3.Nc7 K~
4.d8Q +-
1.Kc8 Ba5 2.Ne6 threatening 3.Nc7 and it’s over 1-0
Wild guess:
1. Nf3 Ba5+ 2. Kc8 [?] 3. Ne5+ [?] 4. Nc4 and white can promote
I like this puzzle. The key thing is to spot the blocking of the a5-d8 diagonal and the zugswang with the B on d8. There are a few choices about how to route the knight along the way but the method is exactly the same.
1. Kc8 Ba5
2. Ne4 Kf7
3. Nd2 Ke7 (otherwise the B will be forced off the diagonal)
3. Nc4 Bd8
4. Nd6 Bb6 (Ba5 leads to the same)
5. Nb5 Bd8 (or any other move)
6. Nc7 Now its zugswang.
BTW, the puzzle that is still bothering me is the knight ending from 30th May. I think I disproved all the alleged wins for white (see the last comment on that one). If you are reading this Susan, would you be so kind as to check it over?
I looked at it for some time now and I just don’t see what could be wrong with 1. Kc8, 2. Ne6 and 3. Nc7… and 1-0.
RU,
Yes, I found a lot the lines in that comment section less than satisfactory, but I haven’t looked at it since that day. I, too, would like a grandmaster’s line for that, or at least Fritz’s or Shredder’s
Oh this was nice.. i completely missed Nc7
God, I am such a patzer… I sent the N round some stupid route to reach c7 when it could get there in 2 moves!