The Chess Mind

Here's the position, again:


Wotawa 1963; White to move and draw

Were you able to solve it? White cannot allow Black to queen, so he must take the pawn. But which way? To figure that out, we must first figure out what Black is up to. After all, Black is not exactly promoting anything on the kingside, while a 4-0 queenside majority is normally enough to force a queen (and then some). We then notice that White's king is rather constrained, and a move like ...f6+ or ...h6+ puts it on the edge of the board, awaiting a cruel fate.

The problem with ...f6+ is that after Kh5, it will be impossible to mate with ...g6. That's because White will have Kh6, and Black can't put his king on g7 while his pawn remains there. So now we can work out the threat: Black will play ...h6+, scoot his king to h7, and play ...g6#. Note: even a White queen, with the move after ...Kh7, will generally be powerless against this idea. In fact, there's only one promotion square for a new queen that will allow a white queen to cope with this possibility.

If you hadn't worked it out before the hints, those will probably get you most if not all of the way there. But if not, that's okay too. You can find the solution here.

Well, it's at least relatively easy. (But not trivially easy. Black has a threat!)


Wotawa 1963; White to move and draw.

The solution will be given tomorrow.

Rather than allowing the previous post to have comments, it seemed a better idea to reserve this post for that purpose. So have a look there to see the problem, and then offer your solutions here.

Visiting my friend Alex Herrera's correspondence chess website, I came across this position:


(His diagram and arrow.)

It's from the game Walters-Herrera, USCCC18, and of it Alex writes "Draw". Does this mean that the position is a draw (objectively) or that it wound up drawn, or both? Was 1.Kxf6 played, or should it be played, or is it White's threat but with Black to move? I have answers to some but not all of these questions, but for the sake of simplicity, let's set things up this way:

Suppose it's White to move. What should he do, and what's the right result? Work it out, but save your answers for a second post, so that those who come across this post later don't have the solution spoiled for them. I'll offer my thoughts later - if necessary. (If my talented and industrious readers work it out themselves, all that will be left for me is to say yea and amen.)

Here's the problem, again:


Wotawa 1937, White to move and win:

As noted in the earlier post, White has loads of extra material, but Black's passers are very dangerous. And the other relevant issue is the precarious location of Black's king. At the end of the day, that's what matters; as an old chess friend liked to say, what counts is that we get the guy with the hat on his head. (Of course, the bishop has one too, but never mind!) When you think you've got it figured out, or are tired of trying, click here.

Another nice Wotawa study from the Dvoretsky & Pervakov book:


Wotawa 1937; White to move and win

White has lots of extra material, Black has the dangerous passed pawns. How will White win this? The answer will be given tomorrow - please save your comments for that post.

Here's the problem, presented yesterday:


Wotawa 1935

It's White to move and win; can you solve it? The answer, which I sincerely hope you'll try to work out for yourself, can be found here.

Here's a neat little study from the Dvoretsky & Pervakov book:


Wotawa 1935; White to move and win.

I was pleased to solve it, and somewhat surprised by the way it happened. It's not that the position is that difficult, but the solution came to me in a flash (after thinking for a while - not right away!), as if it were a gift and not the product of mental labor.

However you solve it - as long as it is you who solves it - I'm sure you'll enjoy the success of figuring it out. I'll give the answer in a day or two; meanwhile, if you have comments about it, please do not include anything that could be used as a hint (or worse).

In round 2 of the MTel Masters, Ivanchuk fell for a very nice trick against Wang Yue and lost a king and pawn with two extra pawns. Prior to that, he had been pressing, but nothing close to a win - or at least so I thought. Frits Fritschy wrote in to say that in this position, after Black's 43rd move, Ivanchuk had a win.

If you want to figure out what that win might have been, here's your chance. To see what F.F. thinks it was, click on.

For those who like marathons, click to your heart's content.

Yesterday I presented these positions; in both cases, it's White to move and draw.





Were you successful? The first one is very simple - it's something you either "see" or you don't, but practically no calculation is required. The second is more challenging, and includes an attractive false lead.

The solutions are here, for anyone who might need them.

Here are two puzzles for your solving pleasure. The solutions will be given tomorrow.





It's White to move and draw in both cases.

Earlier in the week I presented this position from a local event:



It's Black to move here, and this battle of the B-players continued in the way you can see here. I recommended, and still recommend, that interested readers look through this ending first and try to figure out what should have happened. There were mistakes aplenty in the game, and trying to discover them in analysis is a good way to avoid making them for ourselves in the context of a game. My own findings, which you can replay for entertainment, instruction, or to compare notes, are here.

A couple of days I presented this position



and suggested that White was in bad shape. (Not that you needed anyone to tell you!) He's a pawn down, his d-pawn needs constant supervision, and the threat of ...h6-h5 looks likely to stretch his meager resources too thin. And yet, the position really can be saved, as you can see for yourself (if you haven't already figured it out) by clicking here.

This is a position from a recent quad at one of the local clubs; it's Black to move.



First, I recommend to those who are interested that they do their best to figure out what's going on here. Next, have a look at the remaining moves, here. Try to find all the improvements you can; believe me, there are plenty (some obvious, some less so), so it's going to be a fun exercise. I'll offer my analysis in a few days.

(N.B. I'm not blocking comments on this exercise, but I'd still prefer that readers not post their analysis of this ending. You're more than welcome to add your further ideas or corrections when I post my own analysis later this week.)

In the following position, White is a pawn down and in bad shape. His d-pawn requires constant supervision, and Black is ready to get his kingside majority rolling with ...h5. What can White, to move, do?



The answer will be provided in a day or two.

If you can, then you're qualified to laugh at a 2400 who couldn't. Behold, the horror!

Yesterday, I offered these three studies for your solving pleasure:


Wotawa 1960; White to move and draw


Kalandadze 1956; White to move and draw


Weenink 1927; White to move and draw

How did you do? If you're not sure, you can find out here.

This weekend there's an A-B-C tournament in town (i.e. open only to players between 1400 and 1999), and along with it there's a book auction with the final bids going up tomorrow. (Now today.) I was browsing one of the books, a Russian edition of Averbakh's book on rook endings, and saw several neat rook vs. pawn endings in which the side with the rook has to fight for the draw. Here are three of them:


Wotawa 1960; White to move and draw


Kalandadze 1956; White to move and draw


Weenink 1927; White to move and draw

Enjoy these; I'll provide the answers on Monday (so please don't post solutions in the comment box).

Thanks to JC's comment to my Olympics round-up post, I became acquainted with the fascinating game Cheparinov-Kazhgaleyev. Cheparinov was winning the endgame quite convincingly (by an approximate margin of +5 as the computer sees things), but then the wheels came off. His 47th move was a slight inaccuracy, his 48th a big error, and his natural 52nd move threw away the win once and for all. Or at least, it would have, had his opponent not decided to resign a move later!



It's Black to move, and instead of resigning, he can hold a draw beginning with the mutually forced 53...Rd7 54.Bxd7 Bxd7 55.Rf8 b4. It's a great exercise if you want to try to work things out for yourself; if not, or if you're curious to test your findings with mine, then have a look here. There are some exceptionally beautiful lines, so I hope you'll have a look.