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Chess Problem #65

 
 


Posted by Christopher    United States   on 02/27/2012 at 02:37 PM   
 
  1. They shoot horses, don’t they? Let’s kill them all.

    Let’s see ...

    1. Ne6, Nxe6
    2. Rxg6+, Pxg6
    3. Qxg6+, Kf8
    4. Qxf6+, Ke8
    5. Qxe6+, Kd8
    6. Rf8+, Kc7
    7. Rf7+, Kc8
    8. Qe8++

    Black pretty much has to take the Knight with his Knight because if he doesn’t, then it’s
    1. Ne6, whatever, perhaps Rc6 to threaten the Knight
    2. Qg7++

    Posted by Drew458    United States   02/27/2012  at  05:58 PM  

  2. 1. Ne6! Nxe6?
    2. Rxg6+? fxg6
    3. Qxg6+ and now not 3…Kf8 but 3…Ng7 will probably hold at least a draw.

    You found the correct first move fast. Just need the right followup.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   02/27/2012  at  06:23 PM  

  3. First move: White knight moves to e6, which threatens Black knight at f4. Black has to take the Knight, though he can use his pawn to do that. This IS probably the smarter reaction, but it plays out exactly the same down either leg of the binary tree (by which I mean that the Black king moves either left or right to escape checks) If he does react to the knight at e6 by killing it with his pawn ...

    1. Ne6, Pxe6 This gets the pawn at f2 away from the Black king.
    2. Rxg6+, Nxg6 This takes out the other near Black pawn, gives a quick check, so Black must break the check, and the only piece he has is his other knight. In row 6 the pieces are now Pe6, Nf6, Ng6, Qh6. There is a pin, in that by moving his knight, Black has exposed his queen to White’s queen. The question is whether it’s worth it to kill her.
    Path 1: don’t kill the queen:
    3. Qxg6+ ... Black has to move his King. He can choose f8 or h8. I don’t think it makes a difference. How about we pick h8 this time; 3. Qxg6+, Kh8
    4. Qxf6+ ... and now Black has lost his 2nd Knight. This could be the start of a merry chase, but notice that the White Queen is covered by the White Rook at f1. Which way shall we play the Black King, forwards or back? Let’s choose forwards to h7; 4. Qxf6+, Kh7

    “and white magically wins” in another half dozen moves. This is not going to be a draw, althouh I can see one weak move if White takes a chance to kill either of the pawns (e6,e5) for safety when this does not create a new check. With either or both of those pawns gone, White can bring in the Rook from f1 and force a mate. Once the Black king is over in column H he’s pretty much stuck there forever. That’s why I played the king to the left in the first incarnation of this solution. Rewind this one to move 3, and move him to f7 this time ... White will also move left, taking out that bothersome e6 pawn, and if Black moves his king left again White can zip in his rook to f8 and it will be mate ++ in 2 moves. So perhaps moving the king right in move 3 was the “smarter” move; that keeps him alive longer. But I’m pretty sure he still gets it in the end.

    Don’t forget I don’t own a chess set. I’m playing all this in my head.

    **************
    If you start out with either
    1. ne6, nxe6
    or
    1. ne6, pxe6
    2. rxg6+, ng6

    you create your vaunted “pin” and White can take Black’s queen. And then his rook if Black is really stupid. But - and I understand that’s the nature of this exercise, m’kay? - I’m not sure that doing so gives you much of an advantage. I played the game without doing that, and White either wins or is about to win; either way Black is on the ropes, and never gets his queen into the action. White will win either way; claiming that one approach is “best” because it wins in 11 moves versus 13 is rather petty. Mate in 2: that’s decisive. Mate in 16 is pretty limp.

    Posted by Drew458    United States   02/28/2012  at  08:45 AM  

  4. Have we ever discussed the relative value of the pieces? I don’t remember doing so. It helps in situations like this.

    Pawn = 1 pawn or point
    Knight = 3 pawns
    Bishop = 3 pawns
    Rook = 5 pawns
    Queen = 9 pawns

    So after:
    1. Ne6 fxe6
    2. Rxg6+ Nxg6 I don’t see why don’t you just snap up the Queen? The whole point of the pin!
    3. Qxd2

    You’ve just traded a knight (3 points) and a rook (5 points, total 8 points) for a pawn (1 point) and a queen (9 points, total 10 points.) You were already up an exchange anyway, now you’re up more AND threatening both the rook on c3 and the knight on f6. Bonus: Black has doubled isolated e-pawns. Weak. They can’t support each other.

    65analysis.jpg
    after 3. Qxd2 …

    Posted by Christopher    United States   02/28/2012  at  10:08 AM  

  5. I think that:
    3. Qxd2

    is the better choice, because after:
    3. ...  N-e4
    4. Q-h6!

    Black likely sees the writing on the wall and resigns; he cannot escape with the knight, as it is preventing mate with the rook on f8, but he also cannot do anything to protect it from the white queen.
    If instead white plays:
    3. Qxg6+ K-f8
    4. Qxf6+ K-e8
    5. Qxe6+ K-d8
    6. R-f8+ K-c7
    7. R-f7+ K-b8
    8. Q-e8+

    black will break the check with

    8. ...  R-c8

    and now threatens both the white queen and an checkmate on the 1st rank, and I don’t see how white can stop both threats

    Posted by JW    United States   02/28/2012  at  12:15 PM  

  6. 3. Qxd2 Ne4
    4. Qh6! Nf4 (only move, but…)
    5. g3 and Black’s gonna drop some more material.

    Black can try a cheap shot like
    5. … Nf2+
    6. Kg1 Nf4h3+
    7. Kg2 and then what?

    I think we’ve pretty much exhausted this problem. I’ll post the actual solution and the next problem.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   02/28/2012  at  02:36 PM  

  7. And the solution you posted is TOTAL BULLSHIT.

    Beats me what the fag-o-rama goatse rules for chess are, but “black declines to lose his queen”? Horseshit - that’s collusion. CHEATING. Fight till you die, no matter what losses you have to incur. Oh wait, you’re allowed to surrender or resign?? Fine, then that’s the solution to every single one of your problems from now on!

    Christopher: ...?
    Drew: White surrenders.

    Hey done, no more bothering to think these things out!!

    Posted by Drew458    United States   02/28/2012  at  05:03 PM  

  8. Gosh Drew, I didn’t write the book. Though I did add that phrase, since we were discussing that here in the comments. Black didn’t do it.

    There’s a lot of info not in the book. I just have the positions and the outcomes. I don’t know the whole game score, so I don’t know what move # it is, I don’t know who was playing, or their ratings. I don’t know the tournament these were played in, therefore I can’t look up the tournament cross-tables. Most importantly, I don’t know how much time each side had left on the clock. Black could have been in severe time-trouble here.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   02/29/2012  at  04:15 AM  

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