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| Jan-06-11 | | zooter: Ok, been watching chessgames.com for this week without posting (long time since I came to this site) Looks like 40.Bxh5 wins immediately as 40...gxh5 41.g4 and white will queen time to check |
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| Jan-06-11 | | estrick: No rooks on the board to be sacrificed, -only a bishop. But that will do. Bxh5 leads to a passed pawn that Black cannot stop. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | rilkefan: 40. Bh5 gxh5 41. g4 looks trivially won, and if not gxh5 then white can just move the bishop away to allow the pawns and king to penetrate on the kside (or maybe the pawns threaten to break through tying the black k to the kingside while white goes around the other side and eats the a pawn). |
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| Jan-06-11 | | dzechiel: White to move (40?). Material even. "Medium."
At first glance you might think that black was better in this position, as he has no doubled pawns and only one isolated pawn. However, the black king is 'way over on the b-file, and the action will take place on the h-file. That, together with the fact that black's bishop is constrained by his own pawns means that white can play... 40 Bxh5 gxh5
What else is black going to do? Maybe 40...Kc7 is better, because after 41 g4
white is just four moves away from a new queen, and all black can do is watch. Let's go back and see if the king move is superior. Instead... 40 Bxh5 Kc7 41 g4 Kd7 42 Bxg6 fxg6 43 h5 Ke7 44 h6 Kf8 45 h7 Kg7 and black has caught the h-pawn. So, white needs to save the bishop back on move 41. The line might then go... 40 Bxh5 Kc7 41 Be2 Kd8 42 g4 Ke7 43 Kd4
and white will soon have passed pawns on both sides of the board. I think this must be it, time to check. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | Formula7: 40.Bxh5 and now if gxh5 then 41.g4 and Black is unable to stop one of White's kingside pawns from promoting because his bishop is boxed in. If Black doesn't take the bishop, White retreats his bishop and has won a pawn. |
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Jan-06-11
 | | Phony Benoni: 
click for larger viewWhite, moving up the board, to play.
First, win or draw? White's pawns are weaker, but Black's bishop is so bad that it's probably a win position. Considered plans like the immediate king invasion and 40.b4 to try and lock out Black's king from counter-attacking White's e-pawns. Both may yield winning chances (and we'll probably see some attempts to prove that), but they seem somewhat vague. Is there something simpler? 40.g4 hxg4 41.Bxg4 followed by 42.h5? That could lose the b-pawn, and give Black chances on the queenside before White can get his threats going. Then looked at 41.Bxh5 gxh5 42.g4, and all became clear. White's h-pawn romps home while his king can deal with Black's g-pawn. I gave a possible Bxa6 sacrifice in some lines a lot of consideration before looking at 41.Bxh5, perhaps because it produced the threat of an immediate passed pawn instead of having to wait a move or two. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | FabrikaLaHun: When I first loaded the page, I saw T L Petrosian vs....and that was all I needed to see to know it was White to Play and win. When I did look at the position, I saw material was even and initially was surprised that it was white to play. As <dzechiel> pointed out, whites pawn structure seems inferior on the surface to that of black. Move options are few...we know there is a Queen in the making somewhere. Best option is to break through on the King side (h file) since black's King is on the other side of the board and black's light squared bishop is blocked by his pawns. g4 doesn't immediately guarantee a passed pawn but a bishop sac on h5,then gxh5, g4 guarantees a free run for white down the h file. I didn't see the game continuation though. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | FabrikaLaHun: Welcome back, <zooter> |
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Jan-06-11
 | | NM JRousselle: I wonder if Petrosian saw the finish when he played 35 f4! I think f4! was the best move of the game. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | TheBish: T L Petrosian vs H Simonian, 2008 White to play (40.?) "Medium"
White wins with 40. Bxh5! gxh5 41. g4 hxg4 42. h5 and the pawn will queen. If Black declines the bishop, then White will eventually create a passed h-pawn with 41. Be2 and a timely g4 and h5. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | patzer2: For today's Thursday puzzle, 40. Bxh5! allows White to create a decisive passed pawn thanks in large part to Black's bad Bishop. |
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Jan-06-11
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: I wonder how many Petrosians in Armenia have been named Tigran since 1963. Anyhow, as for the game itself, without any other pieces or pawns on the board, the structure of e4, e5, g2 and h4 can never force a passed pawn vs. e6, f7, g6 and h5. But add a very good Bishop vs. one that has no moves, and sham sacrifices are suddenly possible. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | Fezzik: 40.Bh5 wins, but doesn't the much more mundane 40.Kf4 intending Kg5-f6-f7 and so on also win? |
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| Jan-06-11 | | Once: A delightful finish to this game. The action really starts back on move 30, just after black has played 29...Bd8
click for larger viewBlack threatens to win a pawn with Bxb6 followed by Qxb6. Instead of trying to stop this plan, Petrosian alters the deal slightly. He allows this pawn to be won, but he makes sure that black has to do it with his king rather than his queen or bishop. So first Petrosian swaps off pieces into an endgame:
30.Qc8 Qxc8 31.Nxc8 Rd7 32.Rxd7 Bxd7 33.Nb6 Bxb6 34.axb6 
click for larger viewNow the b6 pawn is passed and black's bishop has to act quickly to stop it from queening. But surely there is no way for white to protect this pawn? Black's king just wanders over from the kingside and gobbles it up? 34...Bc8 Pretty obvious really. 35.f4
I really like this move. It looks like white is sacrificing another pawn, but the threat is e5-Bf3-b7 and the b pawn will cost black his bishop. Black ignores the white f pawn and foes after the b pawn. 35...Kf8 36.fxe5 Ke7 37.Kf2 Kd7 38.Ke3 Kc6 39. h4 
click for larger viewOne move before the puzzle and all looks serene and safe for black. And indeed, Fritzie doesn't see a won game for white yet, with an advantage of less than a pawn. But Black cannot see the harm is snacking on that b6 pawn which he has had his eye on for at least the last ten moves. And the rest you know. It turns out that the b6 pawn is poisoned, because black cannot capture it and then get his king back to the kingside to stop the white h pawn. Instead of 39...Kxb6, Fritzie wants to play Bb7 to set up counterthreats against e4. We often think of chess as a war game, but just occasionally it shifts into being a race. Enjoyable puzzle. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | zooter: Thanks Fabrika |
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| Jan-06-11 | | TheaN: Thursday 6 January 2010
<40.?>
Material: = (Black 6♙ vs 6♙ > 1♙♙)
Candidates: Bxa6, Kf4, g4, <[Bxh5]> -ML-
The first sac to come to mind is obviously Bxa6. Very obviously not much later we can already dismiss this move. No initiative, no compensation. It is odd then however, many did not immediately consider the ram Bishop on the other side of the board. Consilidation moves like Kf4 are much more logical, or g4 to exchange inner for outer pawns. However, the sac is so obvious once you see it. <40.Bxh5!>
/A\
<40....gxh5 41.g4 hxg4 42.h5  > where the positioning of the White King determines. So, the Bishop is actually immune. /B\
<40....Kc7 41.Be2  > this is not a pleasant position to be in as Black. Now White is dominating the king side's outer files, and g4, h5 - h8 are easy enough moves. Black has to give up his defense, allowing White to create a second weakness on the Queen side. And as Waitzkin always says, in the endgame you need two weaknesses to exploit to win. Time to check. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | M.Hassan: "Medium" White to play 40.?
Materials are equal
White has doubled pawns on e file which although in general is a disadvantage but in here helps him because Black King can not use d5 and d6 squares and if White pushes b pawn to b4, Black King can not use Queenside at all for as long as Bishop is stationed on a6f1 diagonal and Black a pawn can not march towards promotion because it will be captured. So, I think the game may continue thus:40.b4 Bd7
41.Kf4 Bb5
42.Bf3 Kc6
43.Kg5 Kd7
44.Kf6 Ke8
45.g4 hxg4
46.Bxg4 Bd3
47.Bf3
1/2-1/2
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I saw 40.Bxh5 but did not think it would be a winning line!-Lot to learn |
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| Jan-06-11 | | Geronimo: I saw immediately that the white pawn structure was stronger than it's initial appearance suggested and that black's bishop and king were both ineffectual. I then looked at an immediate 40. Kf4, with the intention of attacking the pawn chain - what can the black pawns really do here? - and an eventual white queen. Of course 40.Bxh5 got the job done immediately *sigh*. Is 40. Kf4 losing? It would be so typical of my play to grind out a win with a blunt mallet when a scalpel would have been sufficient.... |
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| Jan-06-11 | | nuwanda:
i wonder how many people here have seen that after 40.Bxh5 black is just one tempo short of stopping the white h-pawn... so, as <Once> told us, fritz move 39...Bb7 defends against this threat. but i would like to know how fritz will defend the resulting position, to me it seems lost. after 40.Kf4 black has the choice:
40...Kxb6 41.Kg5 Bxe4 42.Kf6 Bxg2 43.Kxf7
or 40...Kd7 41.Kg5 Ke7 42.Bf1 Bc8 43.Bd3 Bb7 42.Be2 Bc8 43.Bd1 Bb7 44.Kf4 and both defences seem to be lost |
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| Jan-06-11 | | daveinsatiable: 35 f4! is a beauty, the sort of move I'd never find (indeed it took me a good couple of minutes of head-scratching just to work out why it was played). Lovely. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | gmalino: Oh yes, it's Thursday, fighting day for me.
Looks like you need to have endgame-skills for this puzzle, let's see... White to move. Even material, everyone has ws-bishops. White has doubled pawns on the Kingside, blocked by a black pawn that is protected by blacks ws-bishop.
We have a King close to blacks pawns, so this could be a decisive lead. Trying:
40. Kf4 aiming on the f7-pawn. Black can't protect with the bish because he has no space behind this pawn.
.........Kc6
41. Kg5 Kd7
42. Kf6 Ke8
That holds for black!
Ha, now I saw something mariachi-style.
40. Kf4 Kc6
41. Kg5 Kd7
42. Bxh5! gxh5
43. g4 hxg4
44. Kxg4 Ke8
45. And the black King is in the magical square.....
Somewhere must be one! tempo.
Trying it differently. Maybe the King moves are unnecessary.. 40. Bxh5! gxh5
41. g4! hxg4
42. h5!
And Voilà, the h-pawn can't be stopped anymore....
If this is right it's the first week in which I got 4/4, uh-uh-uh... |
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| Jan-06-11 | | Chesschatology: <Once> A lovely peice of analysis, throwing light on the depth and creativity of Petrosian's play. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | gofer: The idea of the bishop sac in this sort of position comes to mind very quickly. The black LSB is blocked
from stopping the h pawn from promoting, so getting to the all important g6 square takes quite a while...
1 ... Bd7 2 ... Be8 3 ... f5/f6 and now the bishop is free to get to g6. BUT now we come to the crux of the
problem for black. Playing 3 ... f5/f6 allows exf6, at which point the black LSB has 2 pawns to stop and
both are on the six rank... ...game over! So even though the attack does need this extra
thrust (if black accepts the sacrifice) it is there all the same (if black does not accept the sacrifice)! <40 Bxh5 ...>
40 ... gxh5 41 g4 Bd7 (hxg4 42 h5 winning) 42 gxh5 Be8 43 h6 f6/f5 44 h7/exf6 winning <40 ... Bd7>
<41 Be2 Be8>
41 Bd1 is good but doesn't tie the king to the defense of Pa6, so I think
white should play 41 Be2.
<42 g4 f5>
I am not 100% certain that 42 ... a5 is 100% necessary, but losing another pawn is really going to make life difficult, but it might be a nice lure to tempt white away from the main attack, but only a fool would
take it... ...a king move is equally fruitless...
<43 exf6 Bf7>
<44 h5 gxh5>
<45 gxh5 Kc6(?)>
<46 h6 Bg8>
<47 h7 Bxh7>
<48 f7 ...> winning |
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| Jan-06-11 | | JohnBoy: Total agreement with <Rouselle> and <dave>. White's 35.f4 is the winner. Beautiful insight. A delightful plan to seal in the black bishop. |
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| Jan-06-11 | | David2009: T L Petrosian vs H Simonian, 2008 White 40? White can win a Pawn safely with 40 Bxh5! after which the win requires only care and patience. This has to be done
immediately since 40 b4? Bd2 41 Bxa5? loses to gxh5! since 42 g4 f5! 43 gxh5 Be1 wins for Black.
I originally went for 40 Bxa6 and then capturing the f and g Pawns before creating a pased h pawn. But this loses to Bxh6 41 Kf4 Kc5 42 Kg5 Ke4 etc 0-1 Before consulting the game, I investigated the position with Crafty End Game Trainer (which is a good way of testing out proposed winning plans for White against a reasonably strong and vey rapid-playing computer opponent):
click for larger view
http://www.chessvideos.tv/endgame-t...
You are white, drag and drop the move you want to make to test out the variations. For advice on setting up Crafty EGT see crafty chessforum. Time to check the game and to enjoy the other
kibitzes:
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<Chesschatology: <Once> A lovely piece of analysis> Agreed. <Fezzik: 40.Bh5 wins, but doesn't the much more mundane 40.Kf4 intending Kg5-f6-f7 and so on also win?> 40 Kf4 Kc5 41 Kg5 Ke4 and Black is fine - try this line out aginst the EGT. |
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