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May-07-09
 | | YouRang: I saw the idea of 34...Rc4! almost immediately. Not due to any brilliance, but rather a lacking of anything else to look at. What else does black have going except for promotion tactics, and how else to save Pc2 and enable Pb4 except to sac a rook give us deep connected passers? Anyway, once we see 34...Rc4 35.bxc4, we must figure out how to force promotion. 35...b3 doesn't work because white will happily sac the rook back (a "sac-back"?) for both pawns: 36.Rxc2 bxc2 37.Rc1 & Rxc2 winning. However, 35....Bc5! pins and wins a rook, leaving white with one rook to stop the two advanced passers -- and it's not up to the task. Good puzzle. :-) |
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| May-07-09 | | JG27Pyth: Rc4 was one of the first moves I examined... but I rejected it because I calculated the continuation incorrectly :( I believe Rc1 is correct... and leads to a difficult RvR ending -- can anyone improve this (no software was consulted): 34...Rc4
35. Rc1 Bc5
36. Kg2 Bxf2
37. Kxf2 Rc3
And Black has a significant advantage. |
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May-07-09
| | YouRang: Ah, I see I overlooked white's defense of 35.Rc1, which is clearly the best they have. Now, 35...Bc5 36.Kg2 Bxf2 37.Kxf2 38.Rc3 leaves black a bit better, but the outcome is rather muddy -- at least for the purpose of being a puzzle. My shallow analysis makes me think think that black can end up with an outside passer, which may be winning. |
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| May-07-09 | | TheChessGuy: I'm not counting this one. Saw the game in OMGP II. |
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| May-07-09 | | JG27Pyth: @ You Rang
That's the same line I looked at -- I think Black is playing for the win, but it sure looks like there's game left to me. |
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May-07-09
| | YouRang: <JG27Pyth> <34...Rc4 35. Rc1 Bc5 36. Kg2 Bxf2 37. Kxf2 Rc3 And Black has a significant advantage.>
Yes, the more I look at that position, the more satisfied I am that black is winning. The black king can roam the board and zugzwang white to death. The white king could move over to support Rxc2, but by that time the white king is centralized and the rook exchange will favor black. |
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May-07-09
 | | penguin496: Is 34...Bc5 also winning? |
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| May-07-09 | | doubledrooks: This is a beautiful combination! I loved it.
After wondering what in the world the first move could be, I finally found 34...Rc4!. I did see the game continuation up to the end (37...b3), but I missed a few variations along the way. Would I have seen this combination over the board? Hmm... |
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May-07-09
| | ajk68: I think the answer is that after
35. Rc2 Bc5 36. Kg2 Bxf2 37. Kxf2 Rc3
there is
38...Rxb3 39. Rxc2 40. Ra3
And black will have connected passers. |
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May-07-09
| | ajk68: My previous analysis is incomplete.
White can give check and capture the a-pawn.
This makes things complicated. |
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| May-07-09 | | visigoth: That was a beautiful move and sequence to achieve the win! Bravo! |
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May-07-09
| | ajk68: Black has plenty of time to prepare Rxb3 (removing the threat against the a-pawn first). |
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| May-07-09 | | mworld: mworld: darn, i thought it was playing bc5 immediately threatening the discovered check if white takes the pawn and also threatening the pin if white doesnt |
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| May-07-09 | | tatarch: Roemer: What happens after 34. Rf2xf1 instead of Rcxf1? I had the same thought. Maybe 34.Rd3, giving up the 7th rank pawn but picking up those two backward pawns? I agree that this seems like a better alternative for white though, or at least more lively. |
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May-07-09
 | | Jimfromprovidence: I kind of liked 32 Bf3 instead of Bf1 because it gives white more defensive flexibility. (like giving the bishop access to the a6-f1 diagonal while not en prise).
click for larger viewNow, if black continues with the same concept as the text with, say 32…c2 33 Rc1 Rc4, white now has 34 Be2, which looks OK for him.
click for larger view |
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May-07-09
| | Kasputin: Missed it - close but of course close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades - not in chess. I could see that something might be up with the bishop coming to c5 and either pinning the f2 rook or creating a discovered check if that rook moved and so I looked at 34 ...Bc5 first. The best that I could see for white was to move the king to g2. And after 35 ...Rc4 come to something like the the position actually played. I thought that 35. Rxc2 wasn't going to work because 35 ...Rc4+ protects the bishop and with the discovered check black is lost after either moving the king or moving the f1 rook to f2. I completely missed the fact that the c2 rook could come back to f2+ And while things don't look horrible for white (I'd much rather play white in the position then black), white's passed pawn has been eaten by a black rook and the material will even after the bishop captures f2 rook. In these situations, I wish I could turn things around and think about the candidate move ...Rc4. In other words, having thought of it in a different sequence of moves, why not think of it as a fresh new candidate move? Of course, I missed the white c2 rook returning to the f2 spot. So maybe if I had seen that, then I would have thought about moving the ...Rc4 first instead of the bishop to c5. |
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May-07-09
| | Kasputin: <dzechiel: ...Just returned from watching the Angels take it on the chin from the Blue Jays, 13-1. It was ugly beyond description. The Angles were trailing 2-0 after the first two Blue Jay batters, and it went rapidly down hill from there. <sigh>> Too bad you had to witness it up close, but as a Jays fan, I can't feel too bad. All we have up here in the frozen white north at this point is the Canucks and the
Blue Jays. (When I was in Texas btw no one believed me when I said that Vancouver was warmer in the winter in comparsion to most central/northern US states - and trying to explain the jet stream didn't help because they thought I was making that up too.) But at least you got today's puzzle! |
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| May-07-09 | | ForeverYoung: very clever finish by Botvinnik! Bravo! |
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| May-07-09 | | felixd: Wow, for one time I wasn't even close to the answer! |
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May-07-09
 | | patzer2: <JG27Pyth> <34...Rc4 35. Rc1 Bc5 36. Kg2 Bxf2 37. Kxf2 Rc3 and Black has a significant advantage.> Well, actually Black has a clearly won endgame. Here's one possibility:
35. Rc1 Bc5! 36. Kg2 (or 36. Kf1) 36...Bxf2 37. Kxf2 Rc3! 38. Ke2 Rxg3 39. Rxc2 Rg2+ 40. Kd3 Rxc2 41. Kxc2 Kf7 42. Kd3 Kg6 43. Kc4 Kh5 44. Kc5 Kxh4 45. Kd6 g5! 46. fxg5 f4 47. Kxe6 f3 48. g6 hxg6 49. Kd7 f2 50. e6 f1=Q 51. e7 Qf5+ 52. Kd8 Qd5+ 53. Kc7 Qg8 54. Kd7 Qxb3  . |
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May-07-09
| | penguin496: I think 34...Bc5 also wins.
For example 34...Bc5 36 Rxc2 Rc4+ 37 Rfc2(forced) Rc3 and black wins a pawn plus the exchange back. Am
I missing something?
Of course 34...Rc4 wins easier. |
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| May-07-09 | | soberknight: I thought it was Bc5. I didn't even think of Rc4. It's one of those things where you need to practice looking for moves that 99% of the time are unplayable, by looking at the context, in this case connected passed pawns that can beat a lone rook. My thinking was similar, but not identical, to Kasputin above. The fellow who said Rc4 doesn't deserve an exclamation point is an extremely strict grader. Rc4 is a beautiful move, perhaps easy to find but difficult to analyze through, and clearly the best move. |
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| May-07-09 | | PeterB: Rc4! I also saw Bc5 but after Rc2 Black has problems, as his Bc5 is attacked. But Rc4 is the right move order. This is a good problem, as we must look beyond initial impressions to find the win! |
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| May-07-09 | | ILikeFruits: think inside...
the box...
every cup...
is half...
famished... |
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May-08-09
| | patzer2: Appears to me that after 34... Bc5 35. Rxc2! Rc4+ 36. Rcf2 Rc3 37. Kg2 Bxf2 38. Kxf2 Rxb3 39. Rc1 Rb2+ 40. Kf3 = the game has fizzled out to a difficult but level endgame. |
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sac: 27...Rc3