Chess thread

[MintTrav]

5... Rd4

That makes it obvious.

Neat.

Hold on, there's a major flaw in what I thought was the obvious follow-up. Back to the drawing-board.

[Honeybadger]

Okay, here is the solution to the 2nd part of the study...

After Black's 5... Rd4, White promotes with 6 c8=Q. And now Black has the amazing move:

6...Rc4+ !!!

It forks White's King and Queen, so White has to take the Rook. But then it is STALEMATE! See diagram below:

[Tal]

And if white doesn't play c8..?

[Honeybadger]

And if white doesn't play c8..?

If White does not play c8 then the position just repeats itself.

e.g. 6 Kb3 Rd3+, or of course 6 Kc3 Rd1! (then after the forced 7 Kc2 - to prevent 7...Rc1 - Black simply plays 7... Rd4 and we are back to the same position)

But there is still the third part of the study to come, which I will introduce shortly...
 

[Tal]

And if white doesn't play c8..?

If White does not play c8 then the position just repeats itself.

e.g. 6 Kb3 Rd3+, or of course 6 Kc3 Rd1! (then after the forced 7 Kc2 - to prevent 7...Rc1 - Black simply plays 7... Rd4 and we are back to the same position)

But there is still the third part of the study to come, which I will introduce shortly...
 

Yes, Rd1 is the little trick that will catch out the high rated players under pressure

[McGlashan]

Christ knows how you're getting a 3rd puzzle out of this position.

[Honeybadger]

Christ knows how you're getting a 3rd puzzle out of this position.

You'll see...

You like it so far though?

[Honeybadger]

Now for the 3rd and final part of this study.

The diagram below shows the position after 5...Rd4.

As we have seen, if White plays the obvious 6 c8=Q then Black has the amazing Rook sacrifice 6...Rc4+! leading to stalemate.

However, it turns out that White can actually win from the diagrammed position. Can anyone work out how?

[McGlashan]

Christ knows how you're getting a 3rd puzzle out of this position.

You'll see...

You like it so far though?

Yes, absolutely. There's nothing worse/fun than working calculating a line and assuming that's the end of it, only for someone else to point out a game changing move the tiniest bit further on.   

[curnow]

is it 1 ***..Ra4 2 Kb3..R somewhere & 3 followed by mate

[Honeybadger]

is it 1 ***..Ra4 2 Kb3..R somewhere & 3 followed by mate

You've got to find White's next move first. And you've got to prevent Black's Rook sacrifice after 6 c8=Q

However, the theme you give is indeed important for the final solution of this problem.

[MintTrav]

And if white doesn't play c8..?

If White does not play c8 then the position just repeats itself.

e.g. 6 Kb3 Rd3+, or of course 6 Kc3 Rd1! (then after the forced 7 Kc2 - to prevent 7...Rc1 - Black simply plays 7... Rd4 and we are back to the same position)

But there is still the third part of the study to come, which I will introduce shortly...
 

Ahhh. Once we had Rd4, the follow-up was going to be Rc4, but then I couldn't see a way past White responding with Kb3 or Kc3.

[Honeybadger]

Okay so we've seen that Black has an amazing Rook sacrifice to force stalemate after 6 c8=Q. Now I going to reveal the final solution to this study. How can White force a win?

6 c8=R!!

He under-promotes to a Rook instead!

Obviously King+Rook vs King+Rook positions are normally just trivial draws. But in this position the restricted nature of Black's King means that White has a mating threat when he promotes - he is threatening 7 Ra8. Black's only defence after 6 c8=R is 6... Ra4, after which White responds with the quiet but deadly 7 Kb3. This King move contains a double threat. It attacks the Black Rook whilst at the same time threatening Rc1 mate.

[Tal]

Excellent fun, HB. Thank you for sharing.

[pleno1]

Have Alexander grischuk on my ept table. Cliffs?