The Chess Mind

Here's a neat little position, given yesterday, from the game Pavlov-Sidorchuk, Ukraine 2008:



Can White (to move) win here, and if so, how? Enlightenment, if needed, is here.

This fascinating position, with Black to move, has been the subject of three earlier posts (1, 2 and 3):



Black can win the a-pawn right away with 1...Bd8 followed by ...Bxa5, or with 1...Bd6 first to induce the h-pawn's advance and only then ...Bc7 and ...Bxa5. We looked at the first try in the first post and the second in the next two; it turns out that both are inadequate to draw, though White must display real ingenuity to bring home the point. That leaves a third possibility, 1...Bc5, and only after the f-pawn moves to try 2...Bd6, 3...Bc7 and 4...Bxa5.

That line also fails, with White again needing some brilliant play in the main line. That's Black's last try in the pawn ending, but there's still another question to be addressed: can Black avoid ...Bxa5 and hold the bishop ending? Finally, I've conveniently ignored a much simpler way for White to win all of the pawn endings, a maneuver that renders all the brilliant finesses irrelevant. The conclusion is therefore that the diagram position above fails as a study, because White a second, simple and prosaic win. Still, it almost works, and as there are some very nice lines, I'd like to think that a serious study composer could make something out of this. Ideas?

Meanwhile, you can replay the 1...Bc5 analysis here.

There's tactics and there's technique. We often think of these as separate categories, but in all but the simplest positions the two are inseparable. Take the following example, from the game Pavlov-Sidorchuk, Ukraine 2008:



Can White (to move) win in this position? He has an extra pawn, but with such limited material that's not a guarantee by itself. See what you can come up with, and we'll present the answer sometime Wednesday.