|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 4 OF 4 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| Mar-31-11 | | YouRang: Suspiciously easy for a Thursday. In fact I was so suspicious that was slightly surprised when I finally confirmed that my solution was right. White, of course, threatens c8=Q, and black's obvious reply would be ...Rc3+, where the skewer exchanges black's R for white's Q, and black escapes with a draw thanks to his passed pawn. The only sensible thing for white to do then is prepare to block the skewer with 73.Rh5! (...Rc3+ is answered by Rc5). Black, denied the skewer and unable to get his rook to the 8th rank by his own pawn must either watch the successful promotion, or resign. He chose wisely. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | goodevans: <YouRang: Suspiciously easy for a Thursday.> Just like last Thursday.
I got both in under 30 seconds. Seems whoever is setting the Thursday puzzles is underestimating us (unlike whoever sets them at the weekends!). |
|
Mar-31-11
 | | HeMateMe: Oops, I meant it was a Lake Geneva position. I'll never make it to the Double Jeopardy round for chess spelling. |
|
Mar-31-11
 | | perfidious: <scormus: For me and I guess a lot of run of the mill club players the answer is easy. You play in a regional evening league, maybe get to 36 moves by 10 pm and then the caretaker comes round and throws everyone out. You either agree the result or send it for adjudication.> Many years ago, Larsen was critical of this very tendency in an interview he did with CHO'D Alexander, the full text of which can be found in one of the latter's books. It was Larsen's contention that, if I recall correctly, it reduced fighting spirit and that one simply didn't learn to play endgames. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | stst: The suspicion is:"Why this one appears so easy??" - any hidden traps??
Don't see it on the board.
White's mission is to queen its P ASAP, while Bk's mission is of course to block it, kill it, and queen its own P ASAP.
It would be much more exciting if it's Bk's move. But it's not. W to move, hence to safeguard its P,
73. Rh5 to block off Bk's check by its Rc3.
Come again:
73.Rh5 Rc3
74.Rc5 RxR
75.KxR Pg3
76.Pc8Q Pg2
77.Qf8+ Ke6 (or any place other than the g-file)
78.Qg8 and the Bk P will be off-board.
If after 73.Rh5, Bk sees the check won't work, it may go 73.....Ra3 to race to a8 to stop WP queening, but too late:
74.Pc8Q and Bk's R can get nowhere near, checking again will be blocked by W'Rc5. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | tatarch: I think this was a good puzzle, at least for me. Like others have suggested, players who only play blitz or otherwise rarely think about technical endgames might not see the solution so quickly. More of an initial approach problem, e.g. I spent a minute or two trying to figure out how to get the king on the white squares so I could promote with check, without seeing the much simpler move right away. Would be nice to register these solutions much more quickly. So in short: I, for one, appreciate the puzzle diversity CG. Keep it coming. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | BOSTER: <adamico> <I honestly have no idea what the difficulty level of a puzzle like this should be...>
I'm not a new "member" here,but still not so old like <patzer2>, or <dzechiel>.
Nevertheless, I can not understand what criterion uses <CG> to determine the position like the <puzzle>.
If you read the comments during, for ex., one year, you can see that about 90-95% of the solutions are correct and they are found <almost instantly>, or about 1sec-5min. Can you such positions count like the <puzzle>? This is the same question like "To be ,or not to be"?
Maybe such <CG>'s choice can not seduce many strong players like <Zkid>, and this is why you can meet them only couple times during the year. This is what is called " the bulding a bridge" between <CG> and community. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | TheMacMan: found Rh5 instantly.. nanoseconds |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | patzer2: <Once> I guess Fritz was right about 73. Kd5!? being a difficult alternative win for White. From the position I gave in my last post above (i.e. with 75...Ke5) in your line, I put it to a table base at http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=... and it gave wins with 76. Rc6 (win in 26), 76. Rh5 (win in 28) and 76. Re6+ (win in 30). |
|
Mar-31-11
 | | fm avari viraf: If one remembers Lucena then one would go for 73.Rh5 & Black's fate is sealed. |
|
Mar-31-11
| | HeMateMe: Didn't Lucena get "whacked" in the first Godfather movie? |
|
Mar-31-11
 | | mjmorri: Luca Brasi got "whacked". |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | Jim Bartle: Something about fishes, I think. |
|
Mar-31-11
| | perfidious: <HeMateMe: Didn't Lucena get "whacked" in the first Godfather movie? > As <mj> mentioned, it was Brasi who bought the farm, at the hands of the Tattaglias and Virgil Sollozzo. Retribution for the scum was not long in coming, however; the Corleone Family showed them who was in charge in the end. |
|
Mar-31-11
 | | Penguincw: Oh yah.Got it right.Here's my reasons:
1.It allows 74.c8=♕ because if you play it now,black can give a check on c3 followed by taking the queen.In doing so,the white king is now further away from stopping black's passed pawn.If the rook ever gets black's passed pawn,the king would just take the rook and two kings on the board is a draw.As white,we have worked hard to get the pawn so far,so a draw is unpleasant.Black is the one that's aiming for a draw.After 73.♖h5,if black plays 73...♖c3+ then white can meet it with 74.♖c5 and black is loss. 2.It limits the black from crossing the 5th rank.
click for larger view |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | redorc19: I really don't like endgame puzzles, mostly because, 1. Like pointed out by <scormus>, I rarely reach them. (it seems that that is common at amateur level). 2. instead of seeing the main idea, you must analyse until you have a very obviously won game (eg K+Q vs K). I thought, "Hey, 73. Kd5 works..." I saw only the first move!!! Besides, when I saw the simple 73. Rh5! I started hating myself... I suck at chess!! |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | morfishine: <sevenseaman> Sorry that you missed it. Its fascinating to me how one can see the answer while one misses, then vice versa. For example, I didn't see blacks <Bg5> a couple of puzzles ago, yet you blissfully arrived at the correct answer without the slightest of problems. All the while I obsessed over <Ne3>. No biggie, now you will file this information away for future use. Today, I settled on <73.Rh5> very quickly, but then spent 4-5 minutes double-checking thinking "Whats the catch?". Alas, no catch |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | estrick: I would have thought 'make a bridge a la Lucena' if Black didn't also have a pawn. But that little distraction on g4 clouded my vision . . . |
|
Mar-31-11
 | | Jimfromprovidence: <gofer> <Another interesting position would be as follows 
click for larger viewWhat is the answer then...>
This is a good side puzzle, because it shows that 1 Rh5 does not win here, but only draws. It is still an excellent move, because it gets the best result for white. It appears that the only way white loses is to promote first. If 1 c8Q??, then 1...Rc2+ 2 Kd5 Rxc8.
click for larger viewWhite's rook has to spend two tempi to control the g file, allowing black to play 3...Kg5 after 3 Rh1, sealing off white's king. If white tries 3 Ke4 to shut off black's king, then 3...g2 wins for black. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | WhiteRook48: 73 Rh5, of course, planning to block the check with 74 Rc5 |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | Quentinc: It's a good puzzle for those of us who don't remember our endgame studying. Like Patriot, I started out trying 73. Rh6+ with the idea of Kd7. 35 (gulp) years ago, I would have recalled the Lucena position instantly from books, but it took me a few minutes now to come up with Rh5. The reason a lot of people are scared of endgames is that you simply have to memorize and remember a lot. For instance, try mating with a bishop and knight if you haven't studied that ending in a while. Even concepts like the opposition in K & P endings are extremely complex to work out over the board if you don't remember the basic concepts. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | TrollKing: I am NO endgame guru, but even I got this
in about 15 seconds. Block the Black checks and White queens the pawn.This seemed a bit easy for a Thursday puzzle. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | Helloween: Lucena! |
|
Mar-31-11
 | | Peligroso Patzer: A more interesting puzzle position IMHO would be the following (with White to move):
click for larger viewUnlike the position in today's puzzle, in the diagrammed position, <1. Rh5> is the unique winning move. The position I have given illustrates an important principle in rook-vs.-pawn endings in which the stronger side's King is too far away to help stop the defender's pawn. In such positions, if the rook can be used to cut off(*) the opposing King on its third (or lower) rank (which, for a Black King, means 6th or higher algebraic rank) and do so before the pawn is within two moves of promotion, then the side with the rook wins. As soon as the pawn advances to the sixth rank (3rd algebraic rank for a Black pawn), the stronger side's rook attacks it laterally and, if it advances again, then from behind on the file. (Thus: <1. Rh5! g3 2. Rh3 g2 3. Rg3  >) (*) - <Note>: The King is definitely "cut off" if the pawn is two or more ranks ahead of it. If the diagrammed position were altered by putting the Black pawn on g5 (instead of g4), then 1. Rh5 Kf5!= is a draw. In this altered position (with the Black pawn on g5), White to move cannot force a win. If the White King, however, were one tempo closer on c7, then 1. Kd6! would be < >. |
|
| Mar-31-11 | | Thomas Lot: Remind that we must study basic endgame position. |
|
 |
|
|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 4 OF 4 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
Kibitzing
