| Dec-17-16 | | fisayo123: Astonishing Zugzwang. |
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| Dec-17-16 | | ChessHigherCat: The black rook can't leave the back rank but is it really Zugzwang? Black can play Rc8, followed by 34. Be2, and then it's kind of zugzwangish because the black rook can't leave c8 without losing c5 |
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| Jun-10-17 | | ndg2: Black will lose all pawns on the queen side and then the white b-pawn wins. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | Cheapo by the Dozen: The first few moves are pretty obvious. But as of Move 20, the engine only gives White a +1.20, and suggests a best play line that goes in a different direction from the actual game. So once again, I'm critical of the puzzle choice. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | Walter Glattke: 26.-Kd7 27.Bh3 Kd6 28.Ng4! no option visible, white king takes pawns at queen's wing. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | EIDorado: @Cheapo by the Dozen By the move 20 the combination is over. As Aronian once said: anybody can calculate, the problem is to evaluate the position you get. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | saturn2: Like in the game I sacrificed the exchange
16 exf6 Bxh1 17. fxg7 Rg8 18. h6 Be4
with the idea of bringing the knight to f6
19. Nc3 Bg6 20. Bg2 |
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| Oct-11-19 | | stacase: So I got the first six moves 16.exf6 to 21.Be3. How many moves do you have to get right to say, "I got it"? |
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| Oct-11-19 | | TheaN: I'm a bit torn about the puzzle as I don't really believe in a large advantage for White in the game line, and ended playing a sub par variation because of it. <16.exf6 Bxh1> is obvious. However, in the game line I was not so convinced after the bishop ends up on e4, as putting pressure on h7 is as good as gone. Ie, <17.fxg7 Rg8 18.h6 Be4 ⩲>. So I started looking for alternatives, mainly involving Nf2 and Bd3. In fact, I ended up playing <17.Nf2?!<>> immediately: if the bishop moves White follows the game line with a cover on e4 with 17....Bd5 (Bf3? 18.fxg7 Rg8 19.h6 with 20.Bd3 +-) 18.fxg7 Rg8 19.h6, and now Black's forced to play 19....Bc4 to avoid Bd3 but after 20.Ne4! White gets faster to f6 than the game line by temporarily giving up the exchange: 20....Bxf1 21.Nf6+ Ke7 22.Nxg8+ Rxg8 23.Kxf1 +- due to the pawns. However, <17....g6!=<>> gives Black at least an even game. Switching this up with <17.fxg7 Rg8> <18.Nf2?!<>> doesn't help, as after <18....Rxg7!=<>> White has no time to take on h1 (19.h6=): after <19.Nxh1? Rxg4 ⩱<>> Black has the better game, even though this is hard to evaluate. Tl;dr, White has to play 16.exf6, 17.fxg7 and 18.h6 ⩲ to keep some advantage, but I doubt its true effectiveness. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | patzer2: In attempting to solve today's Friday puzzle (16. ?), I found the first two White moves of White's combination, visualizing 16. exf6! Bxh1 17. fxg7 Rg8 ± to +-. However, I went astray on the third move of the combination with 18. Nf2?, anticipating 18. Nf2? Bd5? (18...Bf3? 19. h6 +-) 19. h6 +-. What I missed is after 18. Nf2?, Black can equalize with 18...Rxg7 = (0.00 @ 31 ply, Stockfish 10). So for the third move of the combination, 18. h6 ± to +- (+2.20 @ 32 ply, Stockfish 10) is a clear, best move and the only winning try. This is an impressive win, as White apparently visualized our puzzle solution, beginning with 16. exf6!, three moves earlier with 13. f3! ± to +- to +- (+2.23 @ 31 ply, Stockfish 10). P.S.: Black's game went bad with 9...e3?, allowing 10. g4 ± to +- (+1.60 @ 35 ply, Stockfish 10). Instead, 9...Nbd7 = (0.00 28 ply, Stockfish 10) as in the draw in Kramnik vs M Vachier-Lagrave, 2013 would have been fine for Black. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | Chesgambit: not hard |
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| Oct-11-19 | | alshatranji: Interesting. I thought the solution would be 16. Rh3, followed by Bxg4 17. exf6 Bxh3 18. fxg7 Rg8 19. Bxh3 Rxg7, and White has a material advantage. I didn't even consider other options. But it seems this is not so good. Stockfish gives Black a small advantage. Well. What White went with was the better strategic solution. Quite brilliant by the way. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | mel gibson: I thought it was better to move the White Rook
on h1 to protect it.
Stockfish 10 agrees with the moves in the text:
16. exf6
(16. exf6 (e5xf6 ♗f3xh1 f6xg7 ♖h8-g8 h5-h6
♗h1-e4 ♘d1-f2 ♗e4-g6 e3-e4 ♘b6-d7 ♗c1-e3 ♘d7-e5 ♗f1-e2 f7-f5 g4xf5 e6xf5
e4xf5 ♗g6xf5 ♗e3-f4 ♘e5-f7 O-O-O ♔e8-e7 ♘f2-g4 ♗f5xg4 ♗e2xg4 ♔e7-f6 ♗f4-e3
♘f7xh6 ♗e3xh6 ♖a8-d8 ♖d1-g1 ♖g8xg7 ♗h6xg7+ ♔f6xg7 ♗g4-f5+ ♔g7-h6 ♗f5-c2
♖d8-d5 ♖g1-e1 b7-b5 ♖e1-e7 ♔h6-g5 ♖e7xh7 ♖d5-c5 ♔c1-d2 ♔g5-f4 ♖h7-e7
♖c5-d5+ ♔d2-c1 ♖d5-g5 ♖e7-e6 b5xa4 ♖e6xc6 ♖g5-g1+ ♔c1-d2) +3.01/40 609) score for White +3.01 depth 40 |
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| Oct-11-19 | | agb2002: White has the bishop pair for a bishop, a knight and a pawn. Black threatens Bxh1 and Nxg4.
The first idea that comes to mind is 16.exf6 Bxh1 17.fxg7 Rg8 18.Nf2: A) 18... Bd5 19.h6 Bc4 (to prevent Bd3-Bxh7) 20.Ne4 Ke7 21.b3 A.1) 21... Bxf1 22.Ba3+ followed by Kxf1, Nf6(g5), Nxh7 looks very good for White. A.2) 21... Bxb3 22.Ba3+ Kd8 (22... Kd7 23.Nc5+ and 24.Nxb3) 23.Nf6 Bc2 24.e4 and Black's h-pawn looks lost. B) 18... Bf3 19.h6 0-0-0 20.g5 followed by Bd3 and White looks better. ------
The alternative 16.Rh3 Bxd1 17.exf6 Bxg4 18.fxg7 Rg8 19.Rh4 Rxg7 doesn't seem to be very promising. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | agb2002: Nf2 looked too nice at move 18. |
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| Oct-11-19 | | The17thPawn: Has anyone floated the theory that Chris Owen is an NSA operative passing encrypted messages to operatives overseas? |
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| Oct-11-19 | | RadioBoy: Overseas operatives who in turn inform their microbial Martian counterparts no doubt. |
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| Oct-12-19 | | Sacrificial King: I lose sleep every night thinking about the NSA, espionage, and chess Morse code. |
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| Mar-24-25 | | Whitehat1963: Brilliantly blocks the black bishop and makes the black rook useless! |
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Kibitzing
sac: 16.exf6