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Jun-13-09
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| Peligroso Patzer: Everyone should take note of Tarrasch’s comment at Black’s 39. … a5: “In this position, the game appears to be lost for White. How can the King, way across the board, still hold up the a-pawn, which threatens to go for a Queen after 40... c4 41.bxc4 bxc4 and c3? Black had already calculated the following play before the exchange of pieces: 40.h4 Kg4 41.Kf6 c4 42.bxc4 bxc4 43.Ke5 c3 44.bxc3 a4 45.Kd4 a3, and his own pawn on c3 prevents the King, situated in the 'square' of the passed pawn, from approaching it.” – Tarrasch This verifies that Tarrasch had overlooked Lasker’s finesse (41. Kg6) and believed he was winning at that point (move 39). |
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Jun-13-09
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| Peligroso Patzer: <An Englishman: Good Evening: How much credit should I give myself, since I found the star move, but thought it would win the game? I did not see how Tarrasch could salvage the half-point after Lasker's problem-like move.> Black would have lost, of course, if, after 41. Kg6!, he had stuck to the breakthrough line (41. … Kxh4 42. Kf5 c4?, etc.) that would have won against 41. Kf6?. Hence Tarrasch’s comment: “Now [after 41. Kg6!] Black must still make exertions to save the game.” |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| remolino: White to play. 41.? Very difficult.
Black must defend by breaking through on the queenside with his pawns. To win, white must prevent the breakthrough while pushing the h pawn, or getting his king back in time to prevent the breakthrough and be able to end up an extra pawn on the queenside. 41. h5? looses, e.g., 41...Kxh5, 42.Kf6 c4 and the pawns breakthrough 41. Kf6? looses, e.g., 41... c4 and the pawns breaktrhough The right move most be:
41. Kg6! (double aim, support h pawn and bring king closer to queening squares of the Black pawns) A. 41...c4 42.h5 c3, 43.bxc3 a4, 44.bxa4 bxa4, 45.h6 a3, 46.h7 a3, 47.h8Q, a1Q, 48. Qd4 and this looks winnable B. 41...a4 42.h5 a3, 43.bxa3 c4, 44.bxc4 bxc4, 45.h6 c3, 46.h7 c3, 47.h8Q, c1Q, 48. Qh5+ forcing an exchange of queens and wins with extra pawn C. 41...Kxh4, 42.Kf5 and white should be able not only to stop the pawns but to remain an extra pawn and win. I have already spent 30 minutes, so will not calculate all variations in "C" now. Let see how I did today. Time to check. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| remolino: OK, so I will give myself the point thought I expected White would win in my variation "C", since OTB I would have achieved a draw as white with the move and rationale explained. By the way, it was easier for me to solve this one as I was familiar with the Yates-Marshall, 1929 game, with a similar concept. Solved Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week, but missed Wednesday. Funny. |
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Jun-13-09
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| kevin86: 41  g6!! A brilliant move by the good Doctor Lasker!! White gains a tempo move and opposition with the king to allow him to come closer to the enemy pawns. Instead of advancing his pawns,black must scramble the king to stop WHITE from winning. The idea of a king attacking and defending at the same time is exhibited here: 
click for larger view.
Black to move,white to draw.
1...h5 2 g7 h4 3 f6 b6 4 e5 xc6 5 f4 and stops the pawn |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| BlackWaive: I solved this puzzle rather quickly, but I'm not sure if I've seen it before - it looked rather familiar. If 41...Kxh4, White draws since he can reach the pawns before Black does. Otherwise, both sides promote: a situation favorable for White but likely drawn. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| Eduardo Leon: I saw the whole defense. :-) But it took me quite a lot of time to see why 41. Kg6 worked: it forces black to lose time in his purpose to advance his pawns with 41. ... Kxh4. Then, because white will approach the a pawn with his king by the white squares, the b2 pawn won't be a hindrance in the way. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| muralman: Piece of cake. I had a lot more trouble with Monday's. It was a foot race, that left only left moves to clear the board. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| Eduardo Leon: Well, the whole truth must be said...
I'm such an idiot! When I saw the problem, I thought "White plays and manages to win with his passed pawn by threatening black to take all his pawns". But after analyzing the position carefully I saw 41. Kf6 c4! 42. bxc4 bxc4 43. Ke5 c3!! and, to my horror, white's very own b2 pawn was a hindrance in the way of the king to the bottom left corner of the board. For a while, I thought white had no defense, but then I thought "What if white manages, somehow, to chase the a pawn by the b1-g8 diagonal, instead of the a1-h8 one, where the b2 pawn is?". And only then I saw the light, because I found the real purpose of the h4 pawn there. It must be sacrificed, so black loses time capturing it. Besides, his king is deviated from a square where he can protect f5, because the h file is at least one square too far from it (g5 or g6). Ok, I saw the idea. Now, the implementation of the plan! Well, now that's not too hard, since white can force black to capture his h pawn immediately and approach f5 by playing 41. Kg6! and, after 41. ... Kxh4 42. Kf5, the desired position has been achieved. Peace, everybody |
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Jun-13-09
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| Jimfromprovidence: FWIW… After the variation 41 Kg6 c4?! bxc4 bxc4 40 h5 we get the following position.
click for larger viewPer the table bases, one pawn move for black is drawing (a4), where the other (c3), is a forced mate for white in 74 moves! |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| Zzyw: This week works very well for me. Hoping to complete 7/7 on Sunday. |
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Jun-13-09
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| zenpharaohs: Lovely problem and one I'll save for endgame instruction. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| goodevans: <ennar: ... The problem with h5, is incredibly close. It seems that white will get out of it, because the game will go down to a queen vs. bishop pawn ending, which is known to be drawn if the pawn can reach the 7th rank. The problem is that the white king is not on the corner side of the board, and instead is closer to the middle. Usually, this is not too much of a problem, however this gives the black king time to come in, and force mate.> Please elaborate as I don’t understand. This all sounds quite complicated whereas I thought the problem with h5 was much simpler than that, viz. 41 h5 Kxh5 42 Kf6 c4 43 bxc4 bxc4 44 Ke5 c3 45 bxc3 a4 etc. |
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Jun-13-09
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| johnlspouge: Saturday (Very Difficult)
Lasker vs Tarrasch, 1914 (41.?) White to play and draw.
Material: Even. White has an outside passed Ph4. Black must keep Kg4 near Ph4 or expend tempi to play …Kxh4. Strategy indicates that White should play his K to the Q-side to pick up Ps, so the natural candidate is 41.Kf6. The resolution of the Q-side is the crux of the position, however. The Q-side configuration has a partial vertical symmetry around the b-file, which simplifies the analysis. Candidates (41.): Kf6
I convinced myself that 41.Kf6 lost, but I did not put Ph5 together with the missing tempo for the draw. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| jon01: This is Tip 1 in Steve Giddins "101 Chess Endgame Tips". |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| Fezzik: I was disappointed by this pawn ending as a Saturday puzzle. Sure, Lasker's 41.g6! was beautiful. But after decades upon decades of amazing pawn endings, this was relatively simple, especially for a Saturday. Perhaps we could devote a week to pawn endings? I would have loved to see any of a number of pawn endings that require an intimate knowledge of corresponding squares, or perhaps more like Stoltz-Nimzovich (which I think has been shown before). There are plenty of great pawn endings that occur between relatively obscure players. This was simply a matter of forcing Black to take on h4. (And making sure the White king could get to f5 in time.) |
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Jun-13-09
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| TheaN: Saturday 14 June 2009
<41.Kg6  or =>
I did not even calculate the rest, but Kg6 HAS to be the logical move. Due to the h5 threat, Black has to capture and loses a tempo. As tempi are only what matters in such endgame, it HAD to be White's logical move. As Tarrasch pointed out, Black saving is not too difficult but he is definitely not on the winning side after Kg6. No full analysis, but I do claim the full point as the idea is the only thing that matters here. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| FlashinthePan: Got this one rather easily. I was hesitating between 41.Kf6 and Kg6, as the right plan was obviously to retreat the white king in the shortest possible way towards the a-file to prevent the promotion of Black's a-pawn. I saw that after both 41. Kf6 and Kg6 the resulting position would be the same if Black took the h4 pawn. Then, I realized that Black wasn't forced to take the pawn after Kf6 (unlike after Kg6), and that on the contrary pushing 42...c4 was winning. Therefore, the right move had to be 41.Kg6 and puzzle was solved. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| SamAtoms1980: I had 41 Kg6 Kxh4 42 Kf5 and draws. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| WhiteRook48: I had 41 Kf6 losing |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| TheBish: Lasker vs Tarrasch, 1914 White to play (41.?) "Very Difficult"
I could do this the easy way and say I've seen it before, White draws after the forced 41. Kg6! (which would be correct), but it's been awhile, and I would get more out of this by showing my "stuff"! First of all, note that White loses after 41. Kf6? c4! and now: a) 42. bxc4 bxc4 43. Ke5 c3! 44. bxc3 a4 45. Kd4 a3 and the a-pawn can't be stopped, due to the obstruction of White's own pawn on c3 - traitor! b) 42. Ke5 c3! (also winning is 42...cxb3 43. Kd4 a4! but not 43...b4?? 44. Kc4 a4 45. Kxb4 and suddenly White is winning) 43. bxc3 a4 44. bxa4 bxa4 45. Kd4 a3, and again the "blockhead" on c3 keeps the white king from preventing the touchdown on a1. But 41. Kg6! allows White to save the game, since now the threat to queen his h-pawn force Black to waste a precious tempo capturing it, allowing White's king a clear path to stop the black a-pawn from queening, i.e. 41. Kg6 Kxh4 42. Kf5 c4 43. bxc4 bxc4 44. Ke4 c3 45. bxc3 a4 46. Kd3 a3 47. Kc2 a2 48. Kb2. In effect, White is up a tempo in this line, since his king travels down the white diagonal (b1-h7), so the king is on d3 instead of d4, one square closer to reaching the critical square b2. If Black fails to capture the h-pawn, then White wins as follows: 41. Kg6! c4? 42. bxc4 bxc4 (if 42...b4 White wins with 43. c5! a4 44. c6 a3 45. bxa3 bxa3 46. c7 a2 47. c8=Q+ and the check saves the day!) 43. h5 a4 44. h6 c3 45. bxc3 a3 46. h7 a2 47. h8=Q a1=Q 48. Qd4+ and White wins after several more moves. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| TheBish: I forgot to give Black's actual drawing line, but it turns out to be the game score! |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| njchess: I know this ending way too well to treat it as a puzzle. |
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| Jun-13-09 |
| Poohblah: 1. h5 Kxh5 2. Kf6 was my first thought. I had the right idea, but my method was flawed |
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| Jun-14-09 |
| gofer: Not sure this was a "Saturday" puzzle, Kg6 is pretty obvious once you look at the possible pawn combinations for black. I am surprised that black didn't immediately go for one of them anyway... i.e.
41 Kg6 Kxh4
42 Kf5 c4
43 Ke4 c3
44 bxc3 a4
45 bxa4 bxa4
46 Kd3 a3
47 Kc2 a2
48 Kb2 a1=Q
49 Kxa1 Kg5 drawing...
but once you have seen this combination it it is obvious that Kg6 is mandatory otherwise the same combination succeeds! |
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