The Chess Mind

On Friday, I presented this position for your solving pleasure:



Figured it out? Click here for the solution.

Give this one a try - the solution will give you goose bumps!



White to move and win.

Yesterday I offered an easy puzzle: figure out the consequences of 64...Kxc3 from this position:



Worked it out? All is revealed below:

64...Kxc3! 65.a5

The pawn runs, but although it can become a queen, it will cost the White king his life.

65...Kd3 66.a6 Ke3! and now White faces a grim choice:

(a) 67.Kf1 g2+ 68.Kg1 Ke2 69.a7 f2+ 70.Kxg2 f1Q+ and wins.

(b) 67.a7 g2 68.a8Q g1Q/R#.

The lesson to be learned from this problem is that in a position where you have your trumps but are missing the one extra piece you need to bring those advantages to bear, take a look at pieces performing seemingly essential defensive duties. Sometimes, as here, it turns out that they can switch to attack from defense, with decisive effect.

File this one under both mental flexibility and Seirawan's attacking maxim, "Invite everyone to the party!"

In at least one of his books, Mikhail Tal wrote of a favorite trick: spot an opponent's trap, "fall for it", and then reveal that the real victim is the opponent.

That idea came to mind as I watched the end of the game Sakaev-Cech this afternoon. Black played very well against his much higher-rated opponent, and by the time the following position occurred, the draw was clear:



Black is going to eliminate the White a-pawn, after which White cannot win with B+N vs. N (or, of course, with bare knight vs. king), and that's just what happened: 62.Nxf3 Nb6 63.Kf1 Nxa4 and drawn.

But what if White tried to win from the diagrammed position with 62.Bxc4? 62...Kxa4?? loses - as White will round up the kingside pawns and mate with a bishop and knight. So 62...Kxc4 must be played, and now if White wants any winning chances, he'd need to try 63.Ne4 Kb4 64.Nc3.



Of course, this still doesn't provide any real winning chances, as Black can just shuffle his king from a5 to b4, waiting for White to accept the draw or to self-destruct. But what if Black "blunders" into White's trap and takes the knight?

Consider it homework! It's as easy as my puzzles get, but it demonstrates a valuable endgame motif. Have fun; solution tomorrow.

A few days ago, I expressed my surprise that the ending with two knights and a bishop against a rook was a draw. (Thanks to Andrey and mutlu for their very helpful comments!)

Yet even stranger, in a way, is that four knights vs. queen is a win for the knights. The material disparity, as traditionally conceived, is smaller, and that would seem to favor the queen against the knights. On the other hand, if the strong side has a 4-1 advantage in total toys, as opposed to the 3-1 edge in the earlier case, that numerical advantage may just be the crucial factor in favor of the Liliputians.

If you'd like to see how that unusual ending works out, go here and scroll down to entry 282.