|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 3 OF 5 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| May-13-09 | | TheaN: 3/3
I'd like to point out to people whom just say '41....Rf1  ' might not be enough. After 42.pass Rxf2 43.Rb1, Black isn't promoting anything... wasn't the whole point that the Black Rook was blocking the back rank :)? I even made a clear consideration on f3 or f4 as this is pretty crucial for the upcoming endgame: with the pawn on f4, White is clearly lost after: <39....Rc1 40.f4? h2 41.Nf2 Rf1 42.Ke3 Rxf2 43.Rb1 Rg2 44.Rh1 Rxg3† > winning also Pg4. |
 |
| May-13-09 | | ounos: Noting this is a puzzle, it was easy to spot. I hope I would also have spotted it in a real game! With one word: elegant. |
|
| May-13-09 | | ounos: Just look at the position a few moves earlier (just before the key g5 move).
click for larger viewAmazing how White managed to lose this! |
|
| May-13-09 | | petrie911: <<40....h2 41.Nf2 Rf1 42.Ke3 Rxf2 43.Rb1 Rg2 44.Rh1 Kg6 > I don't know if I'm missing something but this seems to nail the win for Black, White having a useless Rook at the moment which can hardly be activated by the White King. 42.Ke3 is not forced but I can't seem to find a more useful move here.> Unless I'm very much mistaken, 42. Ke3 is illegal due to the Knight on d5. Anyways, I agree that after 42.Rc2 Rxf2 43.Rc1 Rg2 44.Rh1 Kf6, White seems out of options. Ke1 is the only way to get his King over to help his rook, but Ne3 puts a stop to that. |
|
| May-13-09 | | blacksburg: hehehe funny tactics |
|
| May-13-09 | | zb2cr: It's hard to notice that wee little passed Pawn over on h3. Once you do, you see that to succeed in Queening it, you have to block White's Rook from getting to h1, as there is no way to protect the Pawn. Therefore: 39. ... Rc1! No matter whether White takes with King or Knight, he has thus placed a block in the path of the White Rook. Black will inevitably Queen. Oh, and <TheaN>: 42. Ke3 is not possible, the Black Knight covers that square. |
|
| May-13-09 | | Trigonometrist: Got it. It's pretty easy... |
|
| May-13-09 | | Samagonka: Took me a while but I finally got it! White has enough material to stop the h-pawn from promoting but he is totally handicapped in position and black is leading in time. |
|
| May-13-09 | | zooter: I'm not sure whether we need to go too deep into this position by analyzing 40.f3 h2 41.Nf2 as it's clear that 41...h1=Q+ wins a knight for the pawn and it's a hopeless endgame for white |
|
| May-13-09 | | TheBish: Averbakh vs Korchnoi, 1965 Black to move (39...?) "Medium/Easy"
With 39...Rc1! Black runs interference on White's ability to stop the h-pawn from queening, preventing a rook retreat to the first rank. This must be the quickest I've solved a Wednesday problem. Probably because I have seen similar problems in tactics books. |
|
| May-13-09 | | SamAtoms1980: <Nightranger: <What I overlooked was that White <does not take the rook> but simply plays 42 Kxc3 Rxg3 43 Rb1, now it heats up with 43 ... Rg1 44 Kc2 Kg6 45 Rd1 Kh5 46 Kd2 Kh4 47 e4! Kg3 48 Ke2 Kg2 49 f4! and whatever Black has now, it ain't a win.>
I'm sure it is after, 48...Rxd1.
fen=>
And so it is.
I gave the position a closer look and as it happens after 39 ... Nc3 40 f3 h2 41 Nf2 Rxg4, White can in fact break with 42 fxg4! Ne4+ 43 Ke3 Nxf2 44 Rb1! h1=Q 45 Rxh1 Nxh1 46 Kf3 Kg6 47 Kg2 Kg5 48 Kxh1 Kxg4 49 Kg2. 
click for larger viewIf this is a Black win, it sure isn't a trivial one. |
|
| May-13-09 | | krisxch: Rc1 any move then H2- H1 Queens ok |
|
May-13-09
 | | johnlspouge: Wednesday (Medium/Easy)
Averbakh vs Korchnoi, 1965 (39…?) Black to play and win.
Material: Down a P. The White Kd2 has 2 legal moves, both on the back rank. Black has a passed Ph3. The Ph3 has 2 stop squares remaining, h2 and h1, and requires 2 moves to queen. The White Nd3 can reach both stop squares in 3 moves (e.g., Nd3-e5-f3-h2 or Pf2-f4, Nd3-f2-h1). The White Kd2 requires 4 moves. Thus, only Rb2 can stop h1=Q, and it requires the back rank to do so. Black can get there first, however. Candidates (39…): Rc1
39…Rc1
The Ph3 will queen, because capture of Rc1 blocks the White Rb2, leaving it 3 moves away from h1: unblock, Rb2-b1-h1. |
|
May-13-09
 | | Marmot PFL: Rc1 was not the 1st move i looked at, probably 3rd or 4th, but eliminating the alternatives is very easy. |
|
May-13-09
| | johnlspouge: As other kibitzers noted, White can prevent Ph3 from queening, but only at the cost of at least a piece. |
|
| May-13-09 | | geeker: I got this pretty quickly, because the key was clearly promotion of the passed h-pawn. 39...Rc1 forces White to either misplace his Knight or block the first rank with his King. Non-forcing moves would allow 40. Rb1 or 40. f3 (intending Nf2). |
|
May-13-09
 | | awfulhangover: This is one of those easy puzzles, since you know it's a puzzle. But very, very easy to miss in a real game. |
|
| May-13-09 | | andymac: What about 39. ... Nc3. This wins after 40. Rc2 Ne4+ 41. [any] Rxc2. Any move other than Rc2 allows h2 which promotes for Black. White can't even go around the other way as 40. Rb4 is blocked by the a5 pawn. What am I missing? |
|
| May-13-09 | | TheaN: <andymac: What am I missing?> I think 'just' 40.f3 with 41.Nf2... as White should play, even after Rc1. After Nc3, however, I can't see so quickly how Black is going to win that. |
|
| May-13-09 | | TheaN: <TheaN: above> As <David> actually thought of in the first place, but rewinded when it didn't work. |
|
May-13-09
 | | Patriot: It took me several minutes to spot 39...Rc1!, well after noting the dangerous h3-pawn. This is an "interference" tactic, which doesn't come up nearly as often as most tactics. It's very rare that I've seen problems like this. |
|
| May-13-09 | | YetAnotherAmateur: The best defense I could find for white against 39. ... Rc1:
40. f3 h2
41. Nf2 h1=Q
42. Nxh1 Rxh1
and black is up a piece for 2 pawns. The resulting endgame, though, looks anything but trivial. |
|
| May-13-09 | | TheChessGuy: A game between Yuri Averbakh and Viktor Korchnoi would be very likely to reduce to an endgame. From then on, that's where the fun starts! These were two of the strongest endgame players in the USSR at that point. Smyslov, Geller, and Polugayevsky are other players in this class. A couple of years later, they would be joined by Karpov. |
|
| May-13-09 | | YoungEd: Looks like I'm wearing my 1200 hat this week. 0/3 :( |
|
| May-13-09 | | mindmaster: Donno why I took so much time for this simple move....Pretty good one for Monday... |
|
|
|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 3 OF 5 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
