Jun-08-20
 | | Phony Benoni: Look for the loose pieces. Even on Monday. |
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Jun-08-20
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: My favorite move of the game? 22.a3. Black plays 22...Ra7, anticipating 23.b4,axb4; 24.axb4,Rea8, only to encounter 23.Rac1!, leaving the Ra7 on a terrible square. Final trick doesn't appear in the game. 29...Rb8 tries to win back one pawn, but 30.Rc6+,Ke7; 31.Rxf6,gxf6; 32.Nc6+,Kd6; 33.Nxb8 (Bxd7!?),Nxb8 forces favorable simplification. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | Nullifidian: I saw the solution, 27. ♖xc6 ♙bxc6 28. ♘xc6+ forking both rooks and the king, but this isn't an easy puzzle any longer if black doesn't accept the temporary rook sac. White seems clearly better positionally, but proving that is beyond the scope of a "very easy" puzzle. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | agb2002: The rook on a7 is defenseless. Hence, 27.Rxc6 wins a pawn at least: A) 27... bxc6 28.Nxc6+
A.1) 28... Ke(f)8 29.Nxa7 followed by Rc8 with a won ending (29... Ke7 30.Nc6+ wins an exchange). A.2) 28... Kd6 29.Nxa7 wins two pawns and an exchange (29... Ke7 30.Nc6+; 29... Ra8 30.Nc8+; 29... Nb6 30.Rc6+). B) 27... Nb8 28.Rc7+
B.1) 28... Nfd7 29.Nb5 Ra6 30.Rxb7 wins two pawns. B.2) 28... Nbd7 29.Nc6+ Bxc6 30.Rxa7 wins an exchange and a pawn. B.3) 28... Kd6 29.Nb5#.
B.4) 28... Ke8 29.Nb5 Ra6 30.Rxb7 wins two pawns and threatens Nc7+ and Rcc7. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | saturn2: 27.Rxc6 .retaking loses another pawn.
Otherwise white has the open c file and rules over d4. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | stacase: Hmmm, looks complex, lots of moves that don't do anything. Maybe there's a Knight fork waiting to happen. Ah, yes there is. But then there's a won game to be won. Oh! Black resigns - Sweet! |
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| Jun-08-20 | | Brenin: With the R hanging on a7, and White's concentration of forces on c6, including the N on d4, the move 25 ... Ke7 should have been instantly banished from Black's thoughts. There were plenty of good alternatives, such as connecting the rooks with Raa8 or overprotecting c6 with Ra6. After White's passive opening, Black had a small but significant advantage until allowing the Q exchange; 20 ... Ne5 would have kept the advantage. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | SpamIAm: <An Englishman>, in your line black could perhaps try 31...Kxf6!? After 32.Bxd7 Rb7 wins back a piece. Then again after 33.Bc6 Rxa7 34.Bxd5 white has a knight and three pawns for a rook.
<Nullifidian>, I reckon the "very easy" meaning simply seems to mean the ease in finding the best move in the position and not necessarily an easy win. It was pretty easy to find this combination, which wins at least a pawn and even two the way it was played.
<stacase>, I was surprised that black first chose the line that lost a second pawn and even more surprised by his immediate resignation. For the record William Addison was not quite in Robert Byrne's class but he was IM strength and qualified for the 1970 Interzonal. Obviously he was not in the mood for a long game that day. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | AlicesKnight: White wins a P with Rxc6. Black should ignore the recapture because of Nxc6+ winning back the R, but the position is shattered in the long run - I'm surprised at the game continuation if Black wanted to make a fight of it. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | Brenin: <An Englishman>: After 29 ... Rb8, 30 Nc8+ forces Black to give up the exchange with 30 ... Rxc8 31 Rxc8. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | Lambda: You don't need to prove that white is winning for the puzzle, you just need to demonstrate that 27.Rxc6 is the best move. Which once you've seen it isn't losing a rook, is obvious. Just take the free pawn. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | lost in space: 27. Rxc6 wins a pawn. 27...bxc6 28. Nxc6+ K(any legal move) 29. Nxa7. The knight on a7 has the flight square b5. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | mel gibson: That wasn't easy for a Monday.
Stockfish 11 agrees with the first ply only:
27. Rxc6
(27. Rxc6 (♖c2xc6 ♘f6-e8 ♘d1-e3 ♖a7-a8 ♘e3xd5+ ♔e7-f8 ♖c6-c4
♘d7-f6 ♘d5xf6 ♘e8xf6 ♘d4-f3 ♘f6-e8 ♔g1-f2 f7-f6 ♘f3-d4 ♗h7-g8 ♘d4-e6+
♗g8xe6 ♗h3xe6 ♔f8-e7 f4-f5 b7-b6 ♔f2-f3 ♖a8-a7 ♖c4-c6 ♖d8-d6 ♖c6-c8 ♖a7-b7
g3-g4 ♖d6-d8 ♖c8xd8 ♔e7xd8 ♖c1-c8+ ♔d8-e7 ♗e6-d5 ♖b7-d7 ♗d5-c6 ♖d7-d8
♖c8xd8 ♔e7xd8 ♗c6xe8 ♔d8xe8 ♔f3-e4 ♔e8-d8 ♔e4-d5 ♔d8-d7 d3-d4 ♔d7-c7 e2-e4
♔c7-d7 a3-a4 h6-h5 g4xh5) +4.70/43 287)
score for White +4.70 depth 43
And when Black resigns his score is -7.80 depth 31. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | newzild: <<An Englishman:> Final trick doesn't appear in the game. 29...Rb8 tries to win back one pawn, but 30.Rc6+,Ke7; 31.Rxf6,gxf6; 32.Nc6+,Kd6; 33.Nxb8 (Bxd7!?),Nxb8 forces favorable simplification.> After 29...Rb8, White plays 30. Nc8+! |
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| Jun-08-20 | | SpamIAm: Correction- in my earlier post I misidentified white- it's Donald Byrne, Robert Byrne's younger brother. He and Addison were roughly the same strength chesswise. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | C. Auguste Dupin: Easy to spot but there seem to be deeper waters |
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| Jun-08-20 | | RandomVisitor: The solution was not hard if you remember the rules for the Monday Puzzles: 1. Try to sacrifice your Queen.
2. If that fails, try harder to sacrifice your Queen. 3. If that fails, find a square to put your Queen on that has no apparent purpose, and will likely result in it being captured in a few moves. 4. If that fails, try to sacrifice a rook.
5. If that fails, try to sacrifice a minor piece. 6. If that fails, try to sacrifice a pawn, or go back to step 1 and repeat. We see that step 4 results in a solution to the puzzle. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | TheaN: <27.Rxc6 ±> and that's that, as Black has a lot of ways to reply but White takes the c-file and a pawn. If <27....bxc6 28.Nxc6+ Ke8 (Kd6 29.Nxa7 threatens Nc8+) 29.Nxa7 +->. It's enough and I stopped there. To clarify to those confused, no it's not an easy <win>, the move to be played is easy and that's what the difficulty refers to. <RandomVisitor: The solution was not hard if you remember the rules for the Monday Puzzles:1. Try to sacrifice your Queen.
2. If that fails, try harder to sacrifice your Queen. 3. If that fails, find a square to put your Queen on that has no apparent purpose, and will likely result in it being captured in a few moves. 4. If that fails, try to sacrifice a rook.> I laughed out loud at 2 and 3. However, in this particular case 1-3 are obsolete because we have no queen :> |
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| Jun-08-20 | | zb2cr: White ends up with a 2 Pawn advantage after 27. Rxc6, bxc6; 28. Nxc6+ regaining his sacrificed Rook. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | DrGridlock: 2020 has been a tough year.
First the corona virus.
Then the George Floyd troubles.
And now a Monday puzzle where the winning line gains 2 pawns (or 1 pawn if black declines to take the rook). |
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| Jun-08-20 | | DrGridlock: To take? Or not to take?
That's today's biggest puzzle for black after 27 Rxc6.Fat Fritz says to not take:
27 … Ne8
28 Ne3 Raa8
29 Nxd5+ Kf8
30 R6c4 Ndf6
31 Nb6
Donald Byrne - William G Addison 1-0, USA-ch / Zonal 1969
click for larger viewInteresting here is that Fat Fritz scores White's positional advantage at 3.27, more than a pawn greater than his material advantage of two pawns. The key to the puzzle (in addition to seeing the knight fork on c6) is that after the dust has settled all the play comes from White's side of the board. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | petemccabe: It is not particularly hard to find this move that wins a pawn (if properly declined). But it is hard for a novice to realize that this is the solution, because almost all novice-level puzzles have a much more obvious winning outcome. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | DrGridlock: <petemccabe: It is not particularly hard to find this move that wins a pawn (if properly declined).> At first I thought black could limit the material loss to 1 pawn. However, looking through Fat Fritz's best line for moves other than bxc6, you'll notice that White's knight is soon heading to e3, and that the d5 pawn is "en prise." No way for black to come out less than 2 pawns down. |
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Jun-08-20
 | | gawain: Pretty easy to see that 27 Rxc6 is a good move, probably the best move, even if Black can struggle on for a while. |
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| Jun-08-20 | | Pedro Fernandez: Hey my great <An Englishman>, I see what you want is defeat Byrne, no puzzle at all, lol! |
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Kibitzing
sac: 27.Rxc6