Unlock your Genius – November 2008 (Problems)

by dlwyatt, Ohio, Saturday, November 08, 2008, 14:46 (6003 days ago) @ dlwyatt

Unless I'm missing something here, I think both of the lines (Bf5+ Nxf5 exf5+ Kh6 Rf7 and h5+ Kh6 Bf5 Nxf5 Kxf5) lead to a forced win for white. Even in the positions where Black plays Re4+ - Ra4, his king just comes under too much pressure for him to make a queen in time:

1. Bf5+ Nxf5 2. exf5+ Kh6 3. Rf7 a3 4. Rxf6+ Kg7 5. Rxd6 Re4+ 6. Kg5 Ra4 7. f6+. There are various ways for Black to try to defend here, but all of them require his rook to move away from the a-file before he can queen, or he just gets checkmated. One example would be 7... Kf7 8. Rd7+ Ke8 9. Re7+ Kf8 10. d6 a2 11. d7 Ra8 12. d8=Q+ Rxd8 13. Ra7. Now white gets to scoop up black's a-pawn, his rook can easily get in front of black's remaining e-pawn, and it's a simple endgame to win.

Over the board, I would probably have chosen the other line, though. The Re4+ - Ra4 idea would have required way too much calculation for me at that point of the game (I had to spend a couple of hours looking at it just now, with the ability to move the pieces, etc), while the Kxf5 line is more simple, and still wins with an easy idea of "Get my rook behind black's a-pawn, take on d6 with my king, force Black to give up his rook for my d-pawn, and win with an extra rook." The rest of white's pawns just don't matter; Black can scoop them all up if he feels like wasting the time to do it, and White still gets an easy rook vs 2 pawns endgame.