Level
4-Rook
Chess Diagram
[Event "Puzzle #73"][Date "2009.06.12"][Result "1-0"][SetUp "1"][FEN "1r3rk1/2n2ppp/p2p3q/P1pP4/5P2/2BP1Q2/1P5P/R5RK w - - 0 1"]
Next week you guys are going to have to do the end of the year testing and I hope you will prepare for it by reviewing some of our lessons. One good tip is to work smarter and not harder, so today's puzzle is an example on how to achieve that.
The position comes from a game between R Nolte - A Chua, Asian Championship 2009. A quick look shows an easy win for White after 1 Rxg7+ or 1 Bxg7, but it could take a number of moves while up in material. Your tasks are:
a) Can you find something quicker?
b) Explain your solution
Total available points for this puzzle is 20. The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #74.
Puzzle #72 solution:
This proved to be another tough one to crack. While the positives and negatives were more or less correctly identified, the chosen plays were not very good. Here is what I could use from your answers:
White's positives: 1. b5 passer is supported well. 2. Rb7 controls the 7th rank can shift on either side of the board to disrupt Black's plan.
White's negatives: 1. Double central pawns. 2. Kg3 can become a problem and that setup requires the Black pawn chain to move forward.
Black's positives: 1. Two strong passers on the K-side. 2. Active King supporting Black's attack on the Queen side. 3. Strong pawn chain fixing White's central pawns weak.
Black's negatives: 1. Black is pinning all his hopes on the King side. If the plan there is not working, Black is in trouble. Based on the above the correct idea would have been: Black seems to be ahead but if it just sits and waits, White uses the "b5" passer to win. Black must push forward and in order to do this, it needs the "f-" pawn to get going. This means the blocker "e3" should be either eliminated, or pinned.
See solution:
[Event "Puzzle #72"][Date "2009.06.05"][Result "0-1"][SetUp "1"][FEN "7r/1R6/4p1r1/1P2Ppk1/3P2p1/4P1Kp/2R5/8 b - - 0 51"]51...Ra8 52.b6 Ra3 {Now White is faced with a tough decision: how to defend the e3-pawn, so important in stopping Black's pawn chain? "53.Re2" does not do the trick (the pawn is pinned), so the King must do it} 53.Kf2 Kh6 {Black finally got the break it was looking for. Now the King steps aside to allow the connection between Rg6 and the g4-passer. The rest is easy to play now} 54.Rc8 g3+ 55.Kf3 g2 56.Rh8+ Kg5 57.Rbh7 Rxe3+ 58.Kxe3 g1=Q+ 59.Kd3 Kf4 60.Kc4 Ke4 61.b7 Qxd4+ 62.Kb5 Rg2 63.b8=Q Rb2+ 64.Kc6 Qd5+ 65.Kc7 Rc2+ 66.Kb6 Qb3+ 67.Ka7 Ra2#
Correct solutions:
John - 18 points
Andy Q - 16 points
Andy Y - 12 points
Joshua, Karl - 10 points
Wilson - 2 points
Standings:
John - 435 points
Joshua - 413 points
Andy Qian - 386 points
Andy Yee - 355 points
Karl - 346 points
Jeremy - 307 points
James - 255 points
Wilson - 226 points
Mark - 223 points
Humphrey - 174 points
Marcus - 146 points
Katerina - 123 points
Nathaniel - 83 points
Jacky - 80 points
Alex Ge - 56 points
Ricky - 48 points
Joanne - 47 points
Danny, Owen - 40 points
Jin-Lang - 37 points
Darren - 20 points
The position comes from a game between R Nolte - A Chua, Asian Championship 2009. A quick look shows an easy win for White after 1 Rxg7+ or 1 Bxg7, but it could take a number of moves while up in material. Your tasks are:
a) Can you find something quicker?
b) Explain your solution
Total available points for this puzzle is 20. The answers will be published next week together with puzzle #74.
Puzzle #72 solution:
This proved to be another tough one to crack. While the positives and negatives were more or less correctly identified, the chosen plays were not very good. Here is what I could use from your answers:
White's positives: 1. b5 passer is supported well. 2. Rb7 controls the 7th rank can shift on either side of the board to disrupt Black's plan.
White's negatives: 1. Double central pawns. 2. Kg3 can become a problem and that setup requires the Black pawn chain to move forward.
Black's positives: 1. Two strong passers on the K-side. 2. Active King supporting Black's attack on the Queen side. 3. Strong pawn chain fixing White's central pawns weak.
Black's negatives: 1. Black is pinning all his hopes on the King side. If the plan there is not working, Black is in trouble. Based on the above the correct idea would have been: Black seems to be ahead but if it just sits and waits, White uses the "b5" passer to win. Black must push forward and in order to do this, it needs the "f-" pawn to get going. This means the blocker "e3" should be either eliminated, or pinned.
See solution:
[Event "Puzzle #72"][Date "2009.06.05"][Result "0-1"][SetUp "1"][FEN "7r/1R6/4p1r1/1P2Ppk1/3P2p1/4P1Kp/2R5/8 b - - 0 51"]51...Ra8 52.b6 Ra3 {Now White is faced with a tough decision: how to defend the e3-pawn, so important in stopping Black's pawn chain? "53.Re2" does not do the trick (the pawn is pinned), so the King must do it} 53.Kf2 Kh6 {Black finally got the break it was looking for. Now the King steps aside to allow the connection between Rg6 and the g4-passer. The rest is easy to play now} 54.Rc8 g3+ 55.Kf3 g2 56.Rh8+ Kg5 57.Rbh7 Rxe3+ 58.Kxe3 g1=Q+ 59.Kd3 Kf4 60.Kc4 Ke4 61.b7 Qxd4+ 62.Kb5 Rg2 63.b8=Q Rb2+ 64.Kc6 Qd5+ 65.Kc7 Rc2+ 66.Kb6 Qb3+ 67.Ka7 Ra2#
Correct solutions:
John - 18 points
Andy Q - 16 points
Andy Y - 12 points
Joshua, Karl - 10 points
Wilson - 2 points
Standings:
John - 435 points
Joshua - 413 points
Andy Qian - 386 points
Andy Yee - 355 points
Karl - 346 points
Jeremy - 307 points
James - 255 points
Wilson - 226 points
Mark - 223 points
Humphrey - 174 points
Marcus - 146 points
Katerina - 123 points
Nathaniel - 83 points
Jacky - 80 points
Alex Ge - 56 points
Ricky - 48 points
Joanne - 47 points
Danny, Owen - 40 points
Jin-Lang - 37 points
Darren - 20 points
Storming the castle